Steve Blume is one of Australia’s most experienced energy experts and advocates with more than 22 years of experience in the energy sector after 25 years in ITC. He is Secretary & Immediate Past President (13 years) of the Smart Energy Council & CEO of NoCarbon Pty Ltd, engaged in smart energy consulting, advocacy and advice. He is also a director of the Australian Institute of Energy; Chair, Steering Committee, Asia PV Industry Association; Treasurer, Pacific & NZ Smart Energy Council & Chair, Hi Neighbour.

Steve is a former political adviser, private and public sector senior executive, and change advocate, fighting for zero carbon energy policies and technological solutions to urgently and rapidly reduce emissions causing global heating and climate change.

Eshan Ahuja brings a decade of experience working within the public and private sectors in Australia and internationally as an engineer, project and program manager and special subject-matter adviser in the field of Sustainability and Energy. He has expertise in designing and implementing policies and programs for the Net Zero emissions pathways and transition. Eshan completed a Master of Energy Change (Advanced) through the Australian National University, specialising in policy and governance aspects of energy change. Eshan holds an honorary unpaid Board Director role in SolarShare Community Energy Ltd. He is passionate about shaping long-term strategies for energy investment attraction.

Marea has more than 30 years of public and private sector experience in Australia and internationally in strategy development, program management and advising on large-scale collaborations. She is the owner-director of consultancy company Ideas Connect. Marea is highly active in community and residents’ groups in the inner south of Canberra, including as Chair of the Inner South Canberra Community Council, and formerly as President of the Yarralumla Residents Association. She cofounded climateXchange, a former online sustainability forum for Canberra and surrounding region.

Nicolas Fejer is a business leader with extensive experience gained working for or with engineering, financial and large corporate firms. He specialises in technology and high performance teams. Nicolas runs the Enakt Group, which provides professional services in theareas of program and project management and processes.

Previously, Nicolas was a public servant, working in program management. Before his time with the Australian Government, he was a founding member of start-up Spark Solar.

Nicolas’ extensive corporate experience includes senior management positions at Siemens and Bosch, where he held positions in business development and senior project management roles.

Neil has over three decades of experience guiding clean technology deployment strategy for high-performance Boards as a highly qualified, results-oriented Executive Director with repeated success across the communications, automotive, property, power generation and industrial sectors throughout the APAC, EU and North/Latin American regions. Neil has proven expertise in business strategy development and is adept at forging highly functional business partnerships that support business development whilst increasing company revenues and profits.

Having developed one of Australia’s largest embedded network providers to the strata property sector, Neil sold this to help fund local and international research into integrated energy and transport systems to provide low-cost, zero-carbon power and share-transport services for multi-residential communities. Neil currently holds pro-bono roles at QUT and ANU, furthering the development of clean technologies efficiencies and policy whilst also serving on Boards in the hydrogen technology and strategic business planning sectors.

He is passionate about the democratisation and decarbonisation of energy systems in Australia. He is supporting the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ Climate Governance Initiative via the development of Director Professional Development training modules on cost-effective pathways to net zero in conjunction with the UN’s Race to Zero campaign.

Gina is dedicated to contributing to a sustainable and climate-just world. Gina is a Commercial Manager at AEMO Services, and previously worked in policy at ARENA and as a developer at Neoen. Gina also has a Master of Law and wrote a post-graduate thesis on renewable energy law and policy. Gina is passionate about empowering communities and has been on the Board of Mental Illness Education ACT since 2019. Gina has taken AICD courses in board governance and formerly sat on the Board of YWCA Canberra, Plan International Australia and the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Australia. A proud Canberran, Gina spends her spare time immersed in Canberra’s beautiful nature reserves.