• The Global challenges and opportunities
• Addressing Australia environmental & economic challenges through innovation
• Creating and capturing value from climate change
• The role of Entrepreneurship and technology transfer
• Investing in Cleantech the VC’s experience
• A look into the future, the Cleantech industry moving forward

About The Speakers

• Barry Hooper               - CO2CRC

Barry Hooper is Chief Technologist of the CO2CRC, with particular responsibilities for the capture and economics activities of the centre. He has a BE (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. He has over 25 years experience in design and operations within the chemical processing industries having worked for Mobil, Davy McKee, Shedden and ICI/Orica.  Before taking up his current position he was Corporate Engineering and Manufacturing Manager for Orica.  He is a Chartered Chemical Engineer, Chartered Scientist, Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineering and lectures at theUniversity of Melbourne.              

• Dave Collins                - Synergetics

Dave is the Managing Director and Principal Environmental Engineer of Synergetics Pty Ltd (www.synergetics.net.au) with 30 years national and international environmental engineering and occupational hygiene experience in government, university, research at operational and corporate levels in manufacturing, construction and mining.  Dave has specialist expertise in air pollution assessment and technology development, environmental management, air quality policy development. Dave has served as senior technical and policy advisor to government and industry CEOs, and conducted doctorate level research and development.  He served as Environment Australia’s representative and founding member of the National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) Working Groups and many other national policy development and               advisory roles.

• Jeffrey Ng                    - Hydrexia

Jeff has specialist knowledge of the hydrogen and fuel cell industries having been involved with the inception, start up and initial capital raising of a specialist, Hydrogen fuel cell VC fund in UK as well as M&A and equity raising experience in EU and US. Jeff formulated Hydrexias business strategy and plan while working as a consultant for the university of Queensland in Oct 2005 and was appointed CEO and Director in Nov 2005. Since then, he has raised $5.65 million in equity capital from VC funds. Prior to Hydrexia Jeff worked across banking & finance, strategy and general consulting, he worked for Citigroup for 10 years in the corporate &Investment Bank and was based in London and NY for 6 years.  His consulting experience covers strategy consulting for Braxton Associates as well as setting up his own general consulting business.

• Dion Bright                  - Azuratec

Dion Bright is a graduate of RMIT and a practicing Industrial Designer. He has 15 years experience working in manufacturing companies both in Australia and New Zealand for family businesses and multi-nationals. Starting as a graduate designer, Dion quickly saw the opportunity to improve his design and business skills by working in as many parts of these businesses as possible. His experience extends from design, manufacturing, sales, marketing, leadership, IP law and business development and now into entrepreneurship. Based inMelbourne, his latest focus is the start-up venture Azuratec Pty Ltd which specializes in innovative water systems for residential properties. Dion also co-ordinates the Industrial Design program at SwinburneUniversity and lectures their Masters students.        

• Aaron Fyke                  - Starfish Ventures

Aaron Fyke has dedicated his career to the success of clean technology companies, and joined Starfish in January 2007 to focus on cleantech investments. With both engineering and management expertise he has led a number of key initiatives relating to new product development, manufacturing, and commercialization in the energy, automotive, and aerospace industries for companies such as Soliant Energy, AeroVironment, Visteon, and Ballard Power Systems. Aaron earned his MBA and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has achieved certification as a Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering both in California and British Columbia.

• Mark Bonnar                - Clean Tech ventures

Mark is part of the investment team at Cleantech Ventures,  a specialist venture capital fund with $80M under management.   Mark’s focus is on seed and early expansion investments into companies commercialising novel technologies for energy, water and environmental applications.  Prior to joining Cleantech Ventures, Mark was part of CSIRO's Commercialisation team and responsible for the structuring and financing of new spin-out companies based on high-growth opportunities emerging from its research portfolio.  Previously, Mark held senior executive positions with a number of venture financed start-ups and worked for Fortune 500 hi-tech equipment manufacturer Applied Materials based in silicon valley. Mark holds a BSc in Applied Physics and a PhD in Materials Science from Heriot Watt University (UK), professional qualifications in innovation management from Cranfield Business School (UK), is a Chartered Physicist and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  He has served on the boards of several start-up companies

• Paul Perry                   - Melbourne Ventures

In his current role at Melbourne Ventures Paul focuses on evaluating and commercialising Cleantech, materials and chemistry based technologies from the University of Melbourne. Paul's previous roles include: consultant to the materials, chemical and energy industries for Sagentia (UK), a technology consulting, development and investment organization with a track record in commercialising emerging technology; research fellow at the University of Sydney and Crop & Food Research (NZ); and industrial R&D management. His most recent position was research leader at Plantic Technologies, a Melbourne based developer and manufacturer ofbiodegradable starch plastic materials, where he managed international joint developments with National Starch and DuPont. Paul has a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry

• Peter Eben                   - KPMG