Institute Board of Directors and Management

Paul Dougas

Board Chairman

Appointed 1 January 2013, Mr Paul Dougas is Chair of the Board of the Global CCS Institute. Mr Dougas has more than 40 years’ experience in sustainability, financial, social and environmental consulting, and strategy development in the Australian, European, South American and Asian engineering and environmental sectors. 

He is Chairman-elect of Norman Disney and Young and non-executive Director of Mount Gibson Iron, Beacon Foundation, and Epworth Healthcare. He is also Principal of Consulting Advisory Services and a Professorial Fellow in Leadership and Management within the Engineering School of The University of Melbourne. Mr Dougas was previously CEO and Managing Director of Sinclair Knight Merz, where he served in senior roles for more than 30 years. 

Mr Dougas’ education includes a Masters in Engineering Science from The University of NSW and he studied business at Harvard University. He is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia, Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr Makoto Akai

Board Director

Dr Makoto Akai is a Fellow Research Scientist of Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and a Professor of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is a Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage and brings a great deal of technical knowledge and expertise associated with the energy sector and specifically CCS.

Rachel English

Board Director

Ms Rachel English has 25 years' international experience in leading energy companies, including BG Group, Shell, Entergy, and British Energy, with responsibilities spanning finance, corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and business development. She began her career at PwC and subsequently worked as an Energy Specialist for the World Bank and the European Bank (EBRD). She is a Non-Executive Director of Kuwait Energy plc and Petropavlovsk plc, the founder of Helios Social Enterprise, and a member of the Audit Committee of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Ms English is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a graduate of the University of Oxford.

Tina McMeckan

Board Director

Ms Tina McMeckan brings to the Institute substantial energy market experience. She is a non-executive Director of SP Ausnet and has previously served on the boards of a number of energy-related corporations, including Alinta Ltd, United Energy Ltd and Snowy Hydro Trading Pty Ltd. Further she has substantial experience as a company Director in commercialisation of technology.

Dr Mario Ruscev

Board Director

Dr Mario Ruscev has been the CEO of an American nanotechnology company, FormFactor, for the past two years. Previous to this position, he had worked for 23 years with Schlumberger in a number of senior roles in France, the United Kingdom and Norway.

Mario’s project management experience is extensive and he has worked in the areas of water, CO2, sequestration as well as CCS. He has worked in Australia on several projects and with a number of Australian institutions as well as with the US based FutureGen initiative.

Mario has a PhD in Nuclear Physics from Yale University and a Doctorate in Nuclear Physics from the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He is located in Paris, France.

Brad Page

Chief Executive Officer

As CEO of the Global CCS Institute, Brad brings extensive knowledge and experience on Australian and international climate and energy issues.

Prior to the Institute, Brad served as CEO of the Energy Supply Association of Australia (esaa), the peak representative organisation of the electricity and downstream gas industry in Australia, for over seven years. During this time he acted as national spokesperson for these industries, and was also an active member of the Australian Government Business Roundtable on Climate Change, the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship Advisory Committee, and the Australian Government Energy White Paper High-Level Consultative Committee.

During 2001 and 2002, Brad headed the secretariat for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Market Review, recommending significant changes to the governance, regulation and policy development arrangements for electricity and gas markets. Brad also served as Chair of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Energy and Transport Sector Advisory Council between November 2004 and January 2009.

Before joining esaa, Brad enjoyed a long career in the Australian Public Service, departing at senior executive level. He was heavily involved with government-led microeconomic reform initiatives, including the implementation of Australia's National Electricity Market and enabling third party access to natural gas transmission pipelines. He also spent two years in the Australian Capital Territory Government implementing choice of gas and electricity retailer for smaller customers.

Brad holds a BA (Administration) and in 2009 studied the economics of climate change at Cambridge University as a British Council Chevening Fellow.

Holger Bietz

General Manager - Projects, Financial and Commercial

Holger joined the Global CCS Institute in April 2011 as General Manager – Projects, Financial and Commercial. In this role, Holger is responsible for the Institute’s Project Support Program, and the Institute’s work on addressing financial and commercial issues faced by CCS projects globally.

Prior to joining the Institute, Holger held the role of Head of Regional Business Development at RWE Group, overseeing business development opportunities in mid Central and South Eastern Europe. In this position Holger was accountable for the origination, development, monitoring and completion of a portfolio of large-scale infrastructure projects in the energy sector. Holger has more than 16 years of worldwide Business Development experience and an extensive knowledge of the energy value chain.

Holger has previously worked in various senior project management roles within RWE Group. Holger has a legal and business management educational background.

Dr Victor Der

General Manager - Americas

Victor joined the Global CCS Institute in May 2011 as the General Manager for operations in the Americas. Prior to joining the Institute, Victor worked at the US Department of Energy (DOE) for over 37 years retiring as the Assistant Secretary (acting) for Fossil Energy. Victor has led the Office of Fossil Energy in the areas of Clean Coal, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Oil and Gas R&D, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He had served in various prior capacities at DOE including the Principal Deputy for Fossil Energy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal and CCS. Victor is also the former Chair of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) Policy Group, and had also served as the Chair of the CSLF Technical Group. As the Assistant Secretary (acting), Victor managed a multi-billion dollar portfolio of Clean Coal Technology and CCS Demonstration projects in addition to a multi-million dollar research portfolio on CCS, power generation, and enhanced oil and gas recovery research. Victor’s prior experience includes research and management in advanced nuclear energy, geologic storage of high-level nuclear waste, and superconductivity for magnetic fusion energy.

Victor’s prior work includes NASA's Apollo 15 moon mission project and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program on modelling the upper atmospheric density.

Victor holds a Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Barry Jones

General Manager - Asia Pacific

Barry has overall responsibility for the Institute's work on CCS economic, policy, legal and regulatory issues, capacity development, and membership relations.

Barry has extensive senior executive experience in policy, research and delivering business services gained over many years in a number of Australian Government departments and agencies. He has worked in the fields of energy and resources, climate change, tourism, industry policy, and small and medium enterprise issues.

Barry’s past roles include head of Enterprise Connect; Chief Executive Officer of Invest Australia; and head of the Bureau of Tourism Research. He has Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Policy degrees from the Australian National University.

Sean McClowry

General Manager - Information Management

Sean joined the Global CCS Institute in April 2010 as General Manager for Information Management. In this role Sean is focused on building a global exchange of CCS knowledge.

Sean has worked with dozens of organisations to solve complex issues related to knowledge sharing, information management and business strategy in a number of locations, including Australia, Europe and the US. He has done significant work with open source and collaborative technologies and is the founder of the www.openmethodology.org andwww.open-sustainability.org initiatives.

Prior to joining the Institute, he was a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and has held national and global lead roles for information and knowledge sharing. He is also an Executive Director and Board Member for the MIKE 2.0 Governance Association. 

Dr Stewart McGlashan

General Manager – Business Strategy

Stewart joined the Global CCS Institute as General Manager – Business Strategy in May 2012. Prior to joining the Institute, Stewart was a Director at Mercator Alliance Limited, an enabler of successful commercialisation of emerging technologies within the energy and environmental sectors. Stewart has also served as Managing Director for the AnthroTerra Pty Ltd and Director of various other SMEs in the energy and environment sectors. He has worked as a Principal in his own consulting company with a focus on strategic management of business risk within emissions trading, clean energy, environmental sectors of energy, and manufacturing industries. 

Currently, Stewart serves as an industry board representative for the Australian Nanotechnology Alliance (ANA). ANA is an industry-led, research supported membership-based alliance comprising organisations that underpin Australia's current and future economic growth in diverse industry sectors including mining, manufacturing, biotechnology, aviation and energy. Prior to this, Stewart worked at the University of Queensland, and Meat and Livestock Australia where he managed the development and implementation of strategy and innovation capability in environment, energy and water.

Stewart holds Bachelors and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland, an Executive MBA from Queensland University of Technology, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Director’s Company Director Course.

John Scowcroft

General Manager - Europe, Middle East and Africa

John Scowcroft joined the Global CCS Institute as General Manager – Europe in January 2012.

Prior to this, John was Head of the Environment and Sustainable Development Policy Unit at Electricity EURELECTRIC, the association which represents the European electricity industry. In this role, John was responsible for all aspects of environmental and sustainable development policy in particular for global and European climate policy. John was actively involved in the ground-breaking EURELECTRIC greenhouse gas and electricity trading simulations (GETS).

After a long career in the British Electricity Industry where he held a number of senior posts covering the whole range of employee relations issues, John joined EURELECTRIC’s predecessor, UNIPEDE in 1991 as a Senior Adviser where he was responsible for environmental matters, and structural and organisation issues. In 1997, John became Head of the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit.

John graduated as a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Liverpool.

Susan Steele

General Manager - Corporate/Chief Financial Officer

Susan has a strong financial background incorporating extensive experience in international business, establishment and company set up, project implementation and management, organisation structure and ownership, governance, legal, risk and contract management.

Susan previously held the position of CFO with a privately owned Project Management Consulting firm which grew to one of the top three international aid consulting firms with the Australian Government. Susan is a member of the National Institute of Accountants and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.