Russell Higgins AO

Board Chair

Russell Higgins has extensive corporate and government experience both in Australia, and internationally. He is a non-executive director of APA Group, Telstra Corporation Limited and SunRice Limited. 

Russell was Chairman of the Federal Government’s Energy Task Force from 2003-04, Secretary of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources from 1997 to 2002 and Executive Director, Resources and Energy from 1992-96. Prior to that appointment he worked on economic and fiscal policy in the Departments of Treasury and Finance and at the OECD in Paris.

He is a former Chairman of the Snowy Mountains Council and the Australian Government’s Management Improvement Advisory Committee and a former director of Australian Biodiesel Group Limited, EFIC, CSIRO, Austrade, the Australian Industry and Development Corporation, as well as a former member of Australian Government’s Joint Economic Forecasting Group.

In 2006-07 Russell was a member of the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading. He also led the APEC work in the energy sphere for many years.

Dr Makoto Akai

Board Director

Dr Makoto Akai is a Fellow Research Scientist of Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) under the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) and a Professor of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Makoto has over 20 years’ experience in research on various aspects of CCS which include not only the technical but also the socio-economic and policy studies such as public awareness, scenario study with energy models, and accounting protocol development that leads to the world’s first submission of new methodologies of CCS under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Makoto has led a number of research groups in AIST and has played key roles in international activities which have included managing the International Collaboration Project on CO2 Ocean Sequestration under IEA/CTI, a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC‘s Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, a Lead Author to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Volume 2, Chapter 5 ‘Carbon Dioxide Transport, Injection and Geological Storage’), a Lead Author to IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources, and brings a great deal of technical knowledge and expertise associated with the energy sector and specifically carbon capture and storage.

Rachel English

Board Director

Rachel English holds a number of Non-Executive positions in the United Kingdom. She is a Director of NHS London, a Director of Helios Social Enterprise, a member of the Audit Committee for the Department for International Development (DFID), and an Advisory Board Member for the Institute for Energy Research and Policy at the University of Birmingham.

An economist and financial expert, Rachel has over 25 years’ experience across the energy sector. She was the Chief Financial Officer of a UK-listed energy company, has held a number of senior management positions for leading international energy companies (including BG Group, Shell, and Entergy) and also spent a period at the World Bank.

Rachel has an MA from Oxford University, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is located in London, England.

Tina McMeckan

Board Director

Tina McMeckan is a Director of SP Ausnet Ltd and has served on the Boards of a number of energy-related corporations, including Alinta Ltd, United Energy Ltd and Snowy Hydro Trading Pty Ltd. Other energy related directorships have included the Westar and Kinetik Energy Group, Victorian Power Exchange, and Solaris Power.

Tina was previously an Executive Manager with GPU PowerNet and the SECV Energy Traders, and a project manager with the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance on gas industry reform. She offers specific expertise in commercialisation of science and technology.

Outside the energy sector, she is the Chair of the Centre for Eye Research Australia, a Director of Circadian Technologies Ltd, a Director of the Cooperative Research Centre Spatial Information, a Director of Metlink Victoria Pty Ltd and a Director of the National Board of Norton Rose law firm.

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

Chief Representative (General Manager) - North America

Victor joined the Global CCS Institute in May 2011 as the General Manager for North America operations. 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 - Policy and Membership

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.

Morikuni Makino

General Manager - Japan

Morikuni Makino joined the Institute in September 2011 as General Manager – Japan. Prior to joining the Institute, Morikuni worked for the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in various capacities for over 20 years. His most recent role was Director for International Public Relations for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency within METI, following the March 11 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Before that, Morikuni worked as a Director General in charge of Kyoto Mechanisms promotion for the New Energy and Industrial technology Development Organization (NEDO). Morikuni has extensive experience in the energy sector.

In his role as General Manager – Japan at the Institute, Morikuni is responsible for leading and managing the Japan office, liaising regularly and developing strong relationships with the Institute’s Japanese Membership base.

Morikuni has a Master of Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Keio University, Japan.

Sean McClowry

General Manager - Knowledge Management

Sean joined the Global CCS Institute in April 2010 as General Manager for Knowledge 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 and www.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.

John Scowcroft

General Manager - Europe

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.