OUR PEOPLE

The Australian Power Institute is governed by a Board consisting of the following members:

CEO

David Pointing, PhD, FIEAust, CPEng, EngExec, NER, MAICD

Chief Executive Officer, The Australian Power Institute

Appointed by the API Board in December 2019, David is an engineering-sector executive and leader with extensive experience in creating and delivering projects and initiatives that build capacity and capability in communities, with a focus on sustainable development solutions and energy systems.
David has a deep portfolio of skills and experience in program development, project management, business development, stakeholder engagement, and the creation of collaborative solutions, including research and development projects, tertiary education and workforce development initiatives.

David’s key career achievements include:

Research into the use of wind and hydrogen energy technologies to support remote area power systems and operations (using the case studies of Antarctic research communities of the Australian and Norwegian governments),
Developing international partnerships focused on empowering communities to access sustainability solutions for the UN Environment Program (based in Copenhagen),
Establishing a strategic program to drive national and international engagement with the Tertiary sector for Australia’s professional body for engineers (Engineers Australia), and
Leading workforce development initiatives for the engineering sector in Tasmania as the state General Manager for Engineers Australia (following a decade of involvement as an active volunteer member).
Teaching university courses on engineering ethics, sustainability, engineering design, and project management to undergraduate and Masters level student engineers.

David has qualifications in Materials Engineering (UNSW), Antarctic Studies (UTAS), and completed a Ph.D. (UTAS) on the implementation of sustainable energy solutions in isolated communities.

David is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, has been recognized with the EngExec credential and is Chartered in engineering leadership and management.

David is originally from Sydney and is now based in Tasmania with his wife and two children.

Chair

Peter Langdon, BEng (Hon), MBA

Head of Asset Planning and Performance, Endeavour Energy

Peter has over 30 years’ experience in the Australian electricity supply industry. In his current role of Head of Asset Planning and Performance, he is responsible for developing the long term investment and maintenance plans for Endeavour Energy’s electricity network as well as the ongoing development the organisation’s asset management systems and strategies. Prior to this Peter has held a variety of roles in areas such as regional management, system control and project management.

Peter has a keen interest in developing the next generation of engineers for our industry and for the last 10 years has led his organisation’s engineer development program. Peter is also an active member of the NSW chapter of the Electric Energy Society of Australia.

Board Member

Keron McCallum-Gaul

General Manager, Power Transformer Business Unit, Wilson Transformer Company Pty Ltd (WTC)

Keron is the General Manager, Power Transformer Business Unit of Wilson Transformer Company (WTC), based in Glen Waverley, Victoria and is a member of the WTC Executive Leadership Team. WTC has had a long relationship with the API and actively provides support to a range of initiatives to develop future engineering leaders.

Keron is a Civil Engineer with a 30 year career across a broad range of industries and businesses. This includes roles in general management, operations management and business development across civil construction, manufacturing, building products, construction materials, and professional engineering services in both global publicly listed businesses and privately owned family companies.

Keron is an Honours graduate in Civil Engineering from Queensland University of Technology and has also studied at IMD Business School, in Lausanne Switzerland. He has held several honorary positions with Engineers Australia including Chairman of the Queensland Environmental Engineering Society, Vice Chairman of the National Board of the Environmental Engineering Society, a National Board member of the Institution of Engineers, Environmental College and was the Convenor of several major Environmental Engineering Conferences.

Board Member

Sarah Huang, BElecEng, MEngScience, CPEng, RPEQ, NER

General Manager Design Solutions, Powerlink Queensland

Sarah Huang is a leader and electrical engineer in the electricity transmission industry with more than 24 years’ professional experience in Australia and overseas. In her current role as General Manager Design Solutions in Powerlink Queensland, Sarah leads a group of more than 100 engineering professionals to provide specialised technical advice and design services to support Powerlink’s transmission network operation, re-investment projects and renewable energy transformation.

Sarah is an active member in Powerlink’s Graduate Development Committee, and is motivated by building career succession pathway and great workplace culture for young professionals in our industry at this very challenging and exciting time.

Board Member

Gair Landsborough,

Executive Manager, Asset Management, Western Power

Gair joined Western Power in December 1993 as a cadet engineer, commencing his graduate program in 1995.

His career spans senior management roles since 2006 in operations, program and project management, contracts and finance. Technical roles have included network planning, maintenance strategy and investigations. Gair’s financial background focused on strategic financial modelling that involved working closely with Government stakeholders to implement electricity market reforms.

Gair holds a Master of Applied Finance, Bachelor of Commerce (Management) and Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from the University of Western Australia.

Asset Management is accountable for managing overall asset lifecycles, asset performance management strategies, network planning, engineering and design and network operations. As the major network operator in Western Australia, Western Power is a significant employer of engineers and is a foundation member of the API.

Board Member

Margarida Pimentel

Group Manager Onboarding and Connections, AEMO

Margarida is the Group Manager of Onboarding and Connections at AEMO. Margarida has worked in the energy industry for over 20 years in the areas of national energy market design and operation; electricity transmission planning; distributed energy integration and more recently, onboarding utility-scale generators, storage providers and customers. Working for energy market operators, transmission and distribution network businesses, and in consulting, Margarida has a depth of experience informed over a period of dramatic structural change and market reform.

Margarida’s most recent focus has been on building predictable connection processes, through greater transparency of process, clearer definition of roles and responsibilities, greater collaboration across AEMO, NSPs, Proponents and OEMs, and working to align approaches across NEM regions

Board Member

Lance Wee

Head of Asset Management, Transgrid

Lance has more than 20 years of experience in the Australian energy and infrastructure industries. In February 2015 Lance was appointed to the role of Head of Asset Management, accountable for asset management activities that optimally balances asset risk, cost and performance of TransGrid’s network.

Prior to that role, Lance gained his extensive experience in developing, designing, constructing and maintaining substations and transmission lines throughout Australia in different roles at TransGrid, Downer Australia and Powerlink Queensland.

He has a passion and reputation for building and leading strong professional teams while providing the direction and support needed to implement sustainable competitive commercial strategies in line with stakeholder and customer expectations.

Lance has a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) Honours Degree from the University of Queensland and Diploma in Project Management from the University of New England. He is currently completing his Masters of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Board Member

Fatima Bazzi

Head of Portfolio Planning & Insights – Ausgrid

Fatima is an experienced senior leader within the energy industry, throughout her career Fatima has held various roles in Customer, Asset Management, Field Delivery and Transformation. In her role as Head of Transformation, Fatima played a key leadership role in the transition of Ausgrid from a government to private entity. As the Head of Portfolio Planning & Insights, Fatima looks after the performance of Ausgrid's $2B network capital and maintenance portfolio with direct accountability for Program Management, Works Planning & Integration, Estimating, Business Insights & Reporting and Enterprise Workforce Planning.

An advocate for inclusion and diversity within the energy industry, Fatima plays an active role in mentoring circles and is passionate about building career pathways for the next generation to enable the energy transition. Ausgrid is an active supporter of the Australian Power Institute and takes on API bursary students which allows young engineers to gain industry experience.

Fatima holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Organisational Learning and a Bachelor of Human Resources & Management from the University of Technology Sydney. Fatima is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Deputy Chair

Heidi Sick

Industry Director for Energy in Australia & New Zealand, Aurecon

Heidi is the Industry Director for Energy (ANZ) for Aurecon with 20 years of experience. Heidi's experience stretches across three continents within a number of industries, covering the complete lifecycle of multidisciplinary complex projects. Over the last 10 years Heidi has been an advisor to the energy sector, with a focus on renewable and low emission technologies and the integration of these into the overall energy system. Heidi was awarded the inaugural 2019 Clean Energy Council and Monash University Women in Renewables Your Leadership Voice scholarship for her experience in establishing diverse high performing teams to help clients through the energy transition.

Aurecon has been an active supporter of the API since 2008 and regularly provides early industry experience and employment for API Bursary holders. As well as being the Deputy Chair of the Australian Power Institute (API), Heidi is a Technical Advisor on the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Advisory Panel, assessing program funding applications across a broad range of renewable and emerging/enabling technologies to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy.

Board Member

Renee Anderson

Executive, People, TasNetworks

Renee is a member of TasNetworks’ Executive Team and leads the People Team, consisting of Technical Capability, People Development, Health Safety and Environment and People Experience streams.

With over 15 years’ experience as a senior HR executive, Renee joined TasNetworks from the Tasmanian Department of Health, where she was the Chief People Officer. She has previously worked in the mining, engineering and energy sectors, and has held roles within Australia, Brazil, USA and United Kingdom. Renee holds a Bachelor of Business (Management) from the University of Queensland.

Renee is active in the community, volunteering HR expertise to a number of community organisations.

Board Member

Jason Hall, BEng(Hons), GradCertMgt, RPEQ, MAICD

General Manager Grid Technology, Energy Queensland.

Jason Hall is the General Manager Grid Technology at Energy Queensland, a government owned corporation responsible for the distribution of electricity across Queensland via their two electricity distributors - Energex and Ergon Energy. He is accountable for ensuring safe and reliable protection, telecommunications, and control systems exist for the Energy Queensland electricity network including the introduction of new technologies to transition to an intelligent grid.

Jason has a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Computer) Honours Degree from the Queensland University of Technology and a Graduate Certificate in Management from Deakin University. He is also a trade qualified electrical fitter mechanic and has over 30 years of experience in the Queensland Electricity Supply Industry comprising of positions in generation, transmission, and distribution. Jason is a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland and is also Energy Queensland’s member representative of CIGRE Australia.

Board Member

Craig Savage

Head of Strategic Projects, CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy

Craig is a member of the CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy Senior Management Group and currently leads strategic network projects such as the Network Price Review and the development of climate resilient networks.

With over 35 years’ experience in the management of physical assets, Craig has held a variety of senior engineering management positions with Alinta, Jemena, United Energy, Citipower and Powercor, in asset management, program and project management, environmental management, reliability management and risk. Craig has always been a strong advocate for asset management developments, having chaired workshops and delivered papers on asset management, reliability planning, future networks and bushfire risk management. He currently chairs an industry research project on Non-Destructive Testing of Wooden Poles, and has previously been a member of industry steering committees for Transformer Innovation, Solar Enablement and the Victorian Bushfire Minimisation Taskforce.

Over the last 20 years, Craig has been integral in developing the next generation of engineers, having been an active member in Graduate Development Committees at Alinta, Jemena and United Energy as well as a frequent mentor. Craig holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) Degree from the University of Melbourne and an Advanced Diploma in Leadership and Management from the University of Western Australia. Craig is a Registered Professional Engineer of Victoria and a Fellow of Engineering, recognized with the Engineering Executive credential.