Business Roundtable

The Business Roundtable brought together leaders from across the economy including the mining, transport, manufacturing, energy, retail and finance sectors to discuss the future of our economy. It focused on how we reduce carbon emissions in a way that delivers sustainable growth, maximises productivity and supports jobs across the nation.

The Roundtable discussed a range of issues in advance of their consideration at the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. This helped ensure that Government representatives on the Committee had an accurate and current understanding of the business perspective on issues.

The Industry Transitional Assistance Working Group and the Energy Sector Working Group were also established as subgroups of the Business Roundtable to provide industry feedback on specific sectoral issues. The working groups were chaired by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, and the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson. 

Both groups comprised existing members of the Business Roundtable who were joined by additional participants.

Media Releases

Resources

Members of the Business Roundtable

Peter Anderson

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Mr Peter Anderson has served as Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) since January 2008, after serving for six years as Director of Workplace Policy. Previous to ACCI, he had a number of private and public sector roles including senior adviser and chief of staff in both Commonwealth and State governments, partner in the South Australian commercial law firm, Fisher Jeffries, and executive director of the South Australian Retail Traders' Association.

Mr Anderson has also been a contributing author to a teaching text on Business Law, holds statutory and ministerial appointments to a wide range of national bodies, and is a leading representative of Australian business organisations at an international chamber of commerce and employer level, including a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation.

Rod Leaver

Lend Lease

Rod Leaver is Chief Executive Officer of Lend Lease - Australia.

Mr Leaver is a Board Member of the Green Building Council of Australia and the Chair of the National Business Leader's Forum on Sustainable Development.

At Lend Lease, Mr Leaver is responsible for the company’s development, project management and construction, public private partnerships and investment management businesses in Australia. He has 30 years' experience in the property investment and funds management industry and joined Lend Lease in January 2008. He has held previous roles in Lend Lease as CEO of Asia Pacific and Global Head of Investment Management where he also had responsibility for the UK PFI business and the US-based Actus Lend Lease.

Mr Leaver’s roles before joining Lend Lease include Executive Chairman and founder of the ASX listed Ronin Property Group with total funds under management of A$2.4 billion; co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of James Fielding Group, a listed property investment company with $1.8 billion of funds under management and; co-founder and Executive Director of Paladin Australia Limited that, at the time of sale to Deutsche Asset Management, had property funds under management of A$2.3 billion.

Mr Leaver was previously a National Director of the Property Council of Australia and was its NSW President for three years. He has also held positions on the NSW Heritage Council, the Historic Houses Trust Foundation and the Property Industry Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Cameron Clyne

National Australia Bank

Mr Cameron Clyne has been Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of National Australia Bank since January 2009. Previous to this he served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Bank of New Zealand, and in various roles throughout the financial services sector. Mr Clyne has also been a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM Consulting.

Hubrecht (Hubie) van Dalsen

BHP Billiton

Mr Hubie van Dalsen has been President, Metallurgical Coal at BHP Billiton since 2 February 2009. Previous to this role, he was the Managing Director, Coal Australia for Rio Tinto, where he has spent almost 20 years in various operational, business development, project development, finance and executive leadership roles. He is also Senior Vice Chairman of the Minerals Council of Australia.

Mr van Dalsen was born in Namibia, Africa. He was educated at the University of Pretoria where he completed a degree in mechanical engineering and at the University of London (London Business School) where he graduated with a M.Sc. in Finance.

Nathan Fabian

Investor Group

Mr Nathan Fabian is the Chief Executive Officer of the Investor Group on Climate Change Australia/New Zealand. He previously headed Environmental Social and Governance Research in an investment research and corporate engagement company. In other former roles, he was founding partner of a financial services and IT start-up company advisory firm, an organisational change consultant, a corporate governance adviser and a market analyst in the IT sector.

Mr Fabian is also a director of the Thermometer Foundation for Social Research on Climate Change, a founding member of the International Young Professionals Foundation, a Vincent Fairfax Fellow and a member of Finsia's Sustainability Advisory Council.

Ben Fargher

National Farmers' Federation

Mr Ben Fargher was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) in February 2005. Previously he held the position of NFF's Senior Policy Manager – Trade, where he was responsible for international trade policy and negotiations. Mr Fargher is also a Trustee of the Australian Farmers Fighting Fund.

In 2006, Mr Fargher won the prestigious national AFR/BOSS 'Young Executive of the Year' Award and, in 2001, he was the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship.

Michael Fraser

AGL Energy

Mr Michael Fraser serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of AGL Energy and has had more than 25 years' energy industry experience, including having established AGL Energy as the country's largest energy retailer, and led the rapid expansion of AGL Energy's upstream energy interests in renewables, thermal power generation and upstream gas exploration and development.

Alan Joyce

Qantas

Mr Alan Joyce has been Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Qantas Airways since November 2008 and has been an Executive Director of Qantas Airways since July 2008. He was previously Chief Executive Officer of Jetstar Airways. Before that, Mr Joyce spent over 15 years in leadership positions for Qantas, Ansett and Aer Lingus.

Mr Joyce is a member of the Qantas Airways Safety, Health, Environment and Security Committee, a Director of a number of controlled and associated entities of the Qantas Group, and a former Director of Orangestar Investment Holdings and Jetstar Pacific Airlines Aviation Joint Stock Company.

Grant King

Origin

Grant King was appointed Managing Director, Origin Energy Limited in January 2000 following the demerger of the energy and building / construction businesses of Boral Limited, where he had been Managing Director of the Energy Group since 1994. Grant has extensive experience in the Australian oil and gas industry. He was formerly General Manager, AGL Gas Companies where he held a number of management positions over a 17 year period.

Grant has a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New South Wales and a Masters of Management from the University of Wollongong. He is Chairman of Contact Energy (since October 2004), a Councillor of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association Limited (APPEA), a member of the Queensland Premier's Council on Climate Change and Chairman of the Business Council of Australia Sustainable Growth Task Force. He is a former Director of Envestra Limited and former Chairman, Energy Supply Association of Australia (esaa).

Michael Luscombe

Woolworths

Michael Luscombe was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Woolworths Limited in October 2006. He began his career with Woolworths in 1978 as a graduate trainee in Victoria. Since then he has progressed through the company taking on a number of different roles and responsibilities including Operations Manager for Victoria, General Manager Supply Chain and Director of Supermarkets.

Michael also chairs the Australian National Retailers' Association and is a Director of The Consumer Goods Forum, the peak global body for food/grocery retailers and manufacturers.

Paul O'Malley

BlueScope Steel

Mr O'Malley was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BlueScope Steel on 1 November 2007.

He joined BlueScope Steel as its Chief Financial Officer in December 2005. He was formerly the CEO of TXU Energy, a subsidiary of TXU Corp based in Dallas, Texas, and held other senior management roles within TXU including Senior Vice President and Principal Financial Officer and, based in Melbourne, Chief Financial Officer of TXU Australia. Before joining TXU, he worked in investment banking and consulting.

Brad Page

Energy Supply Association of Australia

Mr Brad Page has been Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Supply Association of Australia since February 2004. Previously, Mr Page had a long public service career and headed the Secretariat for the Council of Australian Governments energy market review in 2002. He studied the economics of climate change at Cambridge University in 2009 as a British Chevening Fellow and is a member of the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship Advisory Committee.

David Peever

Rio Tinto

David Peever was appointed managing director Rio Tinto Australia in November 2009.

In this role David provides strategic leadership for Rio Tinto's business in Australia, aligning the Group's operations and working closely with governments, regulators, shareholders and other important stakeholders.

He is responsible for directing the corporate interests of Rio Tinto in Australia and provides guidance for employees across Australia.

David also holds the position of managing director Rio Tinto Marine, the Group's stand-alone marine transportation business unit. Rio Tinto Marine delivers a broad-ranging capability in all aspects of marine transportation for the Group's Australian and international operations.

Since joining the Rio Tinto Group in 1987, David has worked in an extensive range of senior management and leadership roles throughout the Group.

Ann Pickard

Shell

Ms Ann Pickard came to Australia in March 2010 to take up the role of Executive Vice President Upstream Australia within the Shell Upstream International organization, responsible for the exploration, production and gas commercialization part of Shell's Australian business. Since then, her role has expanded to Country Chair of Shell in Australia, adding oversight of the manufacturing, chemicals, supply and distribution, retail, lubricants, trading and shipping, and alternative energy parts of the business.

Described by Fortune Magazine as the bravest woman in oil and one of the 50 most powerful women in business, Ann was Shell's Regional Executive Vice President for Sub Sahara Africa, based in Lagos Nigeria, for the past 5 years. In that role she oversaw the company's exploration & production, gas and LNG activities in the region. Before that, Ann was Director, Global Businesses and Strategy and a member of the Shell Gas & Power Executive Committee with responsibility for Global LNG, Power, and Gas & Power Strategy.

Heather Ridout

Australian Industry Group

Mrs Heather Ridout is the Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group. She is a member of a number of key national policy setting and consultative groups including the National Workplace Relations Consultative Committee; Infrastructure Australia; Skills Australia; and she is Chair of the Population Strategy Productivity and Prosperity Panel.

Mrs Ridout has various other appointments including Director of the Australian Super Trustee Board, Electrolux Home Products, and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth. She was also a member of the Henry Review of the Australian Taxation System.

Maria Tarrant

Business Council of Australia

Ms Tarrant is Deputy Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia (BCA). Before her appointment as Deputy Chief Executive, Ms Tarrant held the position of Director Policy, taking the lead in policy development in areas such as education and training, workplace relations, infrastructure, energy policy and climate change.

Prior to joining the BCA, Ms Tarrant was Chief Executive of RMIT Training P/L from its start-up, where she was responsible for the development of a new commercial entity providing a range of services to industry internationally. Ms Tarrant has 20 years of senior-level experience in the public and private sectors, in areas such as business development, policy development and project management in the fields of infrastructure, education services, human resources management and marketing.

Don Voelte

Woodside

Don Voelte has 35 years of experience in the global oil and gas industry, and has been Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Woodside since joining the company in 2004.

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Don graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1975. Don began his career at Mobil Corporation in the same year, staying with the company for 22 years. During his time with Mobil he held a variety of executive positions across the Corporation, including US marketing and refining roles.

His final position with Mobil was as President, New Exploration and Producing Ventures, with responsibility for world-wide exploration and building and implementing Mobil's corporate upstream global growth strategy. He reported to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Don left Mobil in 1997 to join Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) as Executive Vice President, responsible for exploration and production international operations, redeveloping global growth and risk management strategy. Don also had responsibility for global crude and product trading activities and worldwide pipeline operations. He remained with ARCO until the company's acquisition by BP in 2000. Immediately prior to joining Woodside, Don was Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Chroma Energy Inc. based in Houston.

Don currently serves on the Board of the University of Western Australia Business School and is a Non Executive Director of the West Australian Newspapers Holdings Limited. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Chi Epsilon Honor Society, a Foreign Fellow to ATSE (FTSE) and a Fellow to the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). He is a trustee of the University of Nebraska Foundation and was awarded the University of Nebraska Engineering Alumni of Year in 2002.

Matthew Warren

Clean Energy Council

Mr Matthew Warren has been the Chief Executive of the Clean Energy Council since 2008 and is responsible for progressing the objectives of the clean energy industry into the mainstream of energy policy debate in Australia.

An environmental economist by training, he has previously served as the Policy Director for the Australian Food and Grocery Council, worked for the mining industry in NSW, has been an environmental consultant to both government and industry and was a trainee in the Environment Directorate of the European Commission. He has also worked as a journalist, most recently as the environment writer for The Australian newspaper.

Masahide (Max) Yasuda

Toyota

Max Yasuda was appointed President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation Australia in August 2007, after spending four years as President and CEO of Toyota France. Since his appointment to Toyota Australia, the company has achieved record sales results, along with securing Australia's first 'locally built' hybrid vehicle, the Camry Hybrid. He joined Toyota in 1972 and has worked in Japan, Europe and the United States, including three years as Group Vice President in Toyota Motor Sales, USA. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in engineering and applied physics.