Steve Edwell
Moderator
Chairman
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Economic Regulation Authority
Steve has been the Chair of the Economic Regulation Authority since August 2021. He is an economist specialising in the energy sector. Steve has many years of commercial and regulatory experience working with the public sector, industry agencies and private industry. Before joining the ERA, Steve relinquished his role as Chair of Horizon Power to be appointed as Full time Chair of the WA Government’s Energy Transformation Taskforce. He was the inaugural Chair of the Australian Energy Regulator 2005-10 and was a member of the ERA governing body from 2006 to 2017. In a private consulting capacity, Steve has recently developed a high level design for the electricity market in the Northern Territory and is a member of the Electricity Market Reform Implementation Taskforce in the Northern Territory, as the independent energy market expert.
Sam Barbaro
Panellist
CEO
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Western Power
Sam was appointed Western Power CEO in August 2022. He has been a member of the Executive team since 2014 serving firstly as the Executive Manager of the Governance & Assurance and then the Executive Manager Asset Operations.
Jai Thomas
Panellist
Deputy Director General - Coordinator of Energy
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Energy Policy WA (DEMIRS)
Jai Thomas is the Deputy Director General - Coordinator of Energy, a statutory role that leads Energy Policy WA. As Coordinator of Energy, he is also the designated Hazard Management Agency for disruption to electricity, natural gas or liquid fuel supplies in Western Australia.
Jessica Seares
Panellist
Managing Director
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Sia Partners
As the Managing Director of Energy & Utilities at Sia Partners, Australia, Jessica leads teams advising Western Australia's major energy players on strategy, business planning, performance improvement, and stakeholder engagement.
Nick Sloan
Panellist
CEO
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WALGA
Nick Sloan has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) since 2019.
Sam Pearce
Panellist
CEO
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Collgar Renewables
Sam has over 30 years of industry experience in the energy and utilities sectors, spanning operations, investment management, corporate development and strategy, and transaction execution responsibilities. He has worked in merchant energy, gas distribution, power generation (gas and renewables), and electricity and gas transmission primarily in Australia and New Zealand. Prior to joining Collgar Renewables, Sam held executive and senior roles at QIC Infrastructure, APA Group, Stockland and AGL, and before moving into the energy sector he was a lawyer at Clayton Utz with transactional, anti-trust and corporate finance experience.