Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in public policy from Harvard, having graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours in Law and Arts. Andrew is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and a past recipient of the ‘Young Economist Award’, a prize given every two years by the Economics Society of Australia to the best Australian economist under 40. His books include Disconnected (2010), Battlers and Billionaires (2013), The Economics of Just About Everything (2014) and The Luck of Politics (2015).

Frederic Papon is a director in EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services in Melbourne and brings over 15 years’ experience working on climate change and energy policy and strategy issues for the private and public sectors with significant international experience. Over this period Frederic has been close to the various evolutions of domestic and international carbon policy and continues to support public organisations and several major Australian commodities, oil and gas and chemicals companies in understanding the short and long-term implications of climate policy and renewable technologies on their business.

Frederic has contributed to a number of publications including, more recently, an analysis of the recommendations issued by the industry-led Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and key considerations for businesses and governments to aligned their policy, strategy and disclosures to the 2 degree goal. Frederic attended the COP21 in Paris (2015) as an observer as part of a group involving leaders from the Federal and State Government, business and academia

Fiona Hancock is a Senior Manager with EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services team based in Adelaide. With over 12 years’ experience in climate change and sustainability, Fiona specialises in carbon accounting, climate risk, and non-financial reporting and assurance. Fiona also has experience in strategy development and commercial analysis, and has assisted companies to understand the short and long-term implications of climate policy on their business. She is an experienced process engineer with a strong background in the oil and gas industry, including eight years working for Santos within the corporate carbon and sustainability team, and a number of oil and gas clients with EY. Fiona holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical), Master of Business Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Energy and Resources (Policy and Practice).

Saul is Wood Mackenzie’s thought leader for Australasia, covering energy, oil, gas, LNG and renewables. He has a background working in the venture capital, LNG, and government policy sectors. He has delivered strategic consulting projects for major listed Australian and international companies across the upstream, downstream, infrastructure and logistics sectors. Saul has presented at leading industry conferences in the region and is a regularly commentator on energy topics in broadcast and print media such as Sky News, Bloomberg, Reuters and the Australian Financial Review.
Prior to Wood Mackenzie, Saul worked with Australia’s largest oil and gas company, Woodside Energy, at Australia’s largest Venture Capital fund, M.H.Carnegie & Co, and also in corporate advisory roles in Africa. He has been an advisor on resources and economic development policy for African governments and institutions, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and African Union Commission. Saul holds degrees in Law (Honours) and Chemical Engineering (Honours) from the University of Melbourne

Before joining APPEA in June 2015, Malcolm Roberts was Chairman of the Queensland
Competition Authority.
He has considerable experience in industry associations, having held leadership roles with the
Energy Networks Association, The National Generators’ Forum, the Australian National
Retailers Association and the Housing Industry Association.
Dr Roberts has also worked in government as a policy adviser to ministers and in the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He was an adviser and then chief of staff to
Ian Macfarlane in 2001-04 and 2006-07.

Carlo Franchina is the national tax lead partner of Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG. Carlo has 27 years’ corporate tax experience in Australia and the UK. He has extensive experience in advising on income tax, capital gains tax and resource tax matters affecting the energy and natural resources industry in Australia. Carlo has specialist experience in advising foreign companies investing in oil and gas projects in Australia, including the provision of international tax structuring advice. Carlo has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Western Australia. Fellow: Institute of Chartered Accountants and Chartered Tax Advisor of the Taxation Institute of Australia

Michael is a tax partner specialising in International Tax and Transfer Pricing.

Michael joined PwC after starting his career in a national legal firm. Michael has been advising banks and multinational corporations on structuring their investments into Australia and offshore since 1998. He specialises in the tax aspects of financing transactions, cross border structuring and restructuring and M&A.

Michael has been a key tax adviser on significant mergers and acquisitions in the Perth, Sydney and Melbourne offices. He has performed key roles in the management of technical, structuring and implementation aspects of various projects.

Michael has presented at a number of TIA conferences, Corporate Taxpayer Association conferences and for the Australian Taxation Office.

Rebecca Saint is an Assistant Commissioner in the Public Groups & International area and currently leads the ATO’s Energy and Resources Industry Strategy and the Operations area in Moonee Ponds. Rebecca leads the marketing hub strategy and also has responsibility for a number of complex and strategically significant cases in the Energy & Resources market.

Following studies in Law, Chemistry and Extractive Metallurgy, Ezra Hefter has worked in a range of areas, from research to industry, and for over a decade as a specialist in the R&D Tax & Incentives area, focused on the energy, resources and technology sectors. Ezra is a partner at Ernst & Young in Perth, part of a team of around 30 R&D specialists in Perth, and 90 nationally.
It has been an interesting career that has seen him working in scientific research at Murdoch University (in minerals chemistry), UNSW (on photonics), and Oxford University (in psychopharmacology), and as a metallurgist in industry — all this before trading in the steel caps for a suit, and the test tubes for the tax act at EY. He has never looked back on this decision and enjoys all things R&D Tax, though of course, dinner party conversations are a lot more subdued.
With innovation increasingly driving the next generation of discoveries and developments, Ezra is very conscious of the need to have an applied and scientific-driven approach in relation to his work. Ezra is a member of a number of industry organisations, has worked with government and appeared before Senate Committees in relation to Research and Development policy and support for Innovation in Australia.

When not tinkering with his collection of gadgets, Ezra has a range of interests to distract him including old British cars, motorbikes, social justice issues, photography, food, theatre, travel, and cheese-making (and eating!).

Geoff is an indirect tax professional with 35 years’ experience in managing a diversified range of indirect taxes across a multitude of industries. During his career, he has worked across the entire spectrum of the tax profession from the Australian Taxation Office to the ‘Big 4’ professional firms (rising to the position of Indirect Tax Practice Leader for WA) and academia. For the last 11 years, he has lead the Australian indirect tax practice within Chevron Australia. Geoff was APPEA’s inaugural representative on the ATO’s NTLG (GST) Sub-committee.

Nick Joined the Minerals and Energy Resources Group (MER) of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet as the Director Resource Royalties in April 2013, having previously undertaken a project, working for Deloitte, to review and re-structure the royalties function and merge the team from the previous minerals and petroleum teams. He has driven a new change culture within the team and has a focus on engagement with the industry and a strong communication approach to overseeing the royalties’ function which includes forecasting, auditing, policy reviews, advisory and an open approach to addressing any differences and issues that may arise.
Apart from the royalty area, Nick has a broader role within the Energy Resources Division and for the whole-of-MER focusing on the commercial side of policy development and is an active participant in the leadership team of that Division.
Before returning to Adelaide, Nick spent 13 years working in the property industry, based in Sydney. He was the Chief Risk Officer for the GPT Group, one of Australia’s largest diversified property groups and a top 50 ASX listed company from 2005 till 2012 and before that worked as the Asia Pacific Regional Risk Manager for Lend Lease.

Luke is the Tax Manager at QGC, which is part of Shell Australia. He has over 12 years corporate tax experience, working in professional services for EY and in his current role at QGC. Luke has been a member of the APPEA Fiscal Committee since 2013 and is also a member of the Queensland Office of State Revenue’s Royalty Consultation Committee.

Cameron brings more than 30 years’ experience to his role as a Special Counsel at Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills, specialising in corporate and international tax advice, audits, litigation and rulings.
His clients include leading organisations in the resources and financial services sectors, who benefit from his tax expertise on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and transfer pricing.
Over the course of his career, Cameron has worked at top tier law and accountancy firms and was a professor and director of taxation studies in the Law School at University of Melbourne

Lauren is an Account Director in the Deloitte Perth business tax team. Lauren is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor and has worked in Australia and the U.S. during her career.

Lauren has over eleven years’ experience in providing a range of tax services to some of Australia’s largest energy, resources and infrastructure groups. Lauren’s specialist skills include advising on:
• Australian corporate and international tax issues relevant to the energy and resources and the public sector (specifically utilities and infrastructure);
• Merger and acquisition tax issues relevant to the energy and resources sector; and
• Tax issues relevant to major capital projects.

Lauren has managed complex tax due diligence projects and tax advice for divestments, mergers and acquisitions by multinationals as well as government agencies.

Martin is head of the Tax Group at Allens. He has over fifteen years’ experience advising foreign and Australian owned groups in the resources sector, which in recent years has entailed extensive involvement in transfer pricing and exploration matters. Martin’s work in recent years means that he is at the forefront in the development of law and strategy in relation to the taxation of centralised hubs located offshore and in Australia. Martin is a Fellow of the University of Melbourne Law School, where he lectures in the post-graduate Taxation of Major Projects course.

Kenneth Wee is an Assistant Commissioner – Senior Tax Counsel with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Prior to joining the ATO, he spent over 14 years in chartered accounting where he specialised in providing advice on Australian corporate tax and Petroleum Resource Rent Tax to clients in the oil and gas industry. Kenneth’s experience encompasses advising on corporate and international tax, restructures, mergers and acquisitions, financing and capital management. He has also worked extensively in the areas of tax audits/reviews, rulings, cooperative compliance, tax law policy and design advocacy, and managing tax controversies and disputes.