Panel Discussion: Energy Security – The Challenge of our Time

Anna Brakey was appointed a Commissioner of the ACCC in December 2020. She is also an Associate Member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority. On 1 March 2022 Anna commenced as an Associate Member of the New Zealand Commerce Commission. Anna Brakey has extensive experience in regulatory economics and public policy with over 25 years of experience working with regulators, government and within the private sector. She has had broad exposure to a wide range of infrastructure industries, including energy, water and transport. Additionally, she has worked on economic reform to social policy. Prior to starting at ACCC, Anna worked as an economist at Frontier Economics and held a number of roles at the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), including being a deputy Tribunal Member, the Executive Director of Strategy and Economic Analysis and the Chief Operating Officer. Anna’s expertise includes the Parliamentary Committee process, the New South Wales Department of Transport, the Australian Productivity Commission, the Bureau of Industry Economics and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Additionally, Anna has worked for the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) on reforms to economic regulation and with the New South Wales Treasury on the sale of assets. Anna chairs the ACCC’s Infrastructure Committee, Communications Committee, Electricity Markets Inquiry Board and East Coast Gas Market Board, and is a member of the ACCC’s Competition Exemptions Committee and Agriculture Board. Anna holds a Bachelor of Economics from Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from Securities Institute of Australia. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Saul is the Head of Integrated Energy, Resources and Carbon Research at Credit Suisse, covering the oil, gas, mining, green metals, and carbon market sectors. He frequently presents at leading industry conferences in the region, is the top ranked energy analyst in Australia according to industry surveys, and is a regular gas and energy commentator in print and broadcast media. Saul has previously worked across the energy sector in commercial, project, research and government policy roles. He was previously head of oil, gas, LNG and renewable research in Australasia for Wood Mackenzie, the world’s leading energy consultancy, and has delivered strategic consulting projects across the oil and gas, renewables and logistics sectors. He has also worked at Woodside Energy, Australia’s largest oil and gas company, at M.H. Carnegie & Co, one of Australia's largest Venture Capital funds, and has worked in economic development policy roles for the United Nations and African Union Commission. Saul is a member of the industry advisory board for the University of Western Australia Oceans Graduate School and a co-founder of Refugees Welcome Australia. Saul holds degrees in Law (Honours) and Chemical Engineering (Honours) from the University of Melbourne.

January 2020 marked the start of a new role for Tony, as EVP Integrated Gas Australia and Country Chair. Tony describes it as an honour and a privilege to lead the Shell business in Australia through the energy transition, where our purpose is to power progress together to provide more and cleaner energy solutions, for Australia and the world. With degrees in Land Resource Science from the University of Queensland and Law from the University of New England, Tony joined Shell’s QGC business in 2008. Since then he has held a variety of land, community, asset management and legal roles. In 2015, just prior to the Shell and BG integration, Tony became QGC Managing Director as the business commenced production operations. Following Shell’s acquisition of BG, he was appointed Vice President QGC for Shell Australia, and then VP East, Shell Australia, until his appointment as EVP Integrated Gas Australia and Country Chair.

Meg O’Neill has 28 years’ experience in the global oil and gas industry, with positions and responsibilities extending across North America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. Since being appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Woodside Energy in 2021, Meg has overseen a merger that has transformed Woodside into the largest energy company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The merger built on Woodside’s history as the pioneer of the LNG industry in Australia, delivering a geographically diverse portfolio of high-quality oil and gas assets. Meg joined Woodside in 2018 as Chief Operations Officer, responsible for all of the company’s producing assets. In 2019, Meg was appointed Executive Vice President Development, overseeing the delivery of Woodside’s major growth projects in Australia and Senegal. In 2020, she also assumed responsibility for Marketing. Prior to joining Woodside, Meg worked for ExxonMobil in a variety of technical, operational and leadership roles based in Houston, Indonesia, Canada and Norway, which included responsibility for major projects in Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique. Meg is Chair of the Australian oil and gas industry peak body, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), and serves on the boards of Reconciliation Western Australia, and West Australian Symphony Orchestra. She is an honorary Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Australia, and a member of Chief Executive Women (CEW) and the University of Western Australia Business School Advisory Board. Meg is originally from Boulder, Colorado, and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with degrees in Ocean and Chemical Engineering.

Ali Moore has more than 30 years experience as a journalist and broadcaster, working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia's Nine Network, and for the BBC's global news network, based in Singapore. She has covered major news and current affairs events across the region, including as the ABC's China Correspondent in Beijing. Ali is a former Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne, producing and presenting the 'This is Not A Drill' series of hypotheticals with Asialink, the ABC and the Wheeler Centre. She is now a freelance broadcaster and journalist, and program host on ABC Radio Melbourne