The Carbon Club

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Friday 27/2/2009 Page: 20

There is a growing legion of business executives creating the new arena of climate change and carbon trading with a distinctly capitalistic bent. Former options trader Geoff Evison founded the Arkx carbon fund with former Citigroup trader Lisa Wade with the intention of convincing investors that superior returns can be had from alternative energy plays.

After 30 years with BP, Greg Bourne became CEO of WWF Australia. A graduate of the University of Western Australia, he admires Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, is on friendly terms with Malcolm Turnbull, and says his line of communication with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is very good. When he encouraged the Howard government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol he found himself immediately cut off.

Gerry McGowan founded Impulse Airlines but now heads a renewable energy company that is building wind turbines on the Chatham Islands. Maria Atkinson was only offered jobs in the Environmental Protection Authority and National Parks when she graduated with a degree in environmental science back in 1996. Today she is global head of sustainability with Lend Lease.

Cassandra McCarthy is the manager of energy and climate change policy at Xstrata. She was formerly with the Australian Coal Association. Petrea Bradford is group manager, carbon at Origin Energy. Sean Lucy did stints with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Maddocks, and Mallesons Stephen Jaques before joining nabCapital as head of the carbon solutions group.