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Speakers 
 Mr Parveen Batish,
Director,
GM Premium Brands
Parveen Batish has enjoyed a long history with the Saab brand since joining General Motors in the United Kingdom in December 1995.
Now based in Port Melbourne, Mr Batish commenced as Director Saab Australia and New Zealand in June 2006 and has subsequently taken on the role of Director, GM Premium Brands.
He has held a number of senior sales and marketing roles with Saab Great Britain over the last 10 years, most recently General Manager – Marketing and Sales Analysis.
During this time Mr Batish was also a member of the Saab Integration and Growth team which was established to lift sales and improve the effectiveness of Saab GB.
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 Dr Cary Bloyd,
Energy and Environmental Policy Scientist,
Argonne National Laboratories
Dr. Cary Bloyd is an Energy & Environmental Policy Scientist with the Decision and Information Sciences Division of Argonne National Laboratory. He has managed and participated in a wide range of projects associated with the development and implementation of energy and environmental technologies for the US Department of Energy. Project areas have included the development of analytical models of energy systems, the analysis and development of US national energy policy, and international energy and environmental analysis with an emphasis on the linkage between energy choices and climate change and concentrating on the countries of South East Asia.
For the past twelve years he has also been supporting the US Department of Energy in implementing its Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) program in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy. He is currently serving as the Chair of the APEC Expert Group on New and Renewable Energy Technologies and on the Executive Committee of the APEC Biofuels Task Force. The Expert Group on New and Renewable Energy Technologies has implemented over 50 multi-country new and renewable energy related projects that included hydrogen codes and standards, applied remote power systems, energy storage, renewable energy resource assessments, and alternative transport fuels. Dr. Bloyd’s work includes over 50 professional publications.
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 Mr Scott Brittenham,
President & Chief Executive Officer,
Ethanol Capital Management LLC
Scott Brittenham has an extensive professional background in the investment profession. He has over 26 years of experience in the investment business. He brings to Ethanol Capital Management significant talent and experience in evaluating, structuring, and executing large, complex financial transactions.
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 Mr Richard Clarke,
Senior Vice President,
NSW Farmers' Association
Richard spent 10 years (1981-1991) as Managing Director of a large family company principally involved in broad acre farming, merino sheep and cattle grazing and an intensive piggery across 4 properties in NSW and Queensland.
With his wife Barbara, Richard now runs a 1300ha intensive grain farming business in the Moree district of NSW producing summer and winter cereals, oilseeds, legumes and dryland cotton.
Richard has a lifelong passion for agricultural research and has been a director of a number of companies involved in research, quality assurance and agricultural production.
Richard is serving his second term as Senior Vice President of NSW Farmers Association and sits on both their Grains and their Business, Economics and Trade committees.
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 Ms Lea Corbett,
Executive Director - Infrastructure,
DIIRD (Regional Development Victoria
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 Ms Wayne Cornish,
President,
South Australian Farmers' Federation
Wayne served for 19 years in Local Government, was presiding member of Eyre Peninsula Catchment Board, is a present member of Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board and a Past Trustee of the Australian Farmers Fighting Fund. At the local community level, he has served on hospital boards, animal and pest plant boards, soil boards, as well as football, tennis and recreation grounds committees.
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 Mr David Cox,
Principal,
Davco Farming
David Cox is the principal of Davco Farming has led the Australian Sugar Industry in developing technologies and machinery for irrigated broad acre sugar cane farming since his initial development of grazing land in the early 1970s and the initial sugar cane crop in 1987. Davco Farming is the largest sugarcane farming operation in the region producing in excess of 220,000 tonnes of sugarcane on a total farmed area of some 2,000 hectares.
David is also a director of Austcane Limited which is a group of Burdekin sugarcane farmers who are currently working with the Queensland Government and DEDINI INDUSTRIES of Brazil in conducting a detailed feasibility for the development of a sugarcane processing factory using the latest technology for the production of crystal sugar, fuel ethanol and green electricity for the national grid.
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 Mr Mauricio de Assis,
Consul/Trade Commissioner,
Consulate-General of Brazil
After completing a degree in International Relations, obtained from the University of Brasilia,
Mauricio commenced a diplomatic career with the Instituto Rio Branco at Brazilian Diplomatic Academy.
Since 2005 he has been Brazil’s Trade Commissioner and Deputy Consul General at the Consulate-General of Brazil in Sydney. Much of his work involves trade facilitation in ethanol between Australia and Brazil. His in depth knowledge of the establishment and working of Brazil’s ethanol industry has proved an invaluable resource in facilitating a number of current, and proposed, Australian ethanol projects which have been developed in close cooperation with major Brazilian ethanol producers.
Prior to arriving in Australia, Mauricio held the position of Second Secretary at Brazil’s Embassy in Madrid, Spain.
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 Mr Ivor Frischknecht,
Investment Director,
Starfish Ventures
Ivor Frischknecht joined Starfish Ventures in 2005 after 15 years of hands-on management and investing experience. His focus is on cleantech investments—companies that develop energy, water and environmental technologies. He also contributes considerable operational management depth in software and internet to the team.
Prior to joining Starfish, Ivor was a Director of the New Ventures Group at Idealab, a California-based firm that incubates and invests in early stage technology companies. Preceding Idealab, Ivor was a senior operating executive, including CEO, of several Silicon Valley startups in the energy technology, enterprise software and the Internet sectors. He was CEO of H2onsite, a hydrogen generation technology company, and COO of DMFCC, a micro fuel cell company. He co-founded a software company, Angara Database Systems, built it from zero to sixty employees over five years, raised US$40MM of top-tier venture capital and debt, and eventually merged it with a public company. Ivor has a strong international network of sources of capital, having secured lead investments from several top tier venture capital investors. He has helped companies grow as an independent investor, consultant and advisor, from incorporation through several rounds of financing.
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 Mr Tony Frost,
Senior Adviser - Fuel,
NZ Ministry of Transport
Tony has a Bachelor of Science in Geography and Environmental Studies with a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management. Five years ago he began working in New Zealand’s public sector on policies for the labelling and standards of appliances in coordination with Australian authorities. In 2006 he worked on secondment at the Ministry of Transport where he developed the Government’s fuel consumption website www.fuelsaver.govt.nz More recently Tony has been recruited by the Ministry to develop policies to increase New Zealand’s use of renewable transport fuels.
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Mr Jack Haley,
Policy Specialist,
NRMA
Jack has a Mechanical Engineering Degree and a Diploma in Environmental Studies. He has been with NRMA for 18 years where he has been responsible for developing policy on environmental and safety engineering issues and for presenting these policies in the media.
He has worked extensively with the motor and oil industries, various state and federal government departments, and private organisations both in Australia and overseas.
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Dr John Hewson,
Biofuels Expert
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Mr Garry Jones,
Fleet Manager,
Hyundai Motor Company
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Mr Mark Kilner,
Fuel & Energy Group,
Australian Taxation Office
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Mr Morris Lyda,
Managing Director,
The Biodiesel Station
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 Mr Peter Mansfield,
Investec Capital Markets,
Investec Bank
Peter Mansfield is head of Project & Infrastructure Finance at Investec Bank (Australia) Limited. Peter has been at Investec since it acquired the Australian banking business of Rothschild in 2006, where he was previously working. Prior to Rothschild, Peter worked at Lend Lease Corporation in a variety of project finance, corporate finance and funds management roles. Peter has underwritten and arranged project finance for numerous power, infrastructure and renewables projects including wind farms, gas and coal fired power stations, coal mine methane projects, hydro plants, water and sewage treatment plants, ports, airports, pipelines and ethanol and biodiesel facilities.
In Australia, Investec (and Rothschild prior to its acquisition) has been at the forefront of financing biofuels projects over the last few years, including arranging and/or underwriting debt finance for the Dalby ethanol project in Queensland and the Natural Fuels / Babcock & Brown biodiesel project in Darwin. Investec has also made a substantial equity investment in Global Ethanol - an Australian-owned business operating and developing ethanol projects in the US.
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Prof. John Mathews,
Professor of Management,
Macquarie School of Graduate Management
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 Mr Mark McKenzie,
Principal,
Rare Consulting
Mark McKenzie is the Managing Director of Rare Consulting, a Sydney-based consultancy providing strategic advice and public policy research on a broad range of transport and environmental issues (particularly greenhouse strategy and urban air pollution). Rare’s current clients include Commonwealth Government departments, state government agencies, energy companies, industry associations, and individual businesses.
Mark’s specific expertise relates to the economics and environmental performance of alternative fuels and alternative vehicle technologies. He is currently the national facilitator for the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Water Resource’s Alternative Fuels Conversion Programme – a programme designed to encourage the growth of greenhouse positive gas-powered engines in the Australian heavy vehicle industry.
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 Dr Deborah O'Connell,
Systems Analyst,
CSIRO Sustainable Systems
Dr Deborah O'Connell is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Canberra. She has nearly 20 years of experience working in systems analysis, hydrology, soils, farming systems, bioenergy, and spatial modelling. Over the past two years Dr O’Connell has been researching an integrated assessment framework for alternative transport fuels. Her roles in this project have included focussing on biofuels, but also leading the systems integration aspects of the work. Recently Deborah was the lead scientist in the CSIRO team that produced the recent report Biofuels in Australia – an overview of issues and prospects. The report was published by RIRDC in July 2007. She is also leading major projects assessing sustainable biomass production systems in Australia.
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Mr Lyndon Pfeffer,
President,
AgForce Grains
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 Mr Paul Quinn,
Managing Director,
Biofuels New Zealand
Paul Quinn, was the founder of Canterbury Biodiesel and has more than 15 years experience in the automotive industry. In May 2007, one of New Zealand’s major energy companies, Solid Energy acquired the business, renaming it Biodiesel New Zealand and appointed Paul as General Manager.
The company plans to increase annual production to 70 million litres within three years which will meet more than half the Government’s 2012 target for biofuels. At the time of the acquisition, Biodiesel New Zealand was producing about 1 million litres of biodiesel a year from its plant in Addington, Christchurch, by converting used cooking oil collected from restaurants and other food processing businesses in the South Island and has expanded used oil collection into the North Island.
The company is also investigating the potential for producing biodiesel from energy crops such as canola. Biodiesel’s current customers are operators of fleets, including bus, trucking and earthmoving companies which operate very high ratio blends made up of 60 to 100% biodiesel.
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 Mr Simon Ramsay,
President,
Victorian Farmers Federation
Simon Ramsay, President of the Victorian Farmers Federation since 2005, is a fourth generation farmer, who owns and manages a farm at Birregurra, running sheep, prime lambs, and cattle and raised bed cropping.
Simon is a member of the National Farmers Federation Board and is also Chair of the National Farmers Federation Biofuels Taskforce.
His family has been a member of the Victorian Farmers Federation since 1975 and during that time Simon has been actively involved with the organisation through its committees and councils.
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 Mr Michael Ridley-Smith,
National Fuels Marketing Manager,
Caltex
Michael Ridley-Smith is currently the National Fuels Marketing Manager for Caltex Australia with responsibility for marketing and sales of the 12 billion Litres of transport fuels including alternative fuels that Caltex Australia sells as well as the pricing of these products. Most recently I have been leading the development and implementation of our biofuels strategies. I have been with Caltex for over 10 years and have been fortunate to have had experience in a range of senior roles including Sales Manager Automotive and Industrial, Investor Relations Manager, CEO Special Projects Advisor, E-Commerce Manager and Legal Counsel. I originally trained as a lawyer and worked as a solicitor in private practice before joining Caltex. Qualifications include a Science degree, Law degree and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
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 Dr Stephen Schuck,
Manager,
Bioenergy Australia
Stephen Schuck has been the Bioenergy Australia Manager since mid 1997. Steve's background has been mainly in the electricity supply industry with experience in the construction industry and in consulting.
Steve graduated with a B.Sc(Engineering) cum laude in Electrical Engineering in 1974. His other academic qualifications are a Graduate Diploma in Engineering, a Graduate Diploma of Management (Technology Management), an M.Sc(Engineering), a PhD and an MBA (Technology Management).
He commenced his career at ESKOM in South Africa before taking up employment with Pacific Power in 1980, where he worked in a variety of engineering and management positions until taking up a senior management post in private industry in 1996. In 1997 he started his own consultancy, Stephen Schuck and Associates, in which he specialises in sustainable energy sources. He spends most of his time managing the Bioenergy Australia.
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 Mr Terry Sheales,
Chief Commodity Analyst,
ABARE
As chief commodity analyst, Terry Sheales is responsible for ABARE’s commodity market analysis and forecasts. In this role, he oversights the quarterly release of forecasts in ABARE’s journal, Australian Commodities, and also convenes the national OUTLOOK conference each March and regional OUTLOOK conferences across Australia during the year.
For much of his professional career, Terry has worked on domestic and international marketing and trade policy issues affecting Australia’s commodity industries. In 2005-06 Terry headed the Secretariat that produced the ‘Corish Report’ on agriculture and food policy that is currently being used in the development of Australian Government policies for the sector.
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 Ms Fiona Wain,
Chief Executive Officer,
Environment Business Australia
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