Ideas for Impact - Accelerating Australia’s Energy Transition

Dr Guy Debelle is an adviser to the Investment Committee of Australian Retirement Trust and a non-executive director at Tivan. He is also co-chair of the ASFI Taxonomy Technical Experts Group developing the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy for the Australian economy.

Guy was the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 2016 until 2022 and prior to this was Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) from 2007-2016. After leaving the RBA, Guy worked at Fortescue Future Industries as CFO and non-executive director.

Dr Debelle has previously held roles at the International Monetary Fund, Bank for International Settlements and the Australian Treasury. He has been a visiting Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently an honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide.

Guy graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the University of Adelaide and gained a PhD in Economics from MIT

David Gall was appointed Group Executive, Corporate and Institutional Banking (C&IB) in October 2018.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, David has extensive experience in corporate and retail banking, working capital services, risk and payments. C&IB is a global business with teams across Australia, Asia, UK, Europe and US. Under David’s leadership, C&IB’s relationship and banking specialists provide market-leading expertise to publicly listed companies and large privately owned corporations to support their unique and sophisticated banking needs, including progressing their climate transition strategies.

David’s core focus is to bring the best of NAB to customers, helping them to prosper and contribute to both the growth of the economy and to their local communities. This vision, coupled with his passion for sustainability, underpins David’s drive for NAB to be the leading Australian bank for global renewable transactions and a pioneer in green, social, and sustainability-linked finance solutions.

David is an advocate for all banking professionals to have access to continuous learning opportunities and, as the executive sponsor of the Cultural Inc. employee resource group at NAB, he is a champion for diversity and inclusion.

Since joining NAB in 2008, David has held executive roles in Risk, Banking & Wealth Solutions and Working Capital. Prior to joining NAB, David was a Group Executive of Strategy and Retail Business at St George Bank. He is a Board member of the European Australian Business Council (EABC), a Director of Carbonplace, and a previous President and Board member of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA) and FINSIA Education.

David holds a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Business and Master of Business Administration (Exec) and is a Senior Fellow of FINSIA.

Sonya was appointed to the role of Chief Investment Officer of HESTA in July 2017 and is responsible for overseeing the $76 billion investment program on behalf of HESTA’s 1 million members (as at 28 Nov 2023).

Sonya has 20+ years’ experience in the investment management industry, including Investment Director at QIC, leading a global multi-asset team, managing diversified portfolios of $45 billion.

Sonya is a Director of the Investor Group for Climate Change, a Member of the IFM Shareholder Advisory Board, and a Board Member of the Australian Advisory Board on Technology & Healthcare Competitiveness. Sonya is an Executive Member of the Australia/NZ Chapter of Bloomberg Women’s

Buy Side Network, a Member of Chief Executive Women and a Member of the CFA Institute Research & Policy Centre Advisory Council.

Sonya holds a Masters of Applied Finance, Bachelor of Arts (Economics & Political Science), is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and is a Senior Fellow of FINSIA

Fiona McIntyre is a Partner in PwC’s – Energy Transition – M&A Deals team providing lead financial and commercial advisory services across the energy sector. 

Fiona joined PwC in 2022 and prior to this role was National Australia Bank’s Global Head of Energy & Utilities, Corporate & Institutional Banking.  In this role, Fiona was responsible for the strategy and leading the team that managed client relationships and deal activity across the energy, utilities, infrastructure and renewables sectors.  

Fiona has over 20 years of banking experience in corporate and project financing and has specialised in the energy, utilities, infrastructure and renewables sectors for the past 18 years. Fiona has been involved in many significant transactions across these sectors including greenfield development, privatisations and acquisition activity.