50 Essential Thought Leaders in Energy and Utilities in ANZ

Last updated: June 2026

The most useful thing any leader working in or alongside Australia's and New Zealand's energy and utilities sectors can do right now is build a serious reading and following list. Not the broadest list. Not the most famous names. The people who are actually shaping how gas, water, electricity, and multi-energy businesses are navigating one of the most consequential transitions in the history of both countries. As of June 2026, Australia's energy system is changing at a pace no one anticipated five years ago, its water sector is under simultaneous pressure from record rainfall, long-term drought risk, and population growth, and New Zealand is grappling with declining indigenous gas supply, surging electricity demand, and an infrastructure investment challenge whose political dimensions make it genuinely difficult to solve.

This list brings together 50 voices from Australia and New Zealand who are actively contributing to the energy and utilities conversation in 2026. It is a broad list by design. "Energy and utilities" covers more ground than electricity alone. It includes the gas networks that still heat millions of homes and power industrial processes that cannot run on solar panels. It includes the water utilities that serve every household and business in the country and are quietly facing one of the most complex planning challenges in their histories. It includes the CEOs of the large integrated energy companies managing coal retirement, renewable investment, and retail customer relationships simultaneously. It includes the peak bodies, the regulators, the researchers, and the advocates who are shaping the institutional framework in which all of that commercial activity happens.

The list deliberately moves past a handful of names that appear on every list to surface the leaders who genuinely deserve to be far better known outside industry circles. This directory was compiled based on documented contribution through published work, regulatory engagement, journalism, speaking, or operational leadership; active public engagement with sector issues in 2025 or 2026; and deliberate inclusion of voices from across the full breadth of the sector, including gas, water, and New Zealand market voices that are frequently underrepresented.

If your organisation works in the energy and utilities sector and needs help with the leadership dimensions of that work, including how teams make difficult decisions together and how senior teams build the trust needed to move fast in a complex environment, Jonno White works with leadership teams across corporate, government, and not-for-profit organisations. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Energy and Utilities Matters Now

The Australian and New Zealand energy and utilities sectors are not in transition. They are in transformation, which is considerably harder. Australia's NEM surpassed 52.4 percent renewables in Q4 2025, a genuinely extraordinary milestone for a grid built around coal. But that milestone sits alongside structural challenges: 6,000 kilometres of new transmission lines that need to be built, a gas sector being asked to provide firming capacity for a renewable system while simultaneously facing pressure to decarbonise, a water sector planning for climate futures that diverge sharply from historical patterns, and utility businesses whose models are being disrupted from every direction at once.

The IEA's Electricity 2026 report forecasts that global electricity demand will grow at an average annual rate of 3.6 percent through 2030, fifty percent faster than the previous decade. In Australia, that demand signal is compounded by data centre growth, manufacturing reshoring, and transport electrification. In New Zealand, declining indigenous gas production has introduced a supply vulnerability that the country's highly renewable electricity system cannot fully absorb without new investment in firming capacity and infrastructure.

Australia's water sector, meanwhile, is navigating a capital expenditure challenge that AWA CEO Corinne Cheeseman described at the end of 2025 as a situation where transformation cannot be measured in single years. The combination of climate-driven volatility in supply, population-driven growth in demand, ageing infrastructure, and affordability pressure is creating a planning environment unlike anything the sector has previously faced.

For executives, investors, policy makers, and practitioners trying to understand what is actually happening and what comes next, the 50 people on this list are among the most credible guides available. For organisations that want help building the internal leadership capability to act on what the best thinking says, Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, facilitates working sessions, executive offsites, and keynotes for teams across the energy and utilities sector. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, documented contribution to the energy and utilities sector in Australia or New Zealand through published research, regulatory engagement, journalism, operational leadership, or sustained public commentary on sector issues in 2025 or 2026. Second, deliberate differentiation from the already-published list of 40 thought leaders in electricity in ANZ: none of the 40 people in that list appear here. Third, the inclusion of voices from across the full breadth of the sector, including gas networks, water utilities, LNG and gas exploration, multi-energy retailers and generators, hydrogen and renewable gas, utility sector peak bodies, and New Zealand's distinct energy and gas landscape.

The Large Integrated Energy Companies

Australia's integrated energy companies are managing more complexity than almost any other class of organisation in the country. They are simultaneously retiring legacy coal and gas generation, building renewable and storage capacity, managing retail customer relationships for millions of households, and navigating a regulatory environment that is changing faster than most planning cycles can absorb. The leaders running these organisations are among the most consequential voices in the sector, and their choices on capital allocation, technology investment, and stakeholder engagement shape the environment that everyone else operates within.

1. Damien Nicks

Australia's largest private electricity generator and one of its largest retailers is run by a person who has spent more than a decade building deep commercial knowledge of the energy transition from the inside. As Managing Director and CEO of AGL Energy since January 2023, Damien Nicks oversees a portfolio spanning coal, gas, hydro, wind, and batteries alongside a retail business serving millions of Australian households, with revenue of A$14.39 billion in 2025.

Nicks has been one of the most active voices in Australia's energy policy conversation, serving as Chair of the Australian Energy Council and representing the industry's perspective on the pace and design of the transition. His public communications on AGL's 500 MW Liddell Battery and AGL's target of approximately 5 GW of new renewables and firming capacity by 2030 provide a practitioner's account of what energy transition looks like from inside one of the largest portfolios in the country.

2. Frank Calabria

Frank Calabria has been CEO of Origin Energy since 2016 and is one of the longest-serving leaders of a major integrated energy company in Australia. Under his leadership, Origin has navigated the coal retirement question at Eraring power station in New South Wales while simultaneously investing in renewable development, the Loop virtual power plant platform, and LNG assets through its stake in Australia Pacific LNG.

Calabria's opening keynote at the AEC Conference 2026 addressed Origin's investment in new technologies and its approach to the energy transition, demonstrating a willingness to engage publicly with the tensions inherent in managing a business that spans legacy generation and a renewable development pipeline. His decade of managing one of the most complex portfolios in the sector makes him one of the most substantively informed voices on what integration of the old and new energy systems actually requires.

3. Catherine Tanna

Catherine Tanna is Managing Director of EnergyAustralia, a major electricity and gas retailer and generator with operations spanning New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland. A veteran of the energy sector across multiple jurisdictions and decades, she has been one of the most senior women in Australian energy leadership. Her work at EnergyAustralia has included navigating the company's path through the Yallourn coal closure in Victoria and managing the commercial and regulatory dimensions of the transition under Chinese parent company CLP Group.

Tanna has been a consistent public voice on energy affordability, reliability, and the investment environment needed to sustain the transition. Her engagement at industry conferences and in media commentary provides an integrated perspective on the retail and generation dimensions of the energy transition that is shaped by direct operational experience of running a large asset base through structural change.

4. Kevin Gallagher

Kevin Gallagher has been Managing Director and CEO of Santos since 2016, making him one of the most experienced gas sector leaders in Australia. Under his leadership, Santos has grown from a domestic gas producer into one of the largest independent natural gas and liquids producers in the Asia-Pacific, executing mergers with Oil Search and acquisitions of Quadrant Energy and ConocoPhillips' Australia-West business that built the current portfolio.

Gallagher has positioned Santos as a central voice in the argument that gas will play a critical role in delivering energy security through the energy transition to net zero. His presentation at the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook 2026 conference addressed why energy security comes down to supply, investment, and scale. His leadership of Australia's first large-scale onshore carbon capture and storage project at Moomba, with a capacity to store 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year, makes him a key figure in the debate about whether CCS can be a genuine part of the Australian decarbonisation pathway.

5. Meg O'Neill

Meg O'Neill is Managing Director and CEO of Woodside Energy, Australia's largest oil and gas company, a position she has held since 2021. Prior to becoming CEO, she served as Chief Operations Officer, having joined from ExxonMobil where she held senior leadership roles across exploration, development, and marketing. As CEO, she has led Woodside through its merger with BHP's petroleum business in 2022, creating a significantly larger global energy company.

O'Neill has engaged substantively with the energy transition question from the perspective of an oil and gas major, arguing that LNG will remain essential for energy security in the Asia-Pacific through the transition. Her CERAWeek presentations and public speeches have addressed the investment environment for new LNG supply, the role of carbon offsets and reduction programmes in Woodside's strategy, and the company's approach to the Scarborough LNG project in Western Australia, making her one of the most prominent voices on the intersection of energy security and climate in the Australian context.

The Gas Networks and Infrastructure Leaders

Gas infrastructure sits at the intersection of the energy transition debate in ways that are often poorly understood in public commentary. The networks delivering gas to households and industrial users are long-lived assets whose future depends on whether gas continues to play a role in heating, industrial process heat, and electricity firming, and increasingly on whether those networks can carry hydrogen or biomethane instead of natural gas. The leaders running and thinking about these assets are working through questions that will have consequences for decades.

6. Adam Watson

Adam Watson is CEO and Managing Director of APA Group, Australia's largest natural gas infrastructure company, transporting approximately half of Australia's domestic gas supply through a portfolio spanning pipelines, storage, generation, and energy services assets across all states and territories. He was appointed CEO and MD in December 2022, having joined APA in November 2020 as Chief Financial Officer.

Watson has been one of the most active voices making the case for gas as a critical energy source through the transition and beyond. His presentation at the Macquarie Group Australia Conference in 2026 addressed the expanded need for gas transmission, storage, and contracted power generation to support the energy transition. His communications have included the progressive development of the Sturt Plateau Pipeline in the Northern Territory, a 37-kilometre project connecting to the Amadeus Gas Pipeline that represents the first step in the development of the Beetaloo Basin.

7. Phaedra Deckart

Phaedra Deckart is CEO of the Solstice Energy Group, including Tas Gas Networks, the electricity retailer and gas network distributor and largest gas retailer in Tasmania. She is the first female CEO of Solstice Energy and is a Director on the Board of Energy Networks Australia. With more than 25 years of experience in domestic and global energy markets, including senior executive roles at AGL and Santos, she is one of Australia's strongest advocates for the ongoing role of gas in the energy transition alongside the development of renewable gases.

Deckart has led Solstice Energy's transformation from a gas-focused utility into a diversified energy business, including its entry into the Tasmanian electricity retail market in 2024. Her work on renewable gas, including Tasmania's domestic hydrogen and biomethane development, and her advocacy for the industrial uses of gas that cannot easily be electrified, make her one of the most thoughtful voices on what a just transition looks like for households and industries that depend on gas. She is a member of the Champions of Change Energy Group.

8. David Gillespie

David Gillespie is Managing Director of Jemena, the energy infrastructure company that owns and operates electricity distribution networks in New South Wales and gas distribution and transmission infrastructure across New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia. His leadership of Jemena through the current regulatory submission process for its 2026-31 electricity distribution pricing and services plan, which received AER approval, represents one of the most consequential regulatory milestones for New South Wales electricity consumers in the current period.

Gillespie's engagement with Jemena's customer base through an 18-month consultation process for the gas networks business plan has been cited as a model for how regulated utilities can genuinely involve customers in long-term planning. His public commentary summarising that engagement for customers demonstrates a leadership approach that treats community engagement as a genuine input rather than a compliance obligation.

9. Craig de Laine

Craig de Laine is CEO of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), the privately-owned infrastructure company that owns and operates the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline, Multinet Gas Networks in Victoria, and Australian Gas Networks across South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory. AGIG collectively distributes natural gas to more than 1.3 million customers across Australia.

De Laine has been a consistent voice in the debate about the long-term role of gas distribution networks and the pathway to renewable gas. He has spoken publicly about AGIG's Hydrogen Park South Australia project, where up to a 10 percent volume blend of renewable hydrogen with natural gas is delivered to approximately 3,800 homes and businesses in the Tonsley Innovation District, making it Australia's first such commercial hydrogen blending delivery. His advocacy for a technology-neutral approach to gas network regulation reflects the investment decisions that will determine whether existing assets can be repurposed rather than stranded.

10. Colin Brooks

Colin Brooks has been CEO of Energy Networks Australia since 2014, making him the longest-serving leader of the national peak body representing gas distribution and electricity transmission and distribution businesses throughout Australia. Energy Networks Australia's members provide energy to virtually every household and business in the country, and Brooks has been the principal industry representative in the regulatory and policy debates that have reshaped how network businesses operate.

Brooks has been particularly influential in the debate about network revenue regulation, the integration of distributed energy resources into network planning, and the infrastructure investment needed to support the energy transition. His engagement with the AEMC on rule changes and his regular commentary on the investment environment for network businesses makes him one of the most informed voices on the regulatory and commercial dimensions of energy network development in Australia.

The Water Utility Leaders

Australia's water sector is navigating a set of challenges that are simultaneously more complex and less visible to the public than the energy sector's transformation. The combination of climate-driven volatility in supply, population-driven growth in demand, ageing infrastructure, and affordability pressure is creating a planning environment unlike anything the sector has previously faced. The leaders running major water utilities and the peak bodies representing them are among the most practically important voices in Australian infrastructure.

11. Corinne Cheeseman

Corinne Cheeseman is CEO of the Australian Water Association, the peak member-based organisation for Australia's water sector. She has worked in the water industry for more than 25 years, beginning her career in Sydney Water's water quality testing laboratories and subsequently holding roles at AWA, Sydney Water, and PwC before returning to lead the AWA in 2020. Her work spans data strategy, member engagement, and the advocacy and policy dimensions of building a sustainable water future for Australia.

Cheeseman has been the most consistent public voice on the strategic challenges facing Australia's water sector as it moves through 2025 and into 2026, including the skills shortage, the capital investment question, and the role of Indigenous water knowledge in long-term planning. Her description of sector transformation as something that cannot be measured in single years captures the generational nature of the infrastructure and cultural change the sector is being asked to deliver. Under her leadership, AWA's Ozwater'26 in Brisbane addressed recycled water, desalination readiness, and sector resilience.

12. Darren Cleary

Darren Cleary became Managing Director of Sydney Water in November 2025, joining after five years as Managing Director of Hunter Water. Sydney Water is Australia's largest water utility, serving more than five million people across greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and the Illawarra. His tenure at Hunter Water included overseeing the development of the Lower Hunter Water Security Plan and commencing construction of the Belmont Desalination Plant, the region's first new water source in thirty years.

Cleary's move to Sydney Water at a moment when the utility faces significant capital investment decisions around future water security, population growth infrastructure, and the management of ageing assets makes him one of the most consequential infrastructure leaders in Australia. His demonstrated record on water security planning and desalination infrastructure at Hunter Water provides directly applicable experience for the scale of challenge Sydney Water faces.

13. Nerina Di Lorenzo

Dr Nerina Di Lorenzo is Managing Director of Melbourne Water, the Victorian government statutory authority responsible for water supply, sewerage, rivers, and major drainage systems for metropolitan Melbourne. She became the organisation's first female Managing Director in 2021, having joined Melbourne Water in 2019 as Executive General Manager of Service Delivery. She holds a PhD in organisational change management from La Trobe University.

Di Lorenzo's leadership of Melbourne Water through a period of significant capital investment, climate adaptation, and organisational transformation has made her one of the most prominent water sector leaders in Australia. Melbourne Water's responsibilities across the full water cycle, from catchment management through to sewerage and waterway health, give her a uniquely comprehensive operational perspective on the water-climate nexus that is becoming central to planning across all Australian cities.

14. Pat Donovan

Pat Donovan is CEO of Water Corporation, the Western Australian government utility responsible for providing water, wastewater, and drainage services to more than 1.6 million Western Australians. He holds a Bachelor of Business and an Executive MBA and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Water Corporation's challenge in Western Australia is particularly acute: declining rainfall in the south-west of the state has been driving progressive reduction in dam inflows since the mid-1970s, requiring substantial investment in desalination and groundwater infrastructure to maintain supply.

Donovan's leadership of Water Corporation through this long-run climate adaptation challenge has made it one of the global reference cases for how a major water utility responds to permanent reductions in rainfall. His engagement with government on the investment framework needed to secure Western Australia's water future provides a perspective on utility management under climate stress that is increasingly relevant to water utilities across the country.

15. Anna Jackson

Anna Jackson is CEO of Unitywater, the regional Queensland water utility serving more than 800,000 people across the Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, and Noosa regions. Her leadership model, which she described at a strategy and innovation forum in 2026 with the motto "nothing lasts forever," reflects a practical orientation toward adaptive management in an environment where both supply and demand conditions are changing. Unitywater operates in one of Australia's fastest-growing population corridors, creating a capital investment challenge that does not have a stable planning baseline.

Jackson has been an active presence in the AWA community and at sector events focused on innovation and customer experience. Her work on building a culture of adaptive leadership at Unitywater, in an organisation that must simultaneously manage rapid growth infrastructure while maintaining service quality and affordability, represents one of the more challenging management environments in the Australian water sector.

16. Adam Lovell

Adam Lovell is Executive Director of the Water Services Association of Australia, the peak body representing urban water utilities across Australia and New Zealand, a position he has held since 2011. Prior to this role, he developed an extensive water industry career including roles at Anglian Water in the United Kingdom, the University of Sydney, and Sydney Water, primarily in research and innovation. WSAA's members provide water and sewerage services to over 24 million customers.

Lovell provides national leadership on policy positions for the Australian water sector on issues including industry reform, water security and quality, climate change, customer and community engagement, and First Nations water services. His more than a decade of leadership at WSAA has made him one of the most connected and experienced advocates for the urban water sector in Australia. His work on the WSAA's research programmes and industry benchmarking has built a body of evidence that underpins how utilities make investment and performance decisions.

17. Danielle Francis

Danielle Francis is Manager of Customer and Policy at the Water Services Association of Australia. She won the 2026 Water Professional of the Year Award at Ozwater'26 for her transformative strategic leadership and advocacy in safe and reliable water supplies supported by good policy frameworks. One of her most notable achievements has been advancing the case for purified recycled water for drinking, navigating the complex technical, regulatory, and community acceptance dimensions of what remains one of the most contested policy questions in Australian water management.

Francis represents a generation of water sector leaders whose work is simultaneously technical and political, requiring both deep domain knowledge and the communication and advocacy skills to shift public and regulatory frameworks. Her work on purified recycled water policy is particularly significant because it addresses one of the most durable challenges in Australian water security: how to reduce dependence on catchment-dependent supply in a climate that is becoming less predictable.

18. Declan Clausen

Declan Clausen is Group Manager of Strategy and External Affairs at Hunter Water and a Newcastle City Councillor. He was named Young Water Professional of the Year at the 2026 NSW Water Awards. As an environmental engineer and civic leader, Clausen works at the intersection of water sector strategy, community engagement, and local government, bringing a perspective that connects the operational decisions of a regional water utility to the communities they serve.

His dual role in the water sector and local government gives him an unusual vantage point on how water infrastructure decisions are experienced by the communities that depend on them. His advocacy on inclusion and water's role in building resilient and equitable communities reflects the equity dimension of water sector planning that is often underrepresented in technical and regulatory discourse.

19. Paul Arnold

Paul Arnold is CEO of Urban Utilities, the water and wastewater distributor-retailer serving more than 1.5 million people across south-east Queensland, including Brisbane, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim, and Somerset. He delivered a keynote at the Unitywater Strategy and Innovation Forum in 2026 and served as a panel member at Ozwater'26, reflecting on the water transition in south-east Queensland and the planning challenges facing one of Australia's fastest-growing urban regions.

Arnold's management of a utility that must simultaneously plan for the water security of a rapidly expanding population, manage ageing infrastructure across a large geographic area, and navigate Queensland government policy directions on water security and pricing represents one of the most complex operational leadership environments in the Australian water sector. His engagement in national sector events provides a Queensland-specific perspective on the infrastructure investment and planning challenges that are national in their implications.

The Gas Exploration and LNG Leaders

Australia is one of the world's largest LNG exporters, and the gas exploration and production sector underpinning that position is navigating a set of strategic questions about future investment, carbon performance, and the long-term role of gas in a decarbonising world. The leaders of the major exploration and production companies are among the most consequential figures in the national and regional energy conversation, and their public engagement on energy security, investment frameworks, and the economics of the transition deserves attention from any serious follower of Australian energy.

20. Cecilia Wake

Cecilia Wake is Country Chair and Executive Vice President for Integrated Gas Australia at Shell, one of the world's largest LNG producers and a major participant in the Australian gas market through its partnership interests in the North West Shelf, Prelude FLNG, and QGC assets. Her testimony to the Senate Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources in April 2026 placed Shell's perspective on gas taxation and investment certainty in the public record at a critical moment for the sector's regulatory environment.

Wake's role at the intersection of one of the world's largest energy companies and the Australian regulatory and policy environment makes her a consequential voice on the international investment dimensions of Australia's gas sector. Shell's decision-making on Australian gas assets is shaped by global portfolio considerations as well as domestic policy settings, and Wake's communications provide insight into how one of the sector's largest international players is thinking about Australia's investment environment.

The Hydrogen and Renewable Gas Leaders

Hydrogen and renewable gas represent the most contested frontier of the energy and utilities sector in Australia and New Zealand. Whether green hydrogen can compete on cost, whether existing gas networks can carry hydrogen at commercial scale, and whether government investment in hydrogen industry development will yield the projected returns are among the most consequential strategic questions in the sector. The voices actively working on these questions rather than just commenting on them are the most valuable to follow.

21. Darren Miller

Darren Miller has been CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency since 2018, with his third three-year term commencing in August 2024. ARENA's role in funding the research and demonstration projects that will determine whether green hydrogen can compete economically in Australian and international markets makes it one of the most consequential institutions in the hydrogen debate. Under Miller's leadership, ARENA committed $540 million to sixty projects in a single financial year.

Miller's public communications on ARENA's project investments in hydrogen, long-duration storage, and industrial decarbonisation provide the most direct window available into what the public sector is actually funding and what it expects from those investments. His emphasis on extending the energy transition beyond the obvious technologies into the harder-to-decarbonise sectors of the economy gives his public commentary a practical relevance that is not always present in more broadly framed climate or energy policy commentary.

22. Alan Finkel AC

Alan Finkel AC is one of the most respected scientists and public intellectuals in Australia, having served as Australia's Chief Scientist from 2016 to 2020. During that period he led the review of the National Electricity Market that produced the National Energy Guarantee framework, and he was appointed Australia's Special Adviser on Low Emissions Technology. His 2021 book "Getting to Zero" made the case for hydrogen as a central element of Australia's decarbonisation pathway and remains one of the most widely cited references in the Australian energy conversation.

Finkel continues to be an active voice on hydrogen strategy, low emissions technology, and Australia's path to net zero through public speaking, media commentary, and advisory roles. His combination of scientific credibility, policy design experience, and communication skill gives him a standing in the energy transition debate that very few other Australian voices can match. His willingness to engage with the difficult questions about when and whether specific technologies can deliver at commercial scale makes his commentary more useful than much of the advocacy-driven hydrogen discourse.

23. Leigh Staines

Leigh Staines is Managing Director of Banksia Minerals, a company developing an electrochemical process to enable lower-emissions production of critical energy minerals, including copper, from low-grade resources. She received up to $5 million in ARENA funding in early 2026 to support the development of a copper production pilot plant. Her background spans large corporations and clean energy startups, and her perspective on what leadership across these environments requires reflects a practical wisdom about innovation management that is directly relevant to the hydrogen and clean energy sector.

Staines has been highlighted by ARENA as an example of the women leading the energy transition in Australia. Her focus on sustainable high performance in technically demanding environments, and her practical comments on the importance of bringing others along through complexity, make her commentary on the human dimensions of innovation-driven organisations particularly useful for senior leaders working in similar contexts.

The Water and Energy Regulators

The regulatory framework governing both water and energy utilities in Australia and New Zealand is among the most consequential institutional infrastructure in both countries. The people running the regulatory bodies that set network revenues, enforce market rules, and design the frameworks within which utilities operate are making decisions with decade-long consequences for consumers and investors. Their engagement in public debate and consultation processes provides the most direct window into how the institutional framework is evolving.

24. Andrew Dillon

Andrew Dillon is the Chief Executive of the Essential Services Commission of Victoria, the independent regulator of essential services including electricity, gas, water, and transport in Victoria. The ESC's role in setting price and service standards for regulated utilities, and in enforcing the consumer protection framework governing energy retailers, makes it one of the most important regulatory institutions in the country. Dillon's leadership of the ESC through significant regulatory reform in both energy and water has required engaging simultaneously with technical network regulation complexity and the political dimension of affordability and consumer protection.

Victoria's regulatory environment, which includes some of the most advanced consumer protection frameworks in the country, has been shaped in part by the ESC's willingness to engage with complex policy questions about tariff reform, hardship obligations, and the design of new products and services in a distributed energy environment. His commentary on these questions provides a regulator's perspective that is valuable for practitioners navigating the Victorian market.

25. Murray Josiffe

Murray Josiffe is Chief Executive of the Commerce Commission of New Zealand, the Crown entity responsible for regulating infrastructure and competition across New Zealand's economy, including electricity and gas networks. The Commission's Electricity Distribution Services Input Methodologies Review, which is shaping how New Zealand's electricity distribution networks are regulated for the next decade, is one of the most consequential regulatory processes in the country's energy sector.

His leadership of the Commission through this and other significant reviews positions him as one of the key architects of the regulatory environment in which New Zealand's energy transition is occurring. His engagement with the complex policy questions at the intersection of economic regulation and the infrastructure investment challenge facing New Zealand's networks reflects the broader challenge of ensuring that regulated returns are sufficient to attract capital for transformation while remaining affordable for consumers.

26. Nicola Hodgson

Nicola Hodgson has been Chief Executive of the New Zealand Electricity Authority since 2021. The Electricity Authority is the independent statutory body responsible for promoting competition in, reliable supply by, and the efficient operation of the electricity industry for the long-term benefit of consumers. Her leadership of the Authority through significant market reform, including the implementation of mandatory non-discrimination obligations on the large gentailers, has placed her at the centre of the most contested market design debate in the New Zealand electricity sector.

Hodgson's public commentary on the market structure issues facing New Zealand's electricity sector, and her engagement with the government's response to the dry-year risk crisis of 2024, provide a regulator's perspective on the tension between competitive market design and the reliability obligations that are essential in a small market with high hydro dependence.

The Peak Body and Advocacy Leaders

Peak bodies and advocacy organisations shape the terms of the public debate about energy and utilities in ways that are often underappreciated. The individuals leading these organisations are strategists who are constantly negotiating between the interests of their members, the requirements of regulators and governments, and the expectations of the public. Their public communications, regulatory submissions, and media commentary represent some of the most direct windows into how the sector is thinking about its own future.

27. Tara Burns

Tara Burns is CEO of the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association, the peak industry body for the pipeline industry. APGA represents the owners and operators of high-pressure natural gas, oil, and liquid pipelines across Australia, and Burns has been a consistent advocate for the pipeline sector's role in the energy transition, including the use of existing gas pipeline infrastructure for hydrogen and other low-carbon gases.

Her public commentary on pipeline regulation, gas market design, and the economics of gas infrastructure investment provides a perspective that is often absent from energy debates that focus on generation and retail. The pipeline sector's contribution to the energy transition debate, including through Burns' advocacy for a policy framework that allows gas infrastructure to carry low-carbon gases over time, reflects the infrastructure investment decisions that will determine whether existing assets can be repurposed rather than stranded.

28. Richie Merzian

Richie Merzian is Executive Director of Beyond Zero Emissions, the Melbourne-based think tank that has been producing influential technical and economic blueprints for Australia's decarbonisation pathway since its founding in 2004. BZE's reports on the economics of renewable energy, industrial decarbonisation, and the zero-carbon built environment have been cited in government policy processes, academic literature, and media coverage across the country.

Merzian's background includes diplomatic and policy roles, and his leadership of BZE has shaped the organisation's growing engagement with the political and policy dimensions of the energy transition. His LinkedIn and public commentary on the gap between Australia's stated climate commitments and the policy settings needed to achieve them make him one of the most direct voices in the Australian energy transition advocacy landscape.

29. Tony Wood

Tony Wood is Energy Program Director at the Grattan Institute, one of Australia's most respected independent policy research institutions. His work on energy policy analysis, including assessments of Australia's energy market design, the economics of the energy transition, and the policy frameworks needed to achieve decarbonisation, has been influential in shaping the evidence base for energy policy debates at the federal and state level.

Wood's energy analysis reports, which are free and publicly accessible, have a reach beyond the specialist energy community because the Grattan Institute's reputation for rigour gives them credibility with policymakers and media that independent analyst reports often lack. His willingness to engage with the politically contested dimensions of energy policy, including assessments of the trade-offs between reliability, cost, and emissions, makes him one of the most useful voices to follow for anyone trying to understand the policy environment.

30. John Knox

John Knox is CEO of ActewAGL, the multi-utility joint venture providing electricity retailing and distribution, natural gas, and telecommunications services to customers in the Australian Capital Territory and south-east New South Wales. ActewAGL is owned by Icon Water, AGL Energy, and Jemena, and serves one of Australia's most distinctive utility markets where a small, relatively affluent urban customer base sits alongside a large Commonwealth government institution.

His work in navigating ActewAGL's position within the ACT Government's ambitious net zero policy environment, which includes strong incentives for electrification and building efficiency, makes ActewAGL one of the most revealing case studies in how a community-facing multi-utility manages a customer base that is actively transitioning away from gas. His leadership of a business spanning both electricity and gas services, in a jurisdiction with an unusually clear net zero direction, provides a practical perspective on multi-commodity utility management at the consumer interface.

The New Zealand Energy and Utilities Leaders

New Zealand's energy and utilities sector faces a distinct set of challenges from its Australian counterpart. The electricity system is already highly renewable, with generation from hydro, geothermal, and wind typically supplying around 80 to 90 percent of demand. But declining indigenous gas production is creating a supply vulnerability that the electricity system cannot easily absorb, the large gentailers face persistent questions about market concentration and pricing, and the infrastructure investment needed to facilitate electrification and renewable development is running into political and regulatory headwinds. The voices in this category are doing the work of thinking through what New Zealand's energy future looks like.

31. Mike Fuge

Mike Fuge has been CEO of Contact Energy since March 2020, having previously led Pacific Hydro and Refining NZ and held senior roles at Genesis Energy and Royal Dutch Shell Group. Contact Energy is New Zealand's second-largest electricity generator, with a significant geothermal portfolio near Taupō, hydroelectric assets on the Clutha River, and natural gas backup generation, as well as an active retail business across electricity, gas, broadband, and LPG. Fuge was one of the signatories of the Energy Transition Framework launched in 2025, which committed New Zealand's energy sector to collective action and transparency as the country's energy system undergoes structural change.

Contact's acquisition of Manawa Energy has significantly expanded Fuge's portfolio and his organisation's strategic options in the New Zealand market. His public commentary on the difficulty of balancing investment in the energy system of the future against the immediate needs of ordinary New Zealand homes and businesses captures the central tension in New Zealand's energy transition: how to build a secure and sustainable system while ensuring that the costs of doing so are distributed fairly.

32. Stewart Hamilton

Stewart Hamilton has been CEO of Mercury NZ since September 2024, having served as Executive General Manager of Generation since 2021, and before that as CEO of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters. Mercury is New Zealand's largest electricity retailer and generates almost all of its electricity from renewable sources, primarily nine hydro stations on the Waikato River and five geothermal plants in the central North Island.

Hamilton has been publicly active on Mercury's ambitions for the New Zealand electricity market, including the company's agreement with Datagrid New Zealand to supply renewable energy for what would be New Zealand's first artificial intelligence data centre campus, a 140 MW renewable energy agreement in Southland. His commentary on what this kind of demand growth means for New Zealand's electricity investment outlook reflects a commercially grounded perspective on how large demand growth interacts with New Zealand's existing renewable generation capacity.

33. Malcolm Johns

Malcolm Johns has been CEO of Genesis Energy since 2023, having previously been CEO of Christchurch Airport. Genesis is one of New Zealand's largest electricity generators and retailers, with significant gas and LNG activities alongside its electricity business. Malcolm is Convenor of the Climate Leaders Coalition and served as Chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council's task force on climate change and regional trade policy, bringing an unusual breadth of governance and policy experience to the leadership of a major utility.

His leadership of Genesis through the current energy market uncertainty in New Zealand, which includes the debate about LNG import infrastructure and the company's own gas and electricity strategy, has required navigating some of the most complex commercial and reputational trade-offs in the New Zealand business community. His Climate Leaders Coalition role gives him a public platform on climate and energy that extends beyond his company's commercial interests.

34. Dmitry Gafiyatulin

Dmitry Gafiyatulin is Director of Reliance Utilities, a New Zealand energy advisory and management company that works with commercial and industrial customers on energy market participation. His November 2025 market insight publication on New Zealand's energy reforms, covering LNG plans, the Electricity Authority's expanded oversight powers, and government backing for new generation, demonstrated deep market knowledge and a willingness to engage publicly with the complexity of New Zealand's energy reform agenda in accessible terms.

His perspective as an independent market participant and advisor provides a view of the New Zealand energy market that is less constrained by the institutional positions of the large utilities and regulators. His analysis of the Frontier Economics energy resilience report and its implications for New Zealand has reached a commercially focused readership that values independent analytical assessment of a market that is undergoing significant structural change.

35. David Vinsen

David Vinsen is Chief Executive of the Motor Industry Association of New Zealand and one of the country's most prominent voices on electric vehicle adoption and the intersection of the transport and energy sectors. His leadership of the industry body through New Zealand's transition toward greater EV adoption, including engagement with the policy framework around clean car imports and the infrastructure requirements for electrified transport, makes him a valuable voice on demand-side developments in the New Zealand energy sector.

The integration of transport electrification into New Zealand's electricity system planning is one of the most consequential medium-term challenges in the sector, and Vinsen's combination of industry advocacy and policy engagement provides a perspective on how the transport sector is positioning itself in the energy transition that is not easily obtained from electricity or utility-focused commentary alone.

The Researchers and Academics

Some of the most important thinking on the future of Australia's and New Zealand's energy and utilities sectors is happening in universities, government research agencies, and independent research organisations. The academics and researchers in this category are building the evidence base that the rest of the sector depends on, often working on time horizons and at levels of analytical rigour that commercial organisations cannot easily replicate.

36. Stuart White

Stuart White is Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, one of Australia's leading research institutes on sustainability, resource efficiency, and the transitions needed to achieve a more sustainable future. His research encompasses water, energy, and urban systems, and his work on the water-energy nexus, including the energy intensity of water supply and the water requirements of energy production, reflects the systems thinking essential for understanding the interdependencies between these sectors.

White has been an active participant in Australian water and energy policy discussions, contributing research that informs both the technical design of infrastructure systems and the policy frameworks governing them. His combination of academic rigour and practical policy engagement makes him one of the most useful researchers to follow for leaders working at the intersection of water, energy, and urban systems.

37. Katherine Daniell

Professor Katherine Daniell is a Professor at the Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society, where she researches collaborative governance, water policy, and the participatory approaches that shape how communities and governments make decisions about shared resources. Her work on the human dimensions of water management, including how community engagement processes are designed and whether they genuinely shape outcomes, addresses one of the most persistent tensions in water sector governance.

Daniell's research on the governance dimensions of water policy, and her engagement with international and Australian policy processes, make her one of the most valuable academic voices on how the institutional and community dimensions of water management interact with the technical and commercial dimensions that dominate most sector discourse.

38. Ketan Joshi

Ketan Joshi is an energy and climate analyst and writer whose commentary on energy transition dynamics in Australia and globally has been widely shared in policy and advocacy circles. He gave evidence to the Australian Senate Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources in April 2026. His book "Windfall" examined the dynamics of the Australian wind energy debate and the misinformation patterns that have shaped it, and his subsequent writing has addressed the broader dynamics of how fossil fuel interests engage with the public debate about energy transition.

Joshi's analytical perspective on the energy transition, including his work on the role of gas industry lobbying in shaping Australian policy, provides a critical counterpoint to the industry-facing voices that dominate much energy sector commentary. For practitioners who want to understand the information environment in which energy policy is made, rather than just the technical and commercial dimensions, his work is one of the most valuable resources available.

The Investors, Innovators, and Multi-Sector Voices

Some of the most consequential voices in the energy and utilities sector are not primarily associated with any single commodity or service. They are the infrastructure investors, multi-sector operators, innovators, and financing bodies whose capital allocation decisions shape the sector's physical form over decades. Understanding how they are thinking about investment, risk, and return is essential for understanding where the sector is heading.

39. Nicola Falcon

Nicola Falcon is Executive General Manager for Western Australia at AEMO, the Australian Energy Market Operator. She brings more than 25 years of experience in energy sectors in Australia and overseas, with a focus on systems thinking, leading through transformational change, and building high-performing diverse and inclusive teams. Her role at AEMO in Western Australia positions her at the centre of how the Wholesale Electricity Market is navigating its own transition, a process that is structurally distinct from the NEM but shares many of the same challenges around integrating renewables and managing system security.

Falcon was a speaker at the IEEE PES AUPEC 2025 Leadership Forum on Energy Transition in Brisbane, addressing the challenge of ensuring Australia's future energy system is reliable, sustainable, secure, and affordable. Her public engagement at industry events demonstrates a commitment to contributing to the sector's thinking beyond her immediate operational responsibilities.

40. Larry Marshall

Dr Larry Marshall is CEO of CSIRO, Australia's national science and research agency, which is one of the country's most consequential institutions in shaping the technical foundations of the energy transition. CSIRO's research on solar energy, battery technology, hydrogen, water treatment, and climate modelling underpins much of the evidence base that energy and water utilities draw on in their planning.

Marshall's leadership of CSIRO through a period of significant research investment in clean energy technology, including hydrogen research programmes and water treatment innovations that position Australia as a contributor to global solutions, makes him one of the most important figures in the broader ecosystem that supports the energy and utilities sector.

41. Saul Griffith

Saul Griffith is the founder of Rewiring Australia, the advocacy organisation that has played a significant role in shaping the public and policy debate about household electrification in Australia. His book "Electrify Everything" and his subsequent engagement with the Australian policy process have made him one of the most effective communicators of the economic case for electrification, reaching audiences well beyond the traditional energy sector readership.

Griffith's distinctive contribution is the household economics argument for electrification: that switching from gas appliances to electric alternatives, powered by rooftop solar, can reduce household energy costs and improve energy security simultaneously. His work through Rewiring Australia on the Cheaper Home Batteries programme and broader household electrification policy has influenced both the policy design and the public narrative around one of the most significant consumer dimensions of the energy transition.

42. Simon Holmes a Court

Simon Holmes a Court is the founder of the Climate 200 movement, which supported the election of a record number of independent members of parliament in the 2022 federal election on platforms centred on climate action. His work in reshaping the political landscape for Australian climate and energy policy has been among the most consequential civil society contributions to the energy transition debate in a generation.

Holmes a Court's public communications, LinkedIn activity, and media commentary have been highly active through 2025 and 2026 as he continues to advocate for stronger climate policy and monitors the delivery of the commitments that the 2022 election results helped make possible. His perspective is particularly valuable for understanding the relationship between electoral politics and energy policy outcomes.

43. Fiona Guthrie

Fiona Guthrie is CEO of Financial Counselling Australia and one of Australia's most persistent and effective voices on the affordability dimension of essential services, including energy and water. Her advocacy for people in financial hardship has shaped how energy and water regulators think about hardship obligations, payment assistance programmes, and the design of standing offers and default tariffs.

Her perspective consistently centres the experience of households that are most vulnerable to rising essential service costs and least able to advocate for themselves in regulatory and policy processes. For energy and water utility leaders, Guthrie's advocacy represents both a policy challenge and a genuine guide to what their hardship obligations actually require in practice.

44. Liz Westcott

Liz Westcott is Vice President of Social Performance and Government Relations at Santos, a role that places her at the intersection of the company's community engagement, Indigenous relations, regulatory affairs, and government relations functions. Her panel participation at the Australian Energy Producers conference in 2026, alongside Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher, reflects her centrality to how one of Australia's largest gas companies manages its relationship with government and community.

Social performance in the gas exploration sector, particularly in relation to Indigenous communities in the Beetaloo Basin and other frontier regions, has become one of the most important determinants of whether new gas projects can proceed and on what terms. Westcott's work at this interface makes her perspective valuable for anyone trying to understand the non-technical dimensions of energy project development in Australia.

45. Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a Senior Associate at the Grattan Institute's Energy Program. His analytical contributions to Grattan Institute reports on gas market reform, renewable energy economics, and the design of the Safeguard Mechanism have been cited in government policy processes and media coverage. His work addresses the economics and policy design of the Australian energy transition with a level of analytical rigour that is uncommon in policy advocacy.

Wood's focus on ensuring that policy design achieves its stated objectives efficiently and equitably, rather than just symbolically, reflects the Grattan Institute's distinctive contribution to the energy policy conversation. Working alongside Tony Wood, his research has built one of the most consistently useful bodies of publicly available analysis on Australian energy policy available to practitioners and policy makers.

46. Lisa Currie

Lisa Currie is a water sector strategist who has been one of the most active voices in the AWA community, having contributed as a facilitator and speaker at events including Ozwater'26 and the Unitywater Strategy and Innovation Forum in 2026. Her LinkedIn commentary on the future of water utilities, technology, and consumer expectations, and her specific focus on how leaders can prepare themselves and their organisations for change, makes her one of the most practical and accessible voices on leadership in the water sector.

Her work at the intersection of sector strategy, innovation, and leadership development reflects the growing recognition within the water sector that the technical and engineering challenges of the transition are inseparable from the human, cultural, and leadership dimensions. Her commentary reaches an audience of water sector practitioners who are looking for guidance on how to lead organisations through genuine transformation.

47. Nick Kamper

Nick Kamper is Managing Director and CEO of Senex Energy, one of the domestic gas producers whose operations in the Surat Basin in Queensland have been central to the debate about east coast gas supply. Senex's Arrow Energy project, a major domestic gas development, has been a significant element of the response to east coast gas supply concerns. His leadership of Senex through its expansion from a smaller producer into a significant domestic gas supplier has positioned the company as a key voice on the economics of domestic gas development.

Kamper's engagement in the domestic gas policy debate has included public commentary on the investment conditions needed to bring new gas supply to market, and the tension between domestic gas reservation obligations and international LNG contract structures that shapes how production companies allocate their supply. His perspective as a domestic-focused gas producer provides a different vantage point from the LNG-focused majors that dominate the Australian gas conversation.

48. David Maxwell

David Maxwell is Managing Director and CEO of Beach Energy, an ASX-listed oil and gas producer with significant operations in the Cooper Basin and Otway regions that make it one of the important contributors to domestic gas supply in South Australia and Victoria. His leadership of Beach Energy through the current gas supply tightness on the east coast has involved active engagement in the domestic gas policy conversation.

Maxwell's perspective as the CEO of a mid-sized domestic gas producer provides an important counterpoint to the large company voices in the gas supply debate. Beach Energy's Cooper Basin operations are a significant component of South Australia's gas supply, and his public commentary on the investment environment for domestic gas development addresses the economics of smaller-scale production that is often obscured in policy discussions dominated by LNG majors.

49. Lachlan Blackhall

Lachlan Blackhall is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation at the Australian National University, having previously founded and led the ANU's Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program. A Professor of Engineering with a PhD in engineering and applied mathematics, he is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and was the co-founder and former CTO of Reposit Power, where he pioneered virtual power plant technology.

Blackhall's foundational work on battery storage integration, virtual power plants, and distributed energy resource control systems has shaped how Australian grid operators and technology developers approach the challenge of managing a power system with high levels of rooftop solar and distributed storage. His move into the DVC Research and Innovation role at ANU positions him to continue influencing the research agenda on electricity and energy systems from a more senior institutional vantage point.

50. Sarah Sherborne

Sarah Sherborne is a senior energy lawyer and partner at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, specialising in energy sector transactions, regulatory advice, and the legal dimensions of the energy transition. Her firm has advised on major energy transactions including the Tomago BESS project for AGL and other significant battery energy storage system and infrastructure deals. Law firm partners specialising in energy practice are among the best-informed practitioners in the sector about the actual structure of deals, contracts, and regulatory engagements that underpin the energy transition.

Sherborne's work advising energy sector clients on transactions, regulatory submissions, and the legal dimensions of new technology deployment gives her a view of the sector's actual commercial and regulatory dynamics that is shaped by direct involvement in the transactions and processes that theoretical analysis can only approximate. Her public commentary and engagement at industry events brings a legal and commercial practitioner's lens to the energy transition conversation.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several names would appear on most lists like this but were deliberately moved in a different direction. Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, Patrick Lencioni, Daniel Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, and Susan Cain are foundational voices in leadership and organisational behaviour but are not energy or utilities sector specialists, and their inclusion would displace genuinely relevant sector voices. Within the energy and utilities sector itself, several figures covered in the already-published "40 Essential Thought Leaders in Electricity in ANZ" were considered, but the deliberate differentiation between that post and this one means the NEM-focused electricity voices appear there, not here.

Daniel Westerman of AEMO, Tim Nelson of Griffith University, Giles Parkinson of RenewEconomy, Anna Skarbek of Climateworks Centre, and Gavin Dufty of St Vincent de Paul Society Australia are all important voices in the Australian energy and utilities conversation and are profiled in the electricity ANZ list. For those voices, see the full directory at consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-electricity-anz.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Following Energy and Utilities Leaders

The first mistake is conflating the energy sector with the electricity sector. Electricity has had enormous coverage in Australian and New Zealand energy media since the NEM transformation began in earnest, and it is easy to follow only electricity voices and believe you are tracking the energy sector broadly. Gas, LNG, gas networks, water utilities, and the multi-commodity retailers and generators that operate across all these sectors are doing equally consequential work, often with less public visibility. A reading list that includes only electricity voices is missing the gas sector transition, the water infrastructure challenge, and the voices working on hydrogen and renewable gas.

The second mistake is treating peak body communications as equivalent to independent analysis. Peak bodies represent the interests of their members, and their public positions reflect those interests. The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association will make the strongest case for gas that the evidence supports. The Australian Water Association will represent the interests of its water utility members. This does not make their voices less valuable. It makes them important data points about where the industry is and where it wants to go, but they need to be read alongside independent research, regulatory voices, and advocacy organisations with different interests.

The third mistake is ignoring New Zealand. Australia's energy debate tends to dominate the ANZ conversation, but New Zealand's situation is distinctive and instructive. A grid that is already 80 to 90 percent renewable but facing declining gas supply and surging new electricity demand is a different challenge from Australia's, and the solutions being tested in New Zealand, from market design reforms to the gentailer competition debate, have lessons for Australia even when the contexts differ.

The fourth mistake is following only the large company and peak body voices. The mid-tier voices on this list, the independent analysts, the researchers, the consumer advocates, and the practitioners working at the frontier of what is technically and commercially possible, are where much of the most genuinely new thinking is happening. The large companies are important for understanding what is actually being built and invested in. The independent and mid-tier voices are often more important for understanding what should happen next.

The fifth mistake is following thought leaders as a substitute for engaging with primary sources. The quarterly reports from AEMO, the AER's network revenue decisions, the AWA's research publications, and the regulatory submissions of major utilities are the primary material. The voices on this list are, at their best, guides to that primary material and interpreters of what it means. Using commentary as a replacement for reading the underlying documents will leave you dependent on curated summaries rather than independent judgment.

If your leadership team is navigating the complexity of the energy and utilities sector and needs help with the leadership and cultural dimensions of that work, Jonno White, host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast (230+ episodes, 150+ countries) and founder of The 7 Questions Movement (6,000+ leaders), facilitates executive offsites, workshops, and keynote presentations. Email jonno@consultclarity.org. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

Implementation Guide: Building Your Energy and Utilities Reading List

Building a useful following list for the Australian and New Zealand energy and utilities sector begins with a single clear purpose: what decisions do you need to be better informed about? If you are investing in energy infrastructure, the voices most useful to follow are the market analysts, the regulator leaders, and the CEOs of the network businesses and large integrated companies. If you are working in the water sector, Corinne Cheeseman at AWA, Adam Lovell at WSAA, and the managing directors of the major metropolitan utilities provide the most direct insight into where the sector is heading. If you are navigating the gas transition, Adam Watson at APA Group, Phaedra Deckart at Solstice Energy, and Kevin Gallagher at Santos are the most consequential commercial voices.

Once you have identified your core purpose, identify three to five people from this list whose work most directly intersects with your decisions and start following them on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn activity of people like Damien Nicks, Adam Watson, Phaedra Deckart, and Corinne Cheeseman provides substantive, regularly updated commentary on the issues they are navigating, in a format that is faster to process than a full conference paper or regulatory submission. For New Zealand coverage, Mike Fuge and Malcolm Johns offer the most accessible windows into the commercial dimensions of the New Zealand market.

Supplement LinkedIn with the primary sector publications. Energy Today magazine and Utility magazine provide broad coverage of the Australian energy and utilities sector, including gas, water, and electricity. The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association's newsletter and the AWA's publications cover the gas and water sectors with more depth than general energy media. For New Zealand, the Electricity Authority's publications and Transpower's planning reports are essential primary sources.

For deeper analytical engagement, the Grattan Institute's energy reports, Tony Wood's published analysis, and the work of ARENA and CSIRO provide the most accessible entry points into the evidence base for the major policy and technology questions facing the sector. Read these alongside the commentary from the voices on this list rather than relying on either alone.

For more on the electricity-specific voices in Australia and New Zealand, see the companion directory "40 Essential Thought Leaders in Electricity in ANZ" at consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-electricity-anz.

For global gas market voices, see the companion directory "35 Leading Thought Leaders in Global Gas Markets" at consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-global-gas-markets.

For organisations working in or with the energy and utilities sector that need help building the internal leadership capability to make good decisions under the kind of uncertainty this sector faces, bring Jonno White in to facilitate a session or deliver a keynote. Jonno works with corporates, government agencies, and not-for-profit organisations. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

How was this list compiled? Every person on this list was selected based on documented contribution to the energy and utilities sector in Australia or New Zealand, active engagement with sector issues in 2025 and 2026, and a deliberate effort to surface voices across the full breadth of the sector, including gas, water, LNG, multi-energy, hydrogen, and regulatory roles. None of the people on this list appear in the companion "40 Essential Thought Leaders in Electricity in ANZ" list.

Why does this list cover gas and water alongside energy? "Energy and utilities" is the most natural and complete descriptor for the sector as practitioners experience it. Gas networks, water utilities, and multi-commodity energy businesses are all "utilities" in the regulatory and commercial sense, and the leaders navigating these sectors are facing related challenges around infrastructure investment, climate adaptation, regulatory change, and workforce capability. A list that included only electricity voices would leave out some of the most consequential transformation stories in Australian and New Zealand infrastructure.

Does following these voices substitute for building internal analytical capability? It does not. The people on this list provide raw material for strategic thinking. The thinking itself, the decisions about what to prioritise, how to allocate capital, and how to build organisational capability, happens inside the leadership team. External thought leadership can inform those conversations. It cannot replace them. If your senior team needs help having better strategic conversations, book Jonno White to facilitate your next leadership session. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why does the list include New Zealand voices alongside Australian ones? Australia and New Zealand have closely connected energy markets, shared investment flows, and comparable regulatory challenges. The differences between the two markets are also instructive: New Zealand's highly renewable but gas-vulnerable system provides a window into challenges Australia will face as its own renewable penetration increases. The cross-Tasman perspective makes both national situations more comprehensible.

Can I hire someone to facilitate leadership development for a team in the energy or utilities sector? Yes. Jonno White is an experienced facilitator who works with executive teams in corporate, government, and not-for-profit organisations, including those in the energy, utilities, and resources sectors. His expertise is in the leadership and human dimensions of leading organisations through complex change. To discuss a session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Final Thoughts

The Australian and New Zealand energy and utilities sectors are in the middle of a transformation that will take decades to complete and that has already begun reshaping the economic and physical infrastructure that both countries depend on. The pace of change in electricity has been extraordinary. The change in gas, water, and the multi-energy businesses is quieter but equally consequential. The fifty people on this list are doing the work of making sense of that transformation in real time, through operational decisions, research, advocacy, regulation, and public commentary.

None of them have all the answers. The most honest and useful voices in this sector are the ones who acknowledge what is uncertain, who say what they actually think rather than what they are supposed to say, and who engage with the hard questions about cost, reliability, affordability, and equity rather than routing around them. Those are the voices worth following, and this list is an attempt to surface as many of them as possible.

For organisations navigating the leadership and human dimensions of the energy and utilities transformation, the starting point is building a team that can make good decisions together under genuine uncertainty. That requires trust, clear communication, the ability to disagree productively, and the discipline to act decisively when the evidence is incomplete. These are the things Jonno White works on with leadership teams. Whether the challenge is an executive offsite, a team workshop, or a keynote for a sector conference, the engagement starts with jonno@consultclarity.org.

Book Jonno White to facilitate your next executive offsite, working session, or keynote. Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold) and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works with corporates, government agencies, and not-for-profit organisations across the energy, utilities, and resources sectors. Many organisations find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. Whether virtual or in person, reach out to jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Sources

AEMO Quarterly Energy Dynamics, Q4 2025. International Energy Agency, Electricity 2026. Australian Water Association, The Future of Water in Australia 2025-2026 (December 2025). AEMO Draft 2026 Integrated System Plan. Santos Limited, company leadership page. AGL Energy Annual Report 2025. APA Group, 2026 Universities Australia Solutions Summit. Melbourne Water, Managing Director announcement, November 2021. Sydney Water, Executive Team page. Australian Gas Infrastructure Group, LinkedIn and company announcements 2024-2026. Champions of Change Coalition, Phaedra Deckart profile. Water Services Association of Australia, WSAA Our Team page. Australian Renewable Energy Agency, From Pathways to Practice (March 2026). IEEE PES AUPEC 2025 Leadership Forum, Brisbane.

Next Read

For the electricity-specific voices in Australia and New Zealand, covering AEMO's CEO, NEM economists, grid engineers, and consumer advocates, the companion directory "40 Essential Thought Leaders in Electricity in ANZ" profiles 40 voices doing the analytical and operational work of Australia's and New Zealand's electricity transition. The two lists are designed to complement each other: this post covers the broader energy and utilities landscape, while the electricity post covers the NEM and electricity grid in depth.

Keep reading: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-electricity-anz