John Connor

John, CEO of The Climate Institute, joined the Institute in March 2007 after working as Campaigns Manager at World Vision where he was also a co-convenor of the Make Poverty History campaign.  Prior to that he has been a leader in environment organisations like the Australian Conservation Foundation and the NSW Nature Conservation Council.

John has worked on numerous government and business advisory panels currently including the NSW Government’s Climate Council.  He is a Board member of the Environment Defenders Office and the Asset Owners Disclosure Project and is a “Governator” with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

Erwin Jackson

Erwin is Deputy CEO of The Climate Institute.

With nearly 20 years practical experience in climate change policy and research, Erwin has developed and led many national and international programs aimed at reducing greenhouse pollution. This work has been undertaken in Australia, Europe, North and South America, the Pacific and Antarctica. He has represented non-governmental groups and advised government and business in national, regional and international fora, including being a non-governmental expert reviewer of the reports of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has sat on research advisory committees on low emission technology deployment for the CSIRO and the University of Queensland’s Centre for Low Emission Technology.

Erwin is currently a member of the Victorian Premiers Reference Group on Climate Change. Erwin has written, researched and produced many publications on climate change and energy policy including a number of review papers in scientific journals such as the Medical Journal of Australia. He has given lectures at institutions ranging from the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London to local community group meetings in far north Queensland.

 

Julian Poulter

As Business Director at The Climate Institute, Julian is responsible for projects in the business sector, with several of the initiatives focussed on investment and finance. He is a highly experienced business professional, with his primary experience in strategy and change consulting combined with several CEO and director roles.

Julian has previously consulted for firms like KPMG, Origin Europe, SAP and Oracle and has managed projects and operations in many diverse industries including investment finance, manufacturing, venture capital, energy, oil and gas, distribution, retail, information technology, tourism, transportation, commercial property, and media. He is currently a director of several firms, a business lecturer at Sydney University and is passionate about the ability of the free market to accelerate climate change solutions.

Kristina Stefanova

Kristina is Communications Director at The Climate Institute. She has more than a decade of experience working with the private and public sectors in Australia, the US and the UK in the areas of communications, climate change, energy and environment.

Prior to joining The Climate Institute, Kristina was international media liaison for the Global CCS Institute. Her previous experience also includes working in communications in Australia’s private sector, for the US and UK governments, and at large international organizations such as the World Bank as well as working as a newspaper and wire reporter.

Kristina holds an MsC in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

Richard Plumpton

Richard is Development Director at The Climate Institute. He initially trained as a geographer and after graduating from Durham University spent nine years in the UK in advertising/marketing agencies and as a consultant. In 2002 he joined Coca-Cola South Pacific, where he held a variety of commercial roles before focusing on sustainability and community projects, including work on The Coca-Cola Australia Foundation and the ‘Live Positively’ global sustainability framework.

Richard has been involved in working with diverse partners from the business, community, government and NGO sectors throughout his career and has seen first-hand the positive impact such partnerships can have. Most recently he was a key instigator of Project Catalyst - a Banksia Award winning partnership that is still actively finding ways to reduce the impact of farming on the Great Barrier Reef.

Olivia Kember

Olivia is National Policy and Research Manager at The Climate Institute. She has worked in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand across the fields of journalism, diplomacy and resources.

Olivia has provided policy analysis and advice for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the NSW Minerals Council.

She holds an MA in Security Studies from the University of Georgetown.

Corey Watts

Corey has more than 10 years’ experience working at the nexus of farming and sustainability issues. Growing up in the southwest region of Western Australia, he studied biology at Murdoch University and later worked with the WA conservation and agriculture departments on wildlife research in the state’s forests, wheatbelt and pastoral country.

Before joining The Climate Institute, Corey spent eight years at the Australian Conservation Foundation working with farmers, agribusiness and the food sector on issues as diverse as farmland stewardship, bioenergy, national natural resource management policy and sustainable food futures. He is a past member of the Australian Landcare Council and a member of Foster’s Wines Expert Reference Group on sustainability.

Corey lives in Melbourne where he is enrolled part-time in a Master of Environment programme at the University of Melbourne.

He is Regional Projects Manager at The Climate Institute.

Fiona Manning

Fiona brings a wealth of investment knowledge to The Climate Institute, with over10 years' experience in the superannuation/pension fund industry in Australia and the UK, within both government and private sector organisations. She has broad investment experience in all of the traditional asset classes and strategies and spent the past five years focused more specifically on the design of derivative-based liability-driven investment strategies for pension funds.

Fiona has a bachelors degree in mathematics and finance and attained the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

She is an Investment Analyst at The Climate Institute.

Garrett Stringer

Garrett has joined The Climate Institute with several years of experience in marketing and conservation education in Australia and the United States. He has also served in a consulting capacity in new media, branding and corporate sustainability.

Garrett completed his Masters of Environmental Management at the University of New South Wales and holds a honours undergraduate degree in Marketing and International Business from New York University's Leonard N Stern School of Business.

Garrett is Communications Manager of The Climate Institute.

Esther Green

Esther, who has a BSocSci from Waikato University, joined The Climate Institute in May 2006, bringing diverse administration experience from NZ, UK and Australia. She has enjoyed being a part of the growth of the organisation, starting with just two permanent staff to 11 staff today.

Esther took a year’s maternity leave from April 2008 and then returned to job-share with Jenny Recio.

Jennifer Recio

Jenny gained her extensive management and administrative experience working for many years with CSIRO, Canberra and in particular the Division of Entomology where she held positions in both the Human Resources and Finance Sections; Finance Office at the Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, University of Sydney where she also participated on numerous university financial systems and feasibility committees. She then entered the private sector as Office Manager with a Sydney law firm, before joining The Climate Institute in March 2008.

Jenny job-shares with Esther Green in the role of Office Manager and assistant to the CEO.

Michael Hall

Michael Hall, a professional photographer with over 20 years of experience, is a Creative Fellow at The Climate Institute for 2012/13.

Throughout his career, Michael has built a considerable reputation in Australia and internationally as both a fine art and commercial photographer. He was selected as Photographer of the Year in 2006 by the Federation of European Photographers, and in 2004 won the Canon New Zealand Architectural Photographer of the Year. More recently, Michael was announced as a finalist in the Hasselblad Masters 2009.

His fine art work focuses specifically on exploring human impact upon the landscape. Michael invests much time and energy in personal photographic projects – projects that engage with compelling and often confronting issues that ultimately affect us all. He is currently undertaking an extensive project to document the impacts and opportunities of climate change that will eventually include over 300 photographs captured in 40 international destinations.  The project has been widely exhibited to date and has received critical acclaim from the likes of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.