Who we are

Current Authority Members

Mr. Matt Kean - Chair

Matt was appointed as Chair of the authority on 5 August 2024 for a term of 5 years. He was the local NSW Government member for Hornsby from 2011 until 2 August 2024.  Matt was most recently the NSW Government Shadow Minister for Health. He was Deputy Leader of the NSW Liberal party from August 2022 until March 2023. Throughout his 13-year political career, Matt also held ministries of Innovation and Better Regulation, Treasury, Energy and Environment.  As Treasurer and Energy Minister of NSW, Matt championed climate action that is in the best interests of households and businesses. In 2020, he delivered the Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap: A 20-year plan for NSW’s energy infrastructure. The roadmap spurs private investment in renewable energy while reducing emissions and power bills for the people of NSW. Matt commenced in the role of Director, Regulatory Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at Wollemi Capital on 15 August 2024. Matt studied business at the University of Technology Sydney.

Ms. Susie Smith - Member

Susie was appointed as a member of the authority on 9 April 2021 for a term of four years. She brings executive and board experience in corporate strategy, climate change, and sustainability. 

Susie is passionate about science and its role in healthy, vibrant economies. She is active with the Australian Cooperative Research Centres as a Director, previously with CRC CARE and currently with FEnEX, which is creating a living laboratory to implement decarbonisation energy pathways.

She is a highly regarded climate change and sustainability specialist, contributing nationally and internationally. Susie was a member of the Australian expert panel examining low-cost abatement (2020), the IGU’s group of experts on methane emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change taskforce meeting on fugitive emissions, the Global Reporting Initiative sustainability reporting guidelines for industry, the multinational leadership group for industry transition meetings, and the corporate emissions reduction transparency reporting reference panel. Susie is the Chief Executive of the Australian industry greenhouse network – a leading forum for discussion on key climate change issues, providing information and analysis in considering national and international policy and the role industry can play in the urgent transition to net zero emissions.

As a former dual Australian representative in water polo and swimming, Susie also contributes to sports governance as a board member of the South Australian Cricket Association, and Water Polo Australia.

Mr. John McGee - Member

Mr McGee was appointed as a member of the authority on 9 April 2021 for a term of four years. He has over thirty years’ experience in the Australian and global capital markets and associated corporate sector. He has extensive experience across banking and finance, insurance, health and hospitals, aviation and air safety. In his executive roles Mr McGee was Managing Director of BNY Mellon Australia Pty Ltd for nine years, heading up the Bank of New York's corporate trust operation in Australia. He was also a pioneer of the non-bank home loan sector. He has been a director of many subsidiaries and held responsible manager status on various ASIC and APRA licences. 
 
Mr McGee is currently a director on the Infrastructure Australia and the Sydney Local Health District boards. He has previously served as a non-executive director on various government and non government boards including Deputy Chair of the Private Health Insurance Administrative Council, the federal regulator of all private health insurers, Air Services Australia, Westpac Funds Management (where he was chair of the audit and compliance committee) and Delhi Petroleum. 

Mr McGee holds formal qualifications in Economics and Law from Sydney University and has practised as a solicitor in Sydney and London.

Dr Virginia Marshall - Member

Dr Marshall was appointed as a member of the authority on 15 September 2022 for a term of five years.

Virginia is the Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow with the Australian National University's School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) and the Fenner School of Environment and Society. She is a practising lawyer and duty solicitor, a former Associate & researcher with the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney and professional member of the NSW Law Society and Women Lawyers Association of NSW. Former Senior Legal Officer of the Australian Law Reform Commission and inquiry into 'Family Violence & Commonwealth Laws: Improving Legal Frameworks' (ALRC 117), Executive Officer of the NSW Government's 'Aboriginal Water Trust' and criminal defence lawyer with NSW Legal Aid.

Virginia is the winner of the WEH Stanner Award for the best thesis by an Indigenous author, titled, 'A web of Aboriginal water rights: Examining the competing Aboriginal claim for water property rights and interests in Australia'. Published as ‘Overturning Aqua Nullius: Securing Aboriginal Water Rights’ (2017) with the foreword by the Hon. Michael Kirby.

A lifetime member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and magistrate for the NSW Law Society's 'Mock Trial Competition'. She is in demand as a Keynote Speaker on Indigenous water law and governance, Indigenous traditional knowledge systems and the intersectionality of western intellectual property regimes and the Indigenous commercialisation of native foods and medicines.

Virginia is Lead Chief Investigator (Lead CI) with an ARC Discovery Indigenous Grant (2022-2024), ’Barriers & Pathways to development of Indigenous traditional medicines’ ($1,014,000) to ’unlock the significant, untapped potential for Indigenous Australians to benefit from the development of their traditional medicines regulated by the TGA.

Professor Lesley Hughes - Member

Professor Hughes was appointed as a member of the authority on 15 September 2022 for a term of five years. She is an academic ecologist and climate change scientist. She is the former Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Macquarie University. Her research has focused on the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems.
 
Professor Hughes is Professor Emerita and Pro-Chancellor at Macquarie University. She has been a Climate Councillor with the Climate Council since 2013 and a Director since 2021 and is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. She is a former Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports. 
 
Other roles have included: Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Integrity and Development at Macquarie University (2014-2022); Director of the Biodiversity Node, NSW Office of Environment & Heritage Climate Adaptation Research Hub; Commissioner in the Australian Government’s Climate Commission (2011-2013); former Director WWF-Australia (2013-2021); Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University (2009-2011); Chair of the Tasmanian Climate Action Council (2012-2014); Co-director of the Climate Futures Research Centre at Macquarie University (2012-2014) and Co-convenor of the Terrestrial Biodiversity Adaptation Research Network for National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (2009-2013). 

Fiona Simson - Member

Fiona Simson was appointed to the authority on 15 March 2024 for a period of 5 years. 

With an extensive background in Australian agriculture, and rural and regional development, Fiona is a strong advocate for the interests of farmers and rural communities. 

Elected in 2016 as the first female President of National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), Fiona led the farming industry through a period of great change and challenge. She was instrumental in the launch of the NFF’s first Diversity in Ag Leadership Programme in 2018 and spearheaded the NFF’s 2030 $100bn Vision before stepping down as President in October 2023. 

Fiona is leading new approaches to the stewardship of natural capital and biodiversity. In 2023, Fiona was elected to the board of the World Farmers’ Organisation representing Australia and New Zealand. Amongst other roles, Fiona also Chairs the Future Food Systems CRC and sits on the Board of NRMA (NSW).

Fiona’s family have farmed on the Liverpool Plains since 1928.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Canberra and is passionate about the need to grow connections between farmers and urban consumers.

Richard Bolt - Member

Mr Bolt was appointed as a member of the authority on 15 March 2024 for a term of 5 years. 

Richard joins the authority having played lead roles in national climate and energy policy, including reform of the supervision of the national energy market and the design of programs to drive renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart metering and carbon reduction. He has also led reform, delivery and innovation in agriculture, earth resources, economic development, transport and education.

Richard is also Chairman of Hydro Tasmania, a Principal of the Nous Group, Independent Chair of a Japan-Victoria taskforce to commercialise clean hydrogen exports, and adviser to NSW on its renewable energy roadmap. 

Between 2006 and 2018, he was Secretary of the Victorian government’s Departments of Primary Industries; Education and Early Childhood Development; and Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources.

Richard holds a Master of Public Policy Management from Monash University, a Bachelor of Engineering (electrical engineering) from the University of South Australia, and a Diploma of Company Directorship from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Patty Akopiantz  - Member

Patty Akopiantz was appointed as a member of the authority on 5 August 2024 for a term of 5 years. She has spent more than 35 years as a top ASX company director and senior manager within the energy, retail, health and financial services sectors.  Patty is committed to the role that businesses can and must play in decarbonisation and passionate about the role of women in the net zero transition.  She is the co-founder of Assembly Climate Capital, an impact firm that supports early-stage climate ventures. She is a non-executive director of Sea Forest, leading the commercialization of asparagopsis supplements to reduce methane emissions.  Patty is also a non-executive director of KPMG and The Hunger Project Australia and is Chair of Environmental Leadership Australia (ELA). ELA focusses on building bi-partisan support for climate change.  She is a member of Chief Executive Women and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM FAA FTSE, Chief Scientist -
Ex-Officio Member

Dr Foley became Australia’s ninth Chief Scientist in January 2021 after a lengthy career at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, where she was appointed as the agency’s Chief Scientist in August 2018. 
 
While working at CSIRO, Dr Foley made significant contributions to the understanding of nitride semiconductors and superconducting electronics. Dr Foley and her team’s most successful application is the LANDTEM sensor system used to locate valuable deposits of minerals deep underground, such as nickel sulphide, silver and gold.  
 
Dr Foley’s scientific excellence and influential leadership have been recognised with numerous awards and fellowships, including being elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2020, being named an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2020 for service to research science and the advancement of women in physics, receiving the Clunies Ross Medal of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering in 2015, and receiving the Australian Institute of Physics Medal for Outstanding Service to Physics in 2016. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering in 2008. 
 
Dr Foley’s previous roles include membership of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, President of the Australian Institute of Physics, President of Science and Technology Australia, Editor-in-Chief of Superconductor Science and Technology journal, and a council member for Questacon. 

Dr Foley is committed to helping Australia realise the transformative potential of critical technologies and meet the climate challenge. She is an inspiration to women in STEM across the globe and focused strongly on equality and diversity in the science sector.

CCA Executive

​Mr Brad Archer - Chief Executive Officer

Brad Archer has extensive experience working on climate change, renewable energy and energy market issues. He joined the Climate Change Authority in November 2018. Previously, he was head of the International Climate Change and Energy Innovation Division in the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, where his responsibilities included advising on clean energy innovation, Australia’s greenhouse gas inventory, and international climate change policy. Brad has been working on climate change policies for the Australian Government since early 2011. Prior to this he worked on a range of issues in the Treasury, which he joined in 1991. Brad has qualifications in economics and information management.

Previous Authority Members