SEA Staff

Chief Executive: Prof Ray Wills

Prof Ray Wills has had a wide-ranging career at different times as researcher, planner, adviser, manager and academic. Ray has substantial expertise in ecology, sustainability, climate change science and the effects of expected future climates on Australia, and is recognised by business, government and community leaders in WA as an authoritative commentator on policy and functional responses to mitigate and adapt to global warming.

As well as his role as Chief Executive, Ray is an Adjunct Professor with the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Western Australia, and contributing to the academic program and lecturing on the science, economics and politics of environmental change. Ray also is Principal of the consultancy Future Smart Strategies - a SEA member business!

Ray is a member of a number of senior policy groups including the Federal Government's Department of Resources, Energy & Tourism Energy Efficiency Skills Committee, the Board of the Stirling Alliance, a Board Member of Earth Science Western Australia..

Further, he is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy and member of the WA Branch Committee.

Previously he has had roles including Deputy Chair of the WA Land Information System's (WALIS) Advisory Committee, and a member of the WA Government's High Level Stakeholder Group on Greenhouse. Prof Wills also made substantial contributions to the work of the Ecological Society of Australia (ESA), a professional, member based peak body for Australian ecologists where he was a member of the ESA Council for 13 years, including a considerable period as a senior member of the ESA Executive with his final role as Vice President of the ESA for four years, retiring from this position and from council at the end of 2003 - he remains a member of the Society. In 2000, he was elected to a lead role in the International Society for the Study of Mediterranean Ecosystems (ISOMED) as a Board Member, a post held until June 2004.

More information about Ray can be found here.  

Accounts Officer: Agnes Karundeng 

Agnes is helping SEA manage our finances, ensuring the accuracy of our records focusing on accounts receivable (data entry and using MYOB), customer queries, end of month statements, company credit card reconciliation, bank reconciliations

Agnes has a Master of Commerce, Macquarie University, (2000)
a Grad. Dip. in Accounting from Monash University, (1997)and a Bachelor of Business, Trisakti University (Jakarta) (1995)

Advisory Services Manager: Neil Prentice

Neil has broad experience in commercial environments in research, production, consulting, sales and marketing in operational business environments. Work has included management and negotiation of commercial deals involving Intellectual Property and technology transfer, delivering client work to all sizes of organisations, from start-up to established multi-national organisations.

Neil's most recent previous role was as Project Manager Commercialisation with The University of Western Australia. Previous work has included senior roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG.

Neil's career started as Group Chemist for Klen International Pty Ltd.

Neil's primary role with SEA
• On behalf of SEA, be a key adviser for policy and practice, analysing relevant State and Federal Government policy and its implications for SEA members;
• Initiate research and document key issues facing the sustainable energy sector and provide members with this information in an accessible and timely manner;
• Conduct financial and investment analysis impacting commercial decision making on sustainable energy projects by SEA members;
• Coordinate and lead major policy initiatives and prepare written policy analyses, submissions and proposals for SEA;
• Represent SEA on consultative and other policy bodies as required;

Neil also contributes to SEA's contractual relationships with the national Enterprise Connect Clean Technology Innovation Centre (CTIC), and delivers advisory support to CTIC Business Adviser Stephen Mawhinney to deliver hands-on assistance to small and medium enterprises operating in the clean energy sector.

Business Manager: Michael Woodhams

Michael holds a Bachelor of Business in Tourism Management from Edith Cowan University that includes strategic marketing, management, professional communication and minor units in French. He began his career in the tourism industry before moving into commercial media and then politics.

Michael has worked for Premier Colin Barnett for several years, first as Executive Officer when Mr Barnett was Leader of the Opposition and then as Research Officer in the Member's electorate office. His responsibilities over this time involved office and website management, staffing, special research projects, preparing newsletters and meeting with constituents.

Prior to this, Michael was a staffer to former Court Government Minister, Hon Kevin Prince with responsibility for media and constituent issues in the Minister's electorate.

Michael's role at SEA is to manage the operational functions of the association and provide support to the CEO.

CTIC Business Adviser: Stephen Mawhinney

A science graduate of Queens University Belfast, Stephen also holds a post-graduate Diploma in Business Administration majored in marketing.

Stephen arrived in Australia in 1976 after a year in Papua New Guinea under the British Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) scheme. As a Business Development Officer on the PNG island of New Britain, Stephen assisted the local population set up small businesses and replace bartering using pigs teeth and shells as their currency, to using money, the PNG kina.

In Australia Stephen first took on the position of Rural Area Manager with the Ford Motor Company responsible for sales, training and the supervision of 27 Ford dealerships in regional South Australia. In 1977 he joined Chrysler Australia (later to be Mitsubishi Motors Australia) on an accelerated trainee executive development program,

In 1980 Stephen joined IBM in Perth for a full year of training to become a Sales Representative for mainframe based information systems. During thirteen years with IBM he held numerous sales and marketing, management and junior executive positions, and travelled the world extensively. Positions held included being General Manager of joint venture company MedNetwork, Manager of the IBM Asia Pacific PC Product Management team, Executive Assistant to CEO Brian Finn and National Channels Manager for Mid-Range Products. Stephen was transferred to Sydney twice and attended the IBM Australia Hundred Percent Club during each of his nine years on sales quota.

In 1993 Stephen became a part owner of JDEdwards New Zealand and director of JDEdwards Australia (both IBM business partners). He set up and ran JDE in Perth and Adelaide for 3 years with a team of 19 staff. Clients included Burswood Casino, Wesfarmers CSBP, Wesfarmers Insurance, Robe River Mining, Henry Walker Contracting, Canning Vale Weaving Mills and Yalumba Wines in SA.

In 1997 along with a silent partner, Stephen bought his first small business, with 17 staff, Perth's largest brass and stainless steel fabrication company (at that time) Tubelok Australia. Prior to the purchase, the business had suffered sustained losses - Stephen steered the business back into the black and then sold his share of the business to his partner.

In 2001, Perth based search engine optimisation company Ineedhits, recruited Stephen for the position of Vice President Strategic Alliances working extensively out of San Francisco. Charged with taking Ineedhits to the next level, Stephen forged partnerships with the world's major search engines for the supply of Ineedhits SEO services and technologies, under private label to website owners. However, the events of September 11 resulted in a significant short term drop in core business for Ineedhits and Stphen left the company in the downsizing that then occurred.

Within a week of leaving Ineedhits, Stephen set up his own search engine optimisation company in Perth, to provide private labeled optimisation (SEO) services using Position Technologies Inc., of Illinois (PTI) Spiderdex technology. In October 2001, Stephen established PositionMEonline in Perth. Today, PositionMEonline is a thriving, progressive, small business providing high value internet marketing services to SME businesses across Australia.

Stephen joined the Sustainable Energy Association in October 2011 as Business Adviser - Clean Technology Innovation Centre, delivering services for SEA on behalf of the Enterprise Connect, a division of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR).

Stephen's role is to work with firms to:
• assess and understand a firm's business strategy and operations
• identify strengths and weaknesses including benchmarking
• help the firm access world-class business tools, processes and technology
• identify potential areas for improvement and growth
• facilitate, broker and connect firms to the latest information, technology and varied pathways forward.
The Business Adviser maintains an ongoing client management role with firms and actively promotes the initiative to industry and stakeholder networks, and works with Australian SMEs eligible for Enterprise Connect services to foster innovation, productivity and continuous improvement.

Enterprise Connect is a $50 million per year Australian Government program designed to boost productivity, improve innovation and increase the competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises. Enterprise Connect is creating a network of knowledge-creation and knowledge-transfer centres around the country. Integral to the success of these centres are highly skilled business advisers, who through the delivery of integrated and practical services to clients, support the achievement of Enterprise Connect program objectives: to improve productivity, build internal capacity and capitalise on SME growth potential.  

Cate Murray is SEA's Special Projects Officer and her first special projects are two new initiatives for SEA: Energising Kids, and our Green Fleet Day. Cate is also a key contributor to the development of the Energising SEA
expo.

Cate has a background in hospitality and tourism and has worked in diverse workplace and office environments providing professional administrative support to businesses including to Directors and senior staff, undertaking bookkeeping, records management, and ensuring the smooth operation of the offices she has worked in.

Cate will work to support the operations of the SEA office, improve contact with members, maintaining membership records and assisting with networking events, seminars, industry workshops and other activities for members.

Over the past five years Cate has been office manager, for two years with Surfing Western Australia Inc., then for the last three years with town planning firm Planning Solutions (Aust) Pty Ltd. Cate's earlier positions included work as Receptionist and Accounts for Ford and Doonan Air Conditioning, and earlier as an Administration Assistant with Monitored Alarms.