For over 20 years, Vanessa has worked in the natural resources sector with a passion to make it better for the next generation. She started her career in Australia’s underground coal industry as a mining engineer and became the first female deputy in Australia to manage a crew at the coal face. She also obtained her undermanagers certificate and became the second female in Australia to manage a shift at an undergound coal mine. In 2008, Vanessa joined Wood Mackenzie’s coal consulting team, before being seconded to the UK to work with Wood Mackenzie’s CEO and Head of Business Development on the company’s growth strategy. As a Senior Account Manager, Vanessa builds strong relationships at all levels within existing and prospective client organisations to help them create value for their organisation. She holds a master of commerce degree in strategic value management and a bachelor of engineering in mining, with honors, both from the University of New South Wales. Vanessa has been a member of the UNSW Industry Advisory Committee member (UNSW Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering) since 2011, working to attract graduates to the sector. Since 2016, she has been a mentor for the AusIMM Women in Mining, helping young women in the industry develop their careers.

Sami Kara is a professor in sustainable manufacturing and life cycle engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney Australia. He has a professional background of more than 30 years in industry, research, and tertiary education, including several engineering and management positions in manufacturing companies in Australia and around the world. In 2000, he has joined the University of New South Wales with research interests in sustainability and advance manufacturing, energy and resource efficiency in manufacturing, Life Cycle Engineering, Circular Economy, and Industrial Symbiosis. He is the founder and in-charge of Sustainability in Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group (www.lceresearch.unsw.edu.au). He is also the co-director of joint German-Australian Research Group on Sustainable Manufacturing (www.sustainable-manufacturing.com). He has authored more than 250 peer reviewed scientific publications. Professor Kara is an elected fellow of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP), a fellow of the Royal society of New South Wales and a fellow of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy.

Prakash has over 25 years’ experience in energy, metals and mining, and climate change policy developments, ranging from change management to business strategy and commodity markets. He joined Wood Mackenzie in 2006 and is currently based in Singapore. He is responsible for net-zero scenario modeling, and leads discussions on hydrogen, CCUS, next-gen nuclear and geothermal technologies for Woodmac.

Warren is the leader of CSIRO’s Towards Net Zero Mission with a focus on hard-to-abate sectors particularly resource industry and agriculture. His research experience spans Bioenergy, biosequestration, biomedical science and CCS before holding a series of strategy roles with University of Melbourne, Global CCS Institute and CSIRO. The Towards Net Zero mission is working with a range of hard-to-abate regions and value chains across Australia to build the research capacity to achieve emissions reduction while positioning Australian industry for growth in a low carbon global economy.