Meet the Directors
Who We Are
Our success depends on the strength of our team.
Rob Ashdown
CEO
Nick Barnsdall
Chairman
Dean Schmidt
Non-Executive Director
Process
Applying the PPA to take renewable energy projects forward
Renewable energy in Australia is already cost competitive with other sources of energy, and more competitive than new-build thermals.
The key difference is that renewable energy still largely relies on project finance and is highly geared. This creates a hurdle for asset owners, as project finance traditionally relies on long-term revenue certainty in excess of the life of the loan. The quality of the loan secured by a project is directly correlated to the quality of the long-term revenue stream or PPA.
Fit-for-purpose PPAs are needed to support renewable energy projects. These provide revenue certainty to clean energy generators. The PPA must offer certainty on term, price and credit quality to support projects in securing funding. By contractually agreeing to long-term (usually 10-year), fixed price bundled PPAs, this would typically allow the project owner of existing projects to potentially be refinanced on better terms, with new projects achieving Financial Close and commencing construction.
Meet the Team
We Are Here For You
Rob Ashdown
CEO
Rob is a specialist in understanding project development, equity investment and risk transfer for the energy sector, as well as financial institutions and utilities within the infrastructure sector. He has over 15 years’ experience covering Australia, Africa, Middle-East, South East Asia and Europe with Swiss RE, PWC, World Bank Group, the Australian Federal Government, IPPs, Tata Power and a corporate finance house.
Rob’s core experience spans climate change, renewables (wind, solar, hydro and biomass) and non-renewable energy assets (coal, gas and hydro) and portfolios, Rob has successfully tackled key strategic projects and built businesses.
Nick Barnsdall
Chairman
Nick has extensive global and senior executive experience, along with a deep and successful history of building businesses. From 2006 until 2015, he served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hyundai Construction Equipment Australia, and currently serves as either Chairman or non-executive director of 11 companies across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Nick’s experience is broad across many industries including civil construction and infrastructure projects, mining and resource extraction, finance and technology, automotive and engineering.
James Dean
Adviser to the Board
With 30 years of experience in the finance industry, 25 of those as a direct professional investor in environmental projects, James uses his wealth of knowledge and expertise to counsel corporations and business owners around the world.
Recognised for his proficiency in mining, construction equipment, property development, feature films and biotech, James is especially sought-after in evaluating, negotiating and matching stakeholders’ decision-making to desired outcomes.
Jason West
Senior Quantitative Analyst
Jason is an experienced quantitative researcher with 20 years’ experience in energy markets, fixed income, derivatives and investment portfolios.
He has held senior quantitative analysis and risk executive roles across a range of organisations including BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, KPMG and Suncorp. Jason holds a PhD in quantitative finance along with degrees in science, statistics, and engineering, and is also a CPA, CIMA and Professional Risk Manager (PRMIA).
Peter Eben
Independent Risk Advisor
As an independent consultant, Peter has over 21 years of practical and advisory experience across the energy value chain covering consumers, retailers, networks, wholesale market participants, developers, generators, regulators, governments and investors.
Prior to establishing Seed, Peter worked in a senior management capacity at Energy Australia, AGL, Pulse Energy, United Energy, IKON Energy and KPMG, gaining considerable expertise in strategy, risk management, and policy development in the gas, electricity, carbon and renewable energy markets.
A member of ARENA’s advisory panel, Peter is also the Chair of AusNet Services Customer Consultative Committee and was previously Chair of CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy’s Energy Futures Consumer Advisory Panel (2018-2019). He is also a qualified actuary with strong analytical skills, and extensive experience in the financial services industry.
Craig Perkins
Senior Energy Trader
Since 2002, Craig has been responsible for the development and execution of hedging and trading strategies across a wide range of international commodity markets, including Australian power. Over this time, he has developed a career focus on asset optimisation using derivative products, while facilitating the unique alignment of objectives required between physical and financial portfolios.
Combining this experience with an INSEAD Executive Master in Finance, Craig brings a well-rounded and pragmatic approach to his engagement with markets and customers, continuously developing new perspectives on managing portfolios.
