Our Board

Mary Hackett

Independent Director, Chair

Independent Chair, Audit & Risk Committee Member

Mary has an extensive career in the resource sector, spanning more than 30 years, with senior executive roles in Brown & Root, Woodside, and General Electric.  Her most recent executive role being Vice President of General Electric Oil & Gas for Australasia.

Mary is Non-Executive Chair of Future Energy Exports Cooperative Research Centre, Non-Executive Director and Chair of the ESG committee for Strike Energy, Executive Chair of Sapien Cyber and Non-Executive Director and Remuneration Committee Chair of Blue Ocean Marine. She also sits on the Audit and Risk committees for FEnEx CRC and Strike Energy.

A Graduate of AICD and Fellow of Engineers Australia, Mary holds an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Galway, Ireland.

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Professor Eric May

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director

Managing Director, Nominations and Remuneration Committee Member, Audit and Risk Committee Member and Commercialisation Committee Member 

Eric May is Managing Director of the Future Energy Exports (FEnEx) CRC and was named the 2021 Western Australian Scientist of the Year. His research team works closely with industry, conducting projects in hydrogen liquefaction, LNG production and decarbonisation, gas separations, CCS and fluid property prediction. Eric was awarded the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year as part of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. In 2017, he co-established Gas Capture Technologies Pty Ltd, a spin-out company for patented technologies to capture methane from coal mines, land-fill gas and other sources. Launched in 2020, the FEnEx CRC brings together 35 industry, government and university partners with resources of $163 million to conduct industrial-scale research that supports LNG and Hydrogen exports from Australia.

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Susie Smith

Independent Director

Independent Director, Commercialisation and Strategic Communications Committee Chair, Nominations and Remuneration Committee Member

Elected to the FEnEx CRC Board in 2020, Susie brings executive and board experience in corporate strategy, public affairs, and sustainability. Previously Susie was a Director with the highly successful CRC CARE. She is passionate about science and its role in healthy, vibrant economies.

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 transition to net zero emissions by 2050.

She is a highly regarded climate change and sustainability policy specialist contributing nationally and internationally. Susie is a member of the Climate Change Authority – the independent statutory body providing expert advice to the Australian Government on climate change policy.

Susie was a member of the Australian expert panel examining additional sources of low-cost abatement (King Review, 2020), the IGU’s group of experts on methane emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change taskforce meeting on fugitive emissions, and the Global Reporting Initiative sustainability reporting guidelines for industry.

She has a background in elite sports and is also a board member of the South Australia Cricket Association and Water Polo Australia.

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Pete Di Bona

Independent Director

Independent Director & Nominations and Remuneration Committee Chair 

Pete is an Independent Non-Executive Director on the FEnEx Board and Chairs the Nominations and Remuneration Committee.  Pete’s professional career spans 30+ years in the global energy sector with a focus on the commercial development of gas and LNG projects in Europe, West Africa, Australia, US Kazakhstan and the Asia-Pacific region.  Prior to leaving Chevron he was GM of Domestic Gas Marketing responsible for the start-up and development of Chevron’s Australian domestic gas business.  He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, co-founder of WA-based start-ups Hydrogen Developments Ltd and Future Gas Solutions Pty Ltd and a Non-Executive Director on the Board of South West Natural Resource Management.  Pete has a PhD in Earth Science from Flinders University and completed post-doctoral research at Curtin University.

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Vanessa (Fernandes) Sullivan

Independent Director

Vanessa has strong commercial, project development and strategy experience gained over 20 years working across the energy, water and sustainability sectors and more recently in hydrogen industry development. This includes as a Climate Change Leader and Utilities Leader at EY and undertaking significant energy market reforms across the supply chain in various senior roles with government. Vanessa has led complex transactions in these fields and brought together industry drivers and commercial outcomes whilst defining and delivering sustainable objectives. Vanessa’s current roles include NED AGL Energy and Chair of AGL’s Safety and Sustainability committee, NED with Port of Townsville and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, and Chair of Centacare, a large NFP that provides disability and family support services. Vanessa is also a member of the Ministerial subcommittee for hydrogen development, serves on a Griffith business school advisory board and is a member of Chief Executive Women.

Jonathan Loraine

Independent Director

Independent Director, Audit & Risk Committee Chair, Commercialisation and Strategic Communications Committee Member

Jonathan Loraine is the Chair and Founder of Core Group, a technology and innovation company which provides metallurgical testwork, process design and technology to the minerals industry, with a focus on critical minerals.  He is also a director of UK – based Carbonovia which is carrying out world leading research into the capture and use of carbon, with a goal to transform agriculture from being a cause of climate change to becoming a solution to climate change. He was formerly Chair of the CRC for Optimising Resources Extraction (“CRC ORE”) from inception to the end of its funding term in 2021, with over one billion dollars of value created for its industry participants.

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Chris Clark

Foundation Director

Chris Clark has over 30 years’ experience working in the public sector across a range of different service areas.

Chris commenced as the Deputy Director General, Infrastructure, Economy and the Environment at the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in April 2022. In this role, Chris is responsible for providing strategic policy advice to Government on a number of key government priorities, as well as working with government and industry to overseeing the development and delivery of infrastructure projects.

Prior to this, Chris was the Deputy Director General, Resources and Project Facilitation at the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science, and Innovation. Chris’ role entailed facilitating and assisting the development of State significant projects in areas ranging from the resources and oil and gas sector, through to agriculture and tourism. This included leading the implementation of economic development initiatives on behalf of the WA Government including the Future Battery and Critical Minerals Industries Strategy and the Renewable Hydrogen Strategy, as well as planning and managing the State’s Strategic Industrial Areas.