The Global Advisory Board plays an essential role in facilitating the high calibre of people and thought leadership that underpin the success of the Club. The role of the Global Advisory Board is to further the mission of The Hawthorn Club by providing strategic guidance to its overall direction.

Kate Vidgen

Kate Vidgen

GLOBAL HEAD OF INDUSTRIAL TRANSITION AND CLEAN FUELS, SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, MACQUARIE ASSET MANAGEMENT GREEN INVESTMENTS

Kate joined Macquarie in June 1998. Kate has a variety of experience across a number of sectors including infrastructure, utilities and telecommunications in both a corporate advisory capacity and as a principal. Kate’s current role involves the deployment of capital globally and actively managing those investments. The key area of investment focus is the energy transition and enabling more traditional industries to accelerate their decarbonisation, and leverage from existing infrastructure and skills to do so. Kate is also leading the development of Macquarie Asset Management’s Green Investment (MAM GI) strategy beyond renewables via products such as renewable hydrogen, green ammonia, sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel and technologies such as CCS.

Kate undertakes a variety of governance and leadership functions across Macquarie Group including as the Chair of the Macquarie Group Climate Solutions Taskforce. Kate is on the global leadership team of MAM GI and sits on the board of portfolio companies, such as Atlas Agro, the Hydrogen Chemistry Company, and SkyNRG. In addition, Kate has a range of governance experience with external organisations; for instance she is a current Member of the Australian Clean Energy Regulator Board.

Michael Liebreich

Founder, Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates and Founder and Senior Contributor to Bloomberg New Energy Finance – the world’s leading provider of information and research on clean energy and transport.

He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, a member of the UK Department for International Trade’s Capital Investment Advisory Board and most recently joined Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) as a Senior Adviser. In June 2019 Michael was honoured to accept an invitation to join the IEA’s Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency, a newly formed independent panel focusing on key policy actions that can be undertaken by countries around the globe.

Until recently he was a long-standing board member of Transport for London and continues to be a member of the high-level group for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

Michael serves on too many advisory boards to list, he is a prolific speaker and writer and is known to make the occasional angel investment. His ongoing philanthropic work is admirable, and finally, Michael also skied for Great Britain at the 1992 Albertville Olympics.

Nancy E Pfund

Founder, Managing Partners, DBL Partners

Nancy E. Pfund is Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners, a venture capital firm whose goal is to combine top tier financial returns with meaningful social, environmental and economic returns in the regions and sectors in which it invests. Nancy is also the Founder of DBL Investors. As a leading player in the growing field of impact investing, DBL has helped to reveal the power of venture capital to promote social change and environmental improvement. Ms. Pfund currently sponsors or sits on the board of directors of several companies, including; Farmers Business Network, The Muse, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Off Grid Electric, Primus Power, and, prior to their public offerings, Tesla Motors and Pan¬dora.

Ms. Pfund was featured #17 in the 2014 FORTUNE Inaugural World’s Top 25 Eco- Innovators; and appeared on Fast Company’s 2016 List of Most Creative People in Business. She is also a co-author on a number of widely cited reports, such as “What Would Jefferson Do? The Historical Role of Federal Subsidies in Shaping America’s Energy Future”. Ms. Pfund received her BA and MA in anthropology from Stanford University, and her MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Dame Fiona Woolf, DBE

Consultant, CMS Cameron Mckenna

Dame Fiona Woolf is an energy and infrastructure lawyer with CMS Cameron McKenna who has advised over 28 governments and the World Bank on energy reforms and infrastructure. She has 25 years’ experience in dealing with regulation, market design, implementation and major projects in the electricity industry – culminating in a CBE in 2002 for her contribution to the UK knowledge economy and invisible earnings. Much of her recent work has been for the World Bank on regional markets, regulation and infrastructure serving more than one country.