Staff Members

Dave Griggs
CEO

In September 2007 Dave moved to Australia to become Director of the Monash Sustainability Institute (MSI) which aims to deliver solutions to key sustainability challenges. In November 2008 he also became CEO of the newly created organisation ClimateWorks Australia (CWA), focussed on action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Previous positions he has held include UK Met Office Deputy Chief Scientist, Director of the Hadley Centre for Climate Change, and Head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientific assessment unit.
Dave is a past vice-chair of the World Climate Research Programme and member of the Victorian Ministerial Reference Council on Climate Change Adaptation. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), a member of the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors and the Climate Institute Strategic Council. Dave was awarded the Vilho Vaisala award (World Meteorological Organization) in 1992.

Anna Skarbek
Executive Director

Before joining ClimateWorks in September 2009 as its first full-time staff member, Anna worked in London’s carbon markets, as Vice President at Climate Change Capital – a specialist investment manager and advisor dedicated to raising and deploying capital for low carbon activities. Previously in Australia, Anna’s career included senior policy adviser for the Victorian Deputy Premier, investment banker in Macquarie Bank’s energy and utilities team, and solicitor with the national corporate law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Anna was also director of the Big Issue Australia for three years and served on the board of Amnesty International Australia from 2000-2006 in roles including National Treasurer and Victorian President.

Anna is currently a member of the Land Sector Carbon and Biodiversity Board, the Australian Government’s NGO Roundtable on Climate Change and a director of the Carbon Market Institute, Sustainable Melbourne Fund, Thermometer Foundation for Social Research on Climate Change and Linking Melbourne Authority.

Meg Argyriou
Head of Engagement

Meg Argyriou heads up ClimateWorks' engagement team, and was project lead on the development of low carbon growth plans for Greater Geelong, Gippsland and Macquarie Park. Meg holds an MBA with a specialisation in Environmental Sustainability. She has an eclectic career background, including the media and arts sectors as a program manager for Film Victoria where she managed funding programs focused on business and skills development and initiated a strategy to 'green' the film and television production industry. She has also worked for the International Energy Agency, where she provided secretariat support to working parties focused on clean energy and organised international conferences in Paris and abroad. In addition to her MBA, Meg holds a Bachelor of Film and Television, a Graduate Certificate in Advertising and completed the Centre for Sustainability Fellowship program in 2009, Swinburne's Carbon Accounting course in 2008 and Sustainability Victoria's ResourceSmart program in 2007. She is also a casual trainer for the award-winning 'Green Steps @ Work' program, teaching businesses how to reduce their environmental footprint. 

Amandine Denis
Head of Research

Prior to joining ClimateWorks Australia, Amandine worked as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company in Sydney, advising clients in both the public and private sector on a wide range of matters including strategy, sustainability issues and carbon abatement opportunities and associated policies. Previously, Amandine was employed by Air France as an analyst for the revenue management team and later progressed to team leader for the Asia-Pacific routes. As part of her MBA Amandine worked as a consultant at Alcan's Issoire Aluminium plant in France and as part of her MSc. worked as a research assistant in the aerospace computational design laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.)

Samantha Tannahill
Executive Assistant

Sam joined Climateworks Australia in April of this year, arriving in Australia from the UK in Dec 2010. Previously she had worked in high level administrative support roles for Local Government and for the past 7 years as a Personal Assistant & Institute Secretary at a Research Institute at Newcastle University. Sam's background at University was predominately in manufacturing & engineering and she has a BSc (Honours) in Manufacturing Operations Management.

Vicki Kyriakakis
Communications & Marketing Manager

Vicki Kyriakakis is a communications specialist with over 15 years experience. She has worked with a diverse group of audiences - from the tertiary education sector, to local, state and federal government, the community sector, business markets, and the environment and sustainability movement - on the local, national and international stage. Vicki started her career as a Public Relations Officer with TAFE SA, before moving onto the national stage as Communications Manager with the award-winning Business Development branch of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. She spent two years in Europe working with international business markets with a digital e-commerce company before returning to Australia to work with the local community in the City of Greater Dandenong.

Vicki has most recently spearheaded Environment Victoria's communications and digital marketing program over four years between 2007 and 2011. She is an avid creative writer in her spare time and holds tertiary and postgraduate qualifications in Health Sciences (Psychology), Marketing and Professional Writing

Paris Nichols
Senior Business Analyst

Paris joined ClimateWorks Australia in January 2012 as part of the Research team. Immediately prior to this he was the Program Manager of the Environment and Resource Efficiency Plans (EREP) program at the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria. Other roles during his six years at EPA included tackling climate change policy, business engagement, and project management, with a focus on carbon abatement solutions. Paris previously worked at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for five years and holds a Masters of Environment from the University of Melbourne.

Rob Kelly
Business Analyst

Rob joined ClimateWorks Australia in January 2012 with professional and research experience across commercial and environmental disciplines. He previously worked at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in carbon market analysis, researching the potential for land sector abatement in Australia to investigate potential carbon offset supply. Prior to this role he worked in audit and advisory at KPMG, engaged across public and private sectors in a range of industries. Rob holds a Masters of Environment from the University of Melbourne studying environmental policy, economics and management. He also has a BCom and BSc (Hons) in land rehabilitation from the University of Western Australia where he researched the impacts of mining activities on soil carbon concentrations in southern Western Australia.

Wei Sue
Business Analyst

Wei joined ClimateWorks in February 2012 following three years' experience as a sustainability consultant at Wheaton Beer Consulting providing a sustainability advisory service to clients. Clients ranged from major corporates and NGOs, to government department and SME's, covering compliance reporting, sustainability-related benchmarking and sustainability and climate change strategies. She holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours.

Scott McKenry
Engagement Manager

Scott has recently joined the ClimteWorks team after five years as team leader of the National Centre for Sustainability's Business and Community services division. His background includes cleaner production programs, environmental consulting, education and the provision of technical advice to chemical, wastewater and manufacturing industries.

Scott has worked in collaboration with numerous medium to large sized organisations across a diverse range of sectors to undertake program delivery, research, strategic development, project management, training and education. In his role, Scott has worked extensively in the areas of carbon management, sustainability strategy, climate change research, training and sustainability reporting. This work has been facilitated through extensive stakeholder engagement, consultation, evaluation and provision of sustainability workplace training.

Tonya Higgins
Advisor

Before joining ClimateWorks, Tonya was in a newly created role with the EPA Victoria as a Sustainability Manager where she was directly responsible for the management and strategic direction of the beyond compliance portfolio for the Southwest region. In this function she was seconded to the City of Greater Geelong in an Advisory capacity to establish a cross-organisational strategy to expedite sustainability outcomes across Geelong. Her efforts resulted in the Future Proofing Geelong Regional Sustainability Covenant, which is a private/public alliance focused on growing local demand for clean technology solutions to realise social, environmental and economic outcomes.

Prior to this Tonya spent 17 years in the IT space with extensive experience in innovation, digital strategy and product development. During this time she held management roles at numerous multi-national organisations, including at Microsoft and Lonely Planet Digital. She is passionate about the opportunity to use technology to enable significant sustainability and environmental outcomes. Tonya holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington, Seattle.