My contribution to a board
A board facing a long-life asset decision usually has ample engineering advice and ample financial modelling, but less help connecting the two to the customers who must pay. That connection is my contribution. I can examine whether an asset's economic life is supported by contracts or only by its engineering, whether a forecast has been presented as a commitment, and whether a new-energy option depends on a connection or upgrade the company does not control. I have done this for ten years as an executive presenting to Corrandale's board and its investment and risk committee, and since 2019 as a director of a community energy co-operative, which I would not present as equivalent to a listed or large private board. Directors' duties under the Corporations Act and, for listed boards, the ASX Corporate Governance Council's principles are familiar to me in general terms; I would expect an induction on how a particular board applies them.
Judgement in practice
01Questioning a life that only engineering supported
When I proposed the 2042 basis for our western pipeline, the useful question for the board was not whether my demand forecast was right. It was what would happen to the unrecovered capital if any reasonable forecast proved right. On another board I would ask the same of any long-lived asset: who has contracted to use it, for how long, and what does the balance sheet assume after those contracts end? I would want the life case shown alongside its depreciation and impairment consequences. I would also listen carefully to the objection that a shorter life may harm relationships or signal weakness. Our general manager of commercial raised it, and he was partly correct, because we did lose load. A director's role is to make sure that cost is chosen knowingly.
02Separating a market warning from a contract
The storage decision taught me to distinguish risk across the whole market from a company's own revenue. AEMO's warnings were credible, and our chief executive's concern about losing a winter was legitimate. But a board approving A$291 million needs to know who will pay, not only that someone might need the asset. As a director I would ask management to show what share of a new asset's capacity is contracted, on what terms, and what the asset is worth if the anticipated shortage is met by others. I would also ask what delay costs, because waiting is never free: we paid A$23 million more and lost a winter of service. My aim would be to help the board decide that trade-off explicitly, rather than to block investment by default.
03Asking what an exit owes to people outside the sale
Selling the battery project raised a question boards sometimes treat as a detail: which obligations should survive the sale of an asset? We chose to transfer the neighbour agreement and the community fund in full, at a cost to the price. On another board I would ask how an exit affects people who are not party to the transaction, including landholders, employees and local councils, and whether the company's later projects depend on their trust. I would ask to see holding, scaling back and selling compared. Our head of new energy argued strongly for holding, and his view deserved a fair hearing in the paper. A board should always see the strongest version of the option it rejects.
My first year on a board
A new director who arrives with answers usually learns the board's history too late, so I would arrive with questions. Before my first meeting I would read two years of board papers on the company's largest assets and ask the company secretary for the risk register and any outstanding commitments to communities or regulators. I would ask to visit two operating sites with the people who run them. In early meetings my questions would be mainly about how this board decides: who prepares investment papers, how dissent reaches the table and how an approval is revisited once circumstances change. I would not import Corrandale's methods; a water utility or a port answers to different customers and regulators. Towards the end of the year I would ask the chair for direct feedback on whether my contribution had been useful and where I still needed to learn.
Conflicts and their management
Corrandale's customers include gas retailers, generators, industrial users and regional distribution businesses, any of which a board role in energy, water or infrastructure could touch. Before accepting, I would list Corrandale's material counterparties and our shareholders' other significant investments, then compare them with the prospective company's. Where a connection is direct, such as a customer, a supplier or a competitor for the same capital, I would decline. Where it is occasional, I would agree a process with both chairs for declaring the matter and leaving the room. My co-operative directorship also needs disclosure, because the co-operative operates solar and battery assets in central Victoria and comments on projects there. Time is the other conflict. If Corrandale's storage construction or a portfolio transaction needed more of me, I would tell the chair early and reduce my external commitment rather than attend unprepared.
My independence statement
I am a Corrandale executive and would remain one. I would treat myself as independent of a prospective company only after comparing its customers, suppliers, shareholders and competitors with those of Corrandale and of the co-operative I serve, and I would leave the final judgement to that company's board.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 20 days per year
- Current directorships
- 1
- Sectors
- Regional water and energy utilities · Ports, airports and other economic infrastructure · Energy businesses outside gas transmission
- Company type
- Privately owned, government-owned or mutual organisation with long-lived physical assets
- Company stage
- Deciding asset lives, major reinvestment or partial exits as demand changes
The seat I am pursuing
I am seeking a first non-executive seat with an organisation that owns long-lived physical assets and must decide how they will be used as demand, technology or policy changes. Regional water utilities, port or airport owners and energy businesses outside gas transmission are the most natural fits. For a first appointment I would prefer a privately owned, government-owned or mutual organisation, where my lack of listed-board experience matters less. I am not seeking a seat in order to promote gas, nor to argue against it. I want to help a board recognise which of its assets customers will still pay for, and to make difficult choices about the others while there is still time to make them well.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
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| Ready to join | Investment and capital allocation · Risk · Audit, as a member |
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Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The Indian independent directors' databank does not apply to my Australian candidacy, so I have not registered with it; the status is shown only for completeness.
- Completed a recognised Australian company directors' course in 2019, before joining the co-operative's board.
- Study how audit committees review useful-life, depreciation and impairment judgements for long-lived infrastructure.
- Observe how the chair of Corrandale's investment and risk committee records dissent and revisits approved decisions.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Corrandale Energy Infrastructure
Board; investment and risk committee
July 2016–present
Presents the annual portfolio review, economic-life cases and investment papers above A$20 million; not a director.
Served as a director
Wanderlie Community Energy Co-operative
Board; member of the finance and risk committee
November 2019–present
Unpaid non-executive director of a member-owned solar and battery co-operative in central Victoria with about 1,900 members.