Cypress Folio: an electricity network's operations chief, introduced by the rule he signs each September

His name heads the page in small, widely tracked capitals, centred over the edition line Chief Operating Officer · Essays & perspective and a centred row of page links. The cover beneath splits unevenly. The narrower left column holds his portrait inside a panel a shade lighter than the page, captioned with his name, title and Australia. The wider right column carries the eyebrow A selected perspective, then the topic Bushfire risk and de-energisation, the essay's date and an estimated reading time.

The headline is that essay's title: Switch off the feeder only after you have powered the pump. Its standfirst, a link to the full piece, his availability and a contact link follow. A fire officer or a nomination chair meets a position to dispute before any career summary.

Next comes a band labelled The portfolio and From idea to consequence. His first three cases, in order, each get a wide spread: a tall Roman numeral in the accent colour, the case title, the opening sentence of the case and nothing more, then a link to the Impact page.

Simon's spreads therefore read as three short situations. Spread I opens with Telmora Energy's board deciding the future of a 1,320-megawatt coal station. Spread II opens with Wyndarra's board asking, after the 2019–20 fires, whether the network should ever switch off ahead of a dangerous day. Spread III opens on the evening of 19 November 2024, as thunderstorms crossed the tablelands. His fourth case, on paying vegetation contractors for spans certified clear, appears only on the Impact page, so the order of cases is an editorial choice.

After the spreads his philosophy is set as a centred passage in large serif type: that an operation should be judged by its worst day, which on a rural network is usually forecast. A reading list headed Further reading then numbers his other essays 02 and 03, on why a coal station's workers need a fixed closure date and on publishing only those restoration times a field manager will sign. Three figures follow: 418,000 customer connections, 74,000 kilometres of overhead line and A$935 million of annual spend in his remit.

Below them come his thesis, introduction, four proof points and current focus, then a short record of his trust directorship and qualifications beside an endorsement.

The Career page takes its headline from his own words, Thirty-three years from a station switchboard to a network control room. Each of his six roles sits in a ruled frame captioned FOLIO with its number and dates, and every second frame steps in from the left margin, so the run from graduate engineer to chief operating officer reads like pages turned.

The Readiness page, What an operator would bring to a regional board, puts his contribution and three judgement examples in one frame and his first-year plan, conflicts and independence statement in a second. A two-column register then sets exposure and governance learning against committees, days and preferences, which makes clear that his only directorship is a not-for-profit trust. The journal index raises the newest essay into a lighter panel,. On a phone the cover stacks and the numerals shrink to a narrow column.

Cypress uses a near-black eucalypt green for the page, two lighter greens for panels, warm cream for type, a soft sage for secondary text and a pale wheat tone kept for numerals, eyebrows and links. For a man whose subject is bush, weather and night shifts, it feels like a control room after dark rather than the blue of utility advertising. Display type is EB Garamond, a book face that gives his long essay title and the Roman numerals some gravity; running text is Figtree, a plain modern sans serif that keeps kilometres, percentages and dollar figures easy to read on a small screen.

The pairing would also serve water chiefs, rail and port operators, mining contractors, emergency management executives, and finance or risk leaders with one tested, unpopular position.