Michelle Cheah
DIRECTOR/CHAIR
Michelle is a skilled partnership broker across the not-for-profit, private, public and education sectors; working closely with clients and stakeholders to address complex social issues. Her focus on collaboration, human-centred design and innovation is matched with a practical approach to program design and project management. Michelle understands the complexities of operating in dynamic environments and has expertise in building organisational capability and facilitating shared-value partnerships to deliver impact at scale.
Elizabeth Brown
DIRECTOR
Elizabeth works with organisations focused on building sustainable livelihoods, creating meaningful employment, accelerating climate action and economic transition, and improving community health and well-being. Her experience includes start-up design, funding and growth, organisational leadership and governance, social program design and environmental engineering. Elizabeth brings a wide range of skills and experience to the Board.
Ben Jeffereys
DIRECTOR
Co-Founder & CEO of ATEC Global, Ben is a multi-award winning entrepreneur who believes technology is the key to solving climate change and reducing energy poverty. His mission is to bring trust and transparency to carbon markets, and transformative impact to the Global South, where it is needed most. Ben is a father-of-three, a keen tennis, snowboarding and geo-economics enthusiast, and is passionate about providing agency to families in the developing world to live better lives for generations to come. Ben is Australian but now resides in France after co-founding ATEC in Cambodia.
Tony Heynen
DIRECTOR
Tony Heynen is a Chartered Professional Engineer and holds a PhD, with extensive experience across the resources sector, academia, and sustainability research. He has worked in environmental engineering and stakeholder management, including serving as Country Manager for Eni in Timor-Leste.
Tony has a deep and longstanding commitment to, and connection with, Timor-Leste, shaped through his leadership roles and engagement with government, industry, and community stakeholders.
His doctoral research explored private sector investment in energy access for ‘Base of the Pyramid’ markets in rural India using a Shared Value approach. At The University of Queensland, he has taught extensively and coordinated postgraduate programs in Sustainable Energy, with research interests in energy access and sustainability.
He brings to xpand Foundation technical expertise, governance experience, and a strong commitment to practical, sustainable development solutions.
Phil Cohn
DIRECTOR
Phil has over 15 years’ experience in renewable energy, electricity markets, carbon markets and innovation. He combines technical knowledge with strong commercial and strategy skills to deliver complex projects in environmental and energy markets. He has diverse experience building start-ups and early-stage ventures, as well as advising at the board and senior management level across a variety of public and private sector organisations. Phil is an Executive Director at the climate change investments and advisory firm Pollination. Before joining Pollination, Phil was Chief Operating Officer at a clean energy start-up where he led corporate development and led extensive engagements with ASX200 clients, energy buyers and retailers. Phil was formerly an Investment Director at the Australian Renewable Energy Agency where he led the Agency’s distributed energy, demand response and grid integration investment priorities. In this role Phil developed expert knowledge in clean technology trends, barriers and opportunities and he developed an extensive network among project sponsors and developers. Prior to this Phil founded RAMP Carbon which provided project development, trading and advisory services to blue chip clients in the Australian and European carbon markets
