John O'Brien, Managing Director
BA(Oxon), MSc, MBA, GAICD, CPEng, MIEAust

John is the founder and Managing Director of Australian CleanTech and has advised numerous organizations on their options with respect to securing or making cleantech investments. He has also launched cleantech stock market indices in Australia and China, facilitates the Sydney and Adelaide Cleantech Networks, edited the book Opportunities Beyond Carbon and is a regular media commentator. He is on the board of three cleantech companies, one of which is based in Fujian Province, China, on the board of Renewables SA and the South Australian Premier’s Climate Change Council, both of which advise on Government policies.

John previously worked for Origin Energy, one of Australia’s largest energy companies, on growth, strategy and M&A projects in addition to being the founding secretary of the company’s Operational Risk Committee. He specialized in reviewing and filtering clean energy and water industry opportunities.

He has engineering degrees from the University of Oxford and Trinity College, Dublin and an MBA from the University of Adelaide. He has completed the AICD’s Company Directors Course, is a chartered engineer with the Institute of Engineers Australia and is a member of the Australian Water Association and Responsible Investment Association of Australia.

Joe Cho, Partner
BProp, MEng

Joe (Hyunbum) Cho is an experienced investment professional who has worked across venture capital, property, construction, resources and international investment markets in Australia and Korea.

Joe’s background in Korea included an investment analyst for a venture capital company and as a Property Development/ Marketing manager for a major property consulting firm where he conducted feasibility reports for more than 0 Million worth of residential and mixed use development projects.

Joe also worked for one of Korea’s largest construction/development companies, POSCO E&C (a subsidiary of the POSCO Group) where his roles were managing, contracting, negotiating and divesting of commercial properties.

Since moving to Australia in 2006, Joe has worked as an investment consultant for a leading property investment company and founded an international investment and trade consulting company.

Joe’s recent work has included facilitating investments into Australian property, resources and renewable energy projects primarily from Korean investors. He also assisted Australian companies enter the Korean market and Korean companies enter the Australian market. Joe has also published a book in Korea on the Australian Property market.

He lectures in Property Investment at the University of Western Sydney and is doing his PhD on Asia-Pacific Property funds in mixed asset portfolios. Also he is a Certified Investment Advisor for shares, bonds, futures and options in Korea and a Registered Land Agent/Auctioneer (SA) and Building Supervisor (SA) in Australia.

Dorothy Zhao
BA

Dorothy Zhao has more than eight years’ investor relations, corporate finance and capital raising experience gained from two large-cap HK / US listed companies, a leading financial newswire agency and vertical industry organization respectively.

Dorothy’s main responsibilities with Sino Cleantech include providing advisory on investment, capital raising, market research, due diligence and associated activities to the company and its clients, including multiple US, HK and Mainland China listed companies, translating variety of investment related documents between English and Chinese, proof-reading and editing monthly, quarterly and annual Sino CleanTech index reports, providing marketing support and coordinating industry awards and networking events in Australia and overseas.

Dorothy holds a BA in English with a minor in Marketing and Economics, from the Beijing International Studies University and qualificaitions in Financial Reporting for Non-Finance Manager & Social Media Marketing, from the University of Sydney.

Katie Xiong, Project Manager
BA MCom

Katie (Qi) Xiong is a project manager with extensive international experience gained with one of China’s leading energy companies. She has strengths in understanding issues, creating solutions and then managing and delivering the project implementation.

Katie previously worked for China Southern Power Grid, which is ranked 227 in the Fortune Global 500. Her responsibilities included bidding for international power plant projects and included investigation and analysis of international electricity markets, construction and operations cost estimation, strategy development and implementation, public relations and document preparation.

Katie worked on more than 3,600 MW of power plant projects in countries such as Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Oman, Tanzania, Yemen and Macao. For these projects she managed contractors such as Alstom Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Shanghai Electronic Power Generation Group and the Harbin Electronic Power Generation Group.

Katie is now leading Sino CleanTech’s engagement with clients in China. This work has included work with wind, solar and construction companies as well as assisting individual and corporate investors to assess cleantech opportunities in Australia.

She has Bachelor Degree in North China Electric Power University (Beijing) and Master of Accounting and Finance in the University of Adelaide.

Sarah Tritsch, Principal Consultant
BEc, MCom, MBA, FFin

Sarah is a management consultant who specialises in the China and Australian cleantech sectors, with a particular interest in the development of sustainable cities. She provides strategic and practical business advice for innovative companies and has advised on commercialisation, business growth and capital raising issues.

Sarah has diverse government experience in Australia with both State and Federal Government. She understands how government works and interacts with the private sector. In NSW, Sarah was the state development team leader in the Cabinet Office and advised the Premier on state development issues and innovation-related industry strategy. She previously worked as a senior financial analyst in NSW Treasury responsible for government property, water and human services agencies.

Prior to joining the NSW Government, Sarah worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade where she was an economic analyst and organised high-level commercial projects. She worked in the Minister for Trade’s office and was posted as a diplomat in greater China and Indonesia where she provided economic advice, participated in international aviation negotiations, managed significant projects and represented Australian interests overseas.

Sarah holds postgraduate economic and financial degrees and a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. She is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and has Mandarin language skills.

Mr Chris Chong, Partner
BE Hons (Adelaide), FIEAust

Mr Chris (Chow Pang) Chong has more than 40 years of experience in power generation and allied fields beginning with an early career with the National Electricity Board of Malaya, and subsequently in founding one of Malaysia’s leading power generation consulting firms.

In the 1980s, Mr Chong was one of the founders of Tenaga Ewbank Preece Malaysia, which was initially partly owned by the global engineering consultancy, Ewbank Preece. Mr Chong sold his stake in the company in 2001 and the company continues to be a significant player in the Malaysia and Asian energy market under the name KTA Tenaga.

In the early 1990s, Mr Chong was the pioneer of the IPP (Independent Power Producer) Government Policy in Malaysia. He convinced YTL Corporation on the IPP concept and was appointed as the Project Director of the IPP Project, responsible not only for the design and specifications of the Combined Cycle Power Project (CCPP) but also in the team negotiation with the Government and the Bankers and the other parties. Mr Chong then launched the US billion, 1200MW CCPP project in 1993.

Based on a proven track record in project management, particularly in spearheading the adoption of new technologies, Chris is able to assemble diverse and highly specialised teams to undertake new initiatives. This is facilitated by an extensive network of international contacts in government, business and education and the ability to communicate effectively in several languages, particularly English and Mandarin.