Written on 03 December 2023.

Team

Who we are

Akaysha is under the guidance of a dedicated, focused and experienced team. Our team is made up of passionate long-standing energy sector professionals, proven in the development of mega-scale batteries and renewables around the world.

Our Values

Safety

Every day in every way.

Each and every day, safety must be top of mind at all times. As individuals, and as a team we must not only set a safe example for everyone we work alongside or with, but we must look out for each others wellbeing.
Evidence

Driven by data and empirical approach.

Evidence is everything as we relentlessly gather data that drives our decision making and risk measurement. We are restless, inquisitive and accurate across every domain, sector and area of what we do. At Akaysha, we never stop learning, or building a better tomorrow for the planet and its people.
Collaboration

We succeed together.

Akaysha prioritises an inclusive cross-pillar collaborative mindset where the sharing of information and knowledge leads to our collective success. Assuming positive intent, and always respectful of everyone's different views, skills and opinions, we consistently deliver as a team each and every day, as building a better tomorrow will never be an individual endeavour.
Scrappiness

Find a way to get things done.

We are an adaptable, agile and lean team, who do work hard, but do so in an even smarter way. We always take time to reflect on process and implementation, but never make perfect the enemy of progress.
Authenticity

We do what we say.

At Akaysha, trust is built via authentic interactions where we are clear about what we intend to do, and always follow through by doing what we say. We are clear in our communications and by doing so, continually deliver on our promises with quality assets that will not only last well into the future. But create the future.

Executive and Leadership Team

Nick Carter

Managing Director & CEO

Nick Carter has 25 years of engineering and energy systems experience in Australia, Asia and North America. This includes roles such as: Senior Vice President at Macquarie Capital in the Energy Technology and Solutions team within the Green Investment Group; Business Development and Sales Engineering at Tesla Energy for large front of the meter, commercial and industrial stationary storage and Virtual Power Plants (APAC); Head of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Project Development at AGL Energy; and technical engineering roles at General Motors and Toyota for advanced powertrain control systems.

Nick was motivated to start Akaysha Energy after not only seeing gaps in the market for a fully integrated development business focused primarily on battery storage, but also seeing the opportunity created by the rapid renewable energy transition in Australia, across Asia and globally.

As CEO of Akaysha Nick leads a group of multi-domain experts and senior leaders across the 5 key pillars. In terms of the battery storage project development life cycle Nick is involved on a day-to-day basis across development, techno-economic optimisation, engineering, investment, project finance, asset management and energy trading.
Andrew Wegman

Managing Director & Chief Financial & Investment Officer

Andrew Wegman brings experience from an investment banking, principal investing and engineering background. Having advised on over $25bn of announced M&A transactions while in Macquarie Capital’s advisory business, Andrew then moved into the Energy Technology & Solutions team focusing on principal investments in renewables and energy storage projects, such as the Hazelwood BESS, and other technologies such as hybrid renewables and storage, fleet electrification and EV charging infrastructure.

Andrew leads the finance & investments pillar at Akaysha focusing on business case development and optimisation, and capital solutions for the business and its projects.
Tony Fullelove

Managing Director, International Markets

Tony Fullelove has almost twenty-five years' experience in the energy industry, leading large scale and distributed renewable projects and delivering major transformational programs across the energy sector.

Tony leads Akaysha's BESS development pipeline and business operations in US and Japan. Tony has extensive experience doing the same for large corporates in Australia, such as AGL and Monash University (Net Zero Initiative) and across Asia with Macquarie Capital’s renewable development vehicle, Blueleaf Energy.
Paul Curnow

Managing Director & Chief Commercial Officer

Paul leads our cross-business strategy for revenue contracting and entry into new energy markets and products. Prior to joining Akaysha, Paul held leadership positions in private legal practice with law firms Ashurst (as Global Head of Energy) and Baker McKenzie (as Head of Renewable Energy APAC), building on a successful 25 year legal career focused on clean energy and climate change. During this time, Paul was recognised as one of Australia's leading renewable energy lawyers and globally as a long-standing market leader in climate change and carbon markets. During his two decades in private practice, Paul has been a driving force behind giga-watts of market-first greenfield renewable energy and M&A transactions across solar, wind, pumped hydro, energy from waste, and battery storage at both the utility scale and distributed generation. In addition, Paul has been – and continues to be - a long-standing policy voice for the clean energy sector as the energy transition accelerates toward net zero.
Feri Hamori

Director of Asset Management & Market Operations

Feri Hamori brings over 20 years of experience in Engineering, Energy Systems, Asset Management and business Operations having worked at General Motors, Caterpillar, and Australian Remanufacturing. Throughout his career, Feri has lead both small and larger teams and businesses to successfully meet performance objectives by creating and optimising processes and policies with a relentless focus on daily business and administrative operations.

Feri is leading the General Operations, Technical Market Operations and Asset Management pillar at Akaysha and is ultimately responsible for Operations and BESS assets as well as reporting and contracting (including O&M and trading).
Pan Galanis

Director of Energy Markets

Pan has over sixteen years of experience as a consultant and a project manager and has a broad practical and academic experience. This experience spans electricity, gas and energy markets, project management, project development and civil engineering construction.

Pan has conducted multiple modelling, statistical and qualitative studies of electricity markets in Australia and internationally for the exploration of market design changes, the evaluation of proposed reforms and the impact of different policies, the reliability of power systems, the forecast of large and small-scale renewable generation and storage systems, the cost-benefit analysis of regulated transmission assets, the projection of future energy prices, the forecasting of power generation and revenue for market due diligence projects and the assessment of PPA offers.
Nick Finch

Director of Engineering

Nick Finch has almost ten years’ engineering experience in the power generation and energy industry. Working in Development, Construction, Asset Management and Operations & Maintenance across a broad range of generation technologies, Nick brings a uniquely comprehensive electrical skillset to the Akaysha team.

Prior to joining Akaysha, Nick led ENGIE Australia’s NEM Grid Connections and Electrical Asset Development, including the Hazelwood BESS project. Now as Akaysha’s Head of Grid Connections and Electrical Engineering, Nick applies his practical Asset Management background and deep understanding of traditional synchronous power station operation into the modern era of inverter based renewables and BESS development.
Hannah Iwanov

Director, People, Safety and Marketing

Hannah Iwanov leads Akaysha Energy's people strategy, safety and marketing teams. With over a decade of leadership experience, she has a proven track record in driving organisational growth and developing high-performance teams. Prior to her role at Akaysha, Hannah served as Chief People Officer and Board Member at Ento, where she led the company through strategic planning, talent acquisition, and market expansion. Involved in strategic planning and modelling for two capital raises, Hannah then positioned the business for a successful sale to Humanforce. Hannah’s expertise spans across operational leadership, people strategy, culture development, and driving business outcomes. Hannah has also held mentor roles with accelerator firms - Startmate and Techstars.
Richard Reynolds

Director, Development & Delivery

Richard has nearly twenty years of experience delivering large-scale battery energy storage (BESS), solar (PV), and transmission projects. He leads Akaysha’s Development and Delivery team, guiding project managers, development managers, engineers, project controls and stakeholder managers to bring industry leading projects to life in Australia and international markets. His leadership is defined by a focus on safety, precision in execution, and strong stakeholder engagement.
Brooke Miechel

General Counsel

Having joined Akaysha Energy in October 2024 as General Counsel, Brooke leads the company’s Legal, Compliance, Risk and Insurance functions. Brooke has 20 years of experience in providing strategic and pragmatic counsel across infrastructure, energy and technology asset classes in most continents across the globe.
Prior to joining Akaysha Energy, Brooke held senior legal positions at General Electric Company (as Executive Counsel), Standard AI, a Series C Softbank Unicorn (as Head of Legal and Corporate Secretary), and King & Wood Mallesons.
Dual-qualified to practice law in both the United States and Australia, Brooke holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) and Laws (Hons) from the Australian National University, a Master of Construction Law from the University of Melbourne and an Executive MBA. While undertaking her MBA, Brooke founded the Quantic Mentorship Society, an initiative designed to foster knowledge-sharing and collaboration globally among her MBA peers.