Chief Executive Officer

CARL WEATHERLEY – WHITE

Carl brings over twenty-five years of renewable energy transactional experience to VivoPower, with a particular focus on acquisitions, project and corporate finance, private equity and joint ventures.

Previously, he was President of Lightbeam Electric Company, which aggregated a diversified, international portfolio of renewable energy projects to support an initial public offering. Previously, he was CFO of K Road Power Holdings, a private solar development company and portfolio company of Barclays. At K Road, Carl spearheaded acquisition activities, capital raising and risk management for over 400 MW of PV solar projects developed and divested over 2 years.

Prior to this, Carl was Managing Director and head of project finance at Lehman Brothers and Barclays with global energy infrastructure transaction experience for a wide variety of private equity and strategic clients. He also led renewable energy tax equity investing at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers.

Carl graduated with a bachelor of science with honors from Brown University, and a Graduate Fellowship in economics and political science at the University of Cape Town. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst holder.

Chief Financial Officer

ART RUSSELL

Art is an experienced CFO with over 25 years of global experience in financial management, business performance improvement and turnaround across a diverse range of industry sectors. He has worked extensively in the private equity investment space, on both sides of the investment transaction.

Art was previously CFO of APC Technology Group PLC, a business listed on AIM of the London Stock Exchange, successfully turning around the business following significant loss, near business collapse, and management change. APC provides design, specification, and distribution of specialist electronic components and systems, lighting technologies and connectivity products to the defense, aerospace, industrial, real estate, logistics and healthcare sectors.

Prior to joining APC, Art was CFO of a UK based KKR private equity investment in the aviation sector, responsible for financial management of a £250m turnover international business through to successful exit to a FTSE 100 PLC.

Previous experience includes ten years as Senior Vice President & CFO of a SME private equity investment firm in North America, responsible for all M&A activity, financing, and portfolio management. Prior to this, Art led finance for a private equity backed international marine and fuel distribution company, joining that business after eight years in audit, tax, and financial advisory services at Deloitte.

Art holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta. He is qualified as a Chartered Accountant in both the United Kingdom and Canada.

Non-Executive Chairman

KEVIN CHIN

Kevin has extensive experience in “hands on” strategic and operational management having served as CEO, CFO and COO of various companies across a range of industries, including solar energy, software, traffic management, education, funds management and vocational education.

He also has significant international experience in private equity, buyouts of public companies, mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings as well as funds management, accounting, litigation support and valuations.

Kevin is the founder of Arowana & Co. (Ärowana), a diversified investment group with operations across Australia, NZ and South East Asia. Arowana has listed companies on the Australian Stock Exchange and NASDAQ as well as unlisted companies. Arowana International Limited, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, is the largest shareholder in VivoPower International PLC (“VivoPower”). Kevin is primarily responsible for delivering annualised returns in excess of 30% to investors across Arowana’s investments, and has been since its formation in 2007.

Over his twenty year career, Kevin has held a number of strategic and operational leadership roles and was also previously with Lowy Family Group, J.P. Morgan, Ord Minnett, PWC and Deloitte.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales where he was one of the inaugural University Co-Op Scholars with the School of Banking and Finance. He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of FINSIA, where he was a lecturer in the Masters of Applied Finance programme.

Non-Executive Board Member

GARY HUI

Gary has extensive experience in commercial enterprise, spanning the functional disciplines of accounting, mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and principal/alternative investments.

Gary is Chief Investment Officer of Arowana International and Fund Manager of Arowana Australasian Value Opportunities Fund.

Prior to this, he was with Indus Capital, a hedge fund founded by former Soros Fund Management Partners. He joined Indus as a senior analyst, before becoming Managing Director and Chief Representative of Indus’ Singapore office. He later transferred to the firm’s San Francisco office, where he had primary coverage responsibilities for multiple industry sectors.

Gary has worked with J.P. Morgan, initially as a mergers and acquisitions banker before moving to Hong Kong as an Equity Capital & Derivative Markets banker. He has also worked at Deloitte in audit, business consulting and corporate finance.

Gary qualified as a Chartered Accountant and completed the Securities Institute of Australia (now FINSIA) program where he placed first nationally in Mergers & Acquisitions. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales.

Independent Board Member

EDWARD HYAMS

Edward has over forty years’ experience in Power Engineering, Renewables and in Energy Efficiency as an Executive, Private Equity Partner and as a Non-Executive Director.

As a Partner at Englefield Capital, he co-led the Renewable Energy Fund, investing in Solar, Wind and Biomass developments in Europe. He joined Englefield having led the management team which Englefield and another PE firm backed to invest in Zephyr, the first structured financing of a portfolio of renewables assets in the UK.

Prior to Englefield, Edward held senior executive roles as CEO of BizzEnergy, Managing Director of Eastern Group PLC and Director of Engineering at Southern Electric Plc. Edward was a non-executive Director of the UK Energy Saving Trust following the electricity and gas privatisations in the early 1990’s. He re-joined the Trust as Non-Executive Chairman in 2005.

Edward is a Chartered Engineer, graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, London and holds a Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants. He has completed executive programs in finance at Harvard Business School and in strategy and organisation at Stanford.

Independent Board Member

SHIMI SHAH

Shimi has been actively involved in investing and venture capital for over 20 years and has made over 50 investments in early and expansion stage transactions, of which many have been successfully exited with superior returns for investors in Europe, the US, and the Middle East.

Shimi is the Chairperson of Carousel Solutions, a technology and business advisory group, focusing on assisting companies navigate expansion into and out of the Middle East and Europe, build diversified businesses, appoint high profile and ROI driven boards, and provide efficient technology solutions to mitigate security risk and increase productivity.

Shimi is also an active independent director and advisory board member. She currently holds an advisory board role with StartAd, the New York University in Abu Dhabi’s accelerator initiative. She is also a board director of Bboxx, a $25m revenue distributed energy business. Shimi also chairs the leading kid’s club design company called Worldwide Kids Club. Additionally, she is part of the advisory committee for the Green Gateway Fund, a $250m clean technology and sustainability fund. Shimi is a firm believer in social capital and CSR, and sits on the board of the Pay It Forward Foundation based in the US.

Shimi was previously CEO at FORSA LLC, Managing Partner at Partnerships UK (PUK), Chief Investment Officer at Hanson Capital, and has worked at 3i and Citigroup.

Shimi holds Masters in Management from Queens’ College Cambridge and Bachelor of Science degree from King’s College, London, in Management and Economics. Shimi is an active member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) in Europe and Africa.

Independent Board Member

PETER SERMOL

Peter has over thirty years experience in institutional finance.

Peter is the co-founder of North Star Solar Ltd, a company focused on installing UK rooftop solar PV and battery storage, which developed a model to install renewable technologies without any need for government subsidies.

Prior to this, with his proven track record in trading distressed debt, Peter ran the Toronto office of Amstel Securities, a Dutch regulated brokerage firm, for eight years. During this period Peter expanded the office to focus on uncovering and seeding uncorrelated investment opportunities. Taking a sector agnostic view, investments ranged from Latin American NPL’s, financing Canadian property developers, Australian non-conforming loans, US viatical life insurance policies, to US non-prime auto loans. During this period he also served as CEO of an online media distribution company.

Previously, Peter has worked with specialist brokerage and advisory firms, including Anca Capital Partners and Amstel, as well as co-founding his own brokerage firm, Global Markets Ltd trading Asian Convertible Bonds and GDRs.

Peter studied marine electronics at the Merchant Naval College, Greenhithe.

Director (USA)

DANIEL DE BOER

Dan De Boer has nearly a decade of experience in corporate finance and renewable energy investment.

Most recently, Dan was Senior Vice President of Blackstone’s renewable investment platform, Onyx Renewable Partners. Focusing on strategic acquisitions and capital raising, Dan structured an ~$300mm blind-pool tax equity structure with Credit Suisse that formed the basis of Onyx’s Commercial & Industrial solar strategy.

Prior to his role at Onyx, Dan was an Associate on D. E. Shaw & Co.’s North American Buyout team. During his tenure at the D. E. Shaw group, Dan helped launch the team’s renewable energy infrastructure fund, D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments, (DESRI), and executed that fund’s initial investments. Prior to this, he worked as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank.

Dan graduated with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a Masters in Business Administration with a dual focus in Finance and Accounting. Dan completed his undergraduate degree at Yale University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

Head of EMEA & LATAM

DR. EMMANUEL MEYER

Emmanuel brings over ten years’ experience in infrastructure financing and project management.

Previously Emmanuel was Director of Global Institutional Investors at Conergy AG, where he advised private and institutional investors on M&A transactions and debt capital solutions, with a focus on energy and infrastructure investments.

Prior to this, Emmanuel served as Managing Director of Element Power Italy, where he oversaw the buildup of the American-backed renewable energy development company, achieving exceptional returns on capital investing in wind and solar assets.

Emmanuel was also a portfolio manager at Cattolica Assicurazioni, a leading Italian insurance company, where he managed a portfolio of non-listed investments and launched the first Italian renewable energy fund backed by an insurance company, where he served as Chairman for two years. After graduating, Emmanuel worked in the investment banking industry in Milan and at the Eni, the Italian Oil and Gas supermajor.

Emmanuel holds an MSc in Finance from Bocconi University, Milan where he also lectured on Corporate Finance for five years prior to moving to London. He speaks English, Italian, French and Spanish.

Managing Director, Australia & Asia

STEPHEN BOWHILL

Stephen brings over twenty-five years of business leadership experience to VivoPower, with a focus on sales growth and business transformation having lead and grown several businesses in Australia and run sales teams in Asia and Australia.

Prior to VivoPower he was Managing Director of an Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed IT research company, IDEAS International. Within five years he delivered a 10x return for shareholders and secured a sale of the business to Gartner Inc. Before this role, he ran a portfolio management software company, Garradin achieving a business turnaround, doubling the business within 3 years before a trade sale to Bravura, an ASX listed company.

Prior to this, and Stephen’s first position in Sydney after relocation from Asia, he was Regional Vice President, RBC Global Services, in Sydney where he lead the sales and relationship management teams.

Before moving to Australia Stephen worked in Singapore and in Hong Kong running business development for Sungard Securities Finance (previously K-Tek). Prior to this, he was a Sales Manager in London and Hong Kong with Financial Times Information.

Stephen graduated with a bachelor of science with honors from Birmingham University, UK.

Investment Associate (USA)

ARYA BHATTARAI

Arya previously worked at Citigroup, where initially he was a summer Analyst after which he received an offer to return as a full-time Investment Banking Analyst in August 2015. Here he worked on Power, Utilities and Alternative Energy.

Arya’s experience includes performing financial modelling and valuation analysis for power generation assets, projecting and analyzing the impact of M&A transactions, and managing transaction-related due diligence and workflow.

Arya completed his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Economics at Franklin and Marshall College in 2015. Arya is fluent in English, Hindi, and Nepali.

Principal (Australia)

MATT DAVIS

Matt is an experienced energy and finance professional, with a track record of developing and financing renewable and traditional energy assets and companies across the U.S.

Most recently, Matt served as a Senior Acquisitions Associate with Renewable Energy Trust Capital (RETC), where he worked on the evaluation, acquisition and financing of utility-scale solar assets in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Prior to this, he worked as a Business Development Associate with Safari Energy, a leading provider of commercial solar energy services.

Matt started his career as an Investment Banking Analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. In three-and-a-half years at Stifel, he was responsible for over $18 billion of capital raising and advisory assignments for companies in the Energy and Natural Resources and Maritime Shipping industries.

Matt received his Bachelor of Science degree in Management with a concentration in Analytical Consulting from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.

Head of Development, Engineering & Asset Management

DR. RICK BORRY

Rick has over twenty years’ experience as an entrepreneur, engineer and business innovator.

Most recently, Rick worked as CTO of Principal Solar, with their acquisition of Capstone Solar Conferences and subsequent re-branding as the Principal Solar Institute. Here he was responsible for company technology and solar project development.

Prior to this, Rick was a co-founder of Capstone Solar and served as a technical advisor for Solar Logic, an early-stage micro-CSP (concentrating solar power) company.

He also founded Webvent.tv, which is credited as the first web platform to build communities around online conferences and was the Chief Software Architect for Certain Software after their acquisition of his online event registration start-up, Register123.com.

Rick earned his Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.S. from Clemson University.

Rick has worked as a research associate for the U.S. Department of Energy at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and DuPont’s Experimental Station in Delaware, a National Science Foundation scholar at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, and an environmental engineering intern for Hoechst Celanese in South Carolina.

Engineering Director

RONNIE ANDRAWIS

Ronnie has over 14 years’ experience in renewable energy engineering and commissioning. He has been directly involved in the installation of over 250 MW of solar PV with a variety of different architectures, applications and technologies. Ronnie also has experience working with many electrical utilities across the United States.

Most recently, Ronnie worked as the Director of Operations and Project Management for Alpha Energy. He helped elevate the Alpha Energy from a non-ranked EPC by Solar Power World Magazine in 2014 to number 12 in 2015 and 2016.

Ronnie was an electrical design engineer and project manager for LESI in California prior to Alpha Energy. In addition to renewable energy system design, Ronnie was responsible for the integration and design of automation systems which ranged in application from process control systems to logistics conveyor automation design.

He was also deployed to Afghanistan in 2003 with the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Ronnie earned many army commendations including becoming the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery soldier of the year in 2001.
Ronnie graduated cum laude with his B.S. in Applied Physics from the California State University San Bernardino.

Engineering Associate

JOSH KRASNIGOR

Josh has 2 years’ experience in Solar (PV) Engineering, including work on over 200 mega-watts of utility-scale solar power plants. Most recently he worked for Doman Energy designing solar power plants, managing EPCs’ quality programs, and conducting performance analyses for projects in operation.  While employed with Doman Energy, Josh provided services for two VivoPower projects, NC-31 and NC-47.

Josh received his BA in Electrical Engineering at North Carolina State University with a concentration Renewable Electric Energy Systems in 2015. After graduating, he managed a non-profit project to provide solar-powered lighting to over 300 families without electricity in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

Head of Investor Relations and Operations

JULIE-ANNE BYRNE

Julie-Anne brings to VivoPower her five years’ experience managing internal organisational functions, to support the overall day-to-day operating of teams and businesses.

Most recently, Julie-Anne was an Operations Executive at Arowana Capital, an Australian based ESVCLP. She was ‘hands-on’ in managing a food and beverage portfolio start-up company, managing all aspects of the company, and led the business to become the industry world leader in natural shelf life extension of almond milk without applying technology.

Before this transition, Julie-Anne was an Executive Assistant at Arowana International, an ASX listed investment company. Here, she worked with the various back office departments including HR, IT and Finance to assist the company in its day-to-day activities and also supported the needs of the front office team.

Julie-Anne holds a double major BA degree in History and Economics from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Group Financial Controller

JAMES TINDAL-ROBERTSON

James brings extensive knowledge in managing and building finance functions, particularly in the oil industry. He spent the last six years at PetroSaudi Oil Services Ltd as Director of Finance and previously as Group Financial Controller where he set up and led the finance function of an oil drilling service group. Previously he was Major Projects Finance Director for over three years, where he led the financial management of large international engineering, procurement and construction projects of oil & gas infrastructure at Chicago Bridge & Iron Corporation. His previous roles were at Paladin Resources, Crew Gold Corporation, Smiths Group Plc and KPMG.

James has been awarded a Master Degree in Physics at the Imperial College London and he is an ACA Charted Accountant.