Presenters

Mike Young, Professor Emeritus, Water and Environmental Policy, University of Adelaide
Mike Young is Professor Emeritus in Water and Environmental Policy at the University of Adelaide, was the Founding Executive Director of its Environment Institute, is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Mike is a specialist in water policy reform and his research led to the unbundling of Australia’s water licences and the resultant development of an efficient trading system and the Australian Government decision to transfer responsibility for the administration of the Murray Darling Basin’s water resources to an independent expertise-based authority. He played a key role in establishing Australia’s National Land and Water Resources Audit. Mike has held the Gough Whitlam and Malcom Fraser Chair at Harvard University, has served on Global Water Partnership's Technical Committee and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security. He was a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In 2006, Mike was awarded Australia’s premier water research prize – the Land and Water Australia Eureka Award for Water Research. He has played a critical role in the consideration of options for the Murray Darling Basin. Prior to joining the University of Adelaide, Mike spent 30 years with CSIRO where, amongst other things, he established their Policy and Economic Research Unit. In 2003, Mike was awarded a Centenary Medal “for outstanding service through environmental economics”. His full curriculum vitae lists over 240 publications.


Jo Ong, Associate Director, EMM Consulting
Jo is a regulatory and strategic advisor with over 14 years’ legal, policy & project experience across the public & private sectors. Prior to working at EMM, Jo spent 10 years leading the implementation and reform of natural resource regulatory frameworks across water, mining, Crown land and energy for NSW and Commonwealth governments in senior executive legal and policy roles. As an environment & planning lawyer at Clayton Utz, she provided regulatory advice across a broad range of environmental, climate & energy frameworks. She has a depth of experience navigating and creating regulatory pathways, managing complex stakeholder environments, driving strategic negotiations and collaborating across governments.


Vanessa O'Keefe, Associate Director,
Vanessa has been intimately involved in water resource management for over 30 years, both as a consultant and as a senior public servant in the NSW government. Prior to working at EMM, she was the Executive Director of Policy and Planning at NSW DPIE-Water, having re-joined the public sector in 2018 after 14 years as a consultant. In this role Vanessa drove the development, implementation and review of water resource management regulatory frameworks, policies and plans based on best practice science, analytics and modelling across the state. As a consultant she has provided results focused advice to Governments in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region on regulatory, governance, policy, and planning frameworks, and management and implementation mechanisms for water, environmental and disaster risk management. She also advises the private sector on the water resource management and regulatory aspects of both large and smaller developments, bringing a systems thinking lens to resolution of complex issues. Vanessa’s strategic and innovative approaches to water resource management and the associated regulatory issues focuses on finding efficient and effective pathways to project success and achieving integrated and sustainable business outcomes.

Presenters

Mike Young, Professor Emeritus, Water and Environmental Policy, University of Adelaide
Mike Young is Professor Emeritus in Water and Environmental Policy at the University of Adelaide, was the Founding Executive Director of its Environment Institute, is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Mike is a specialist in water policy reform and his research led to the unbundling of Australia’s water licences and the resultant development of an efficient trading system and the Australian Government decision to transfer responsibility for the administration of the Murray Darling Basin’s water resources to an independent expertise-based authority. He played a key role in establishing Australia’s National Land and Water Resources Audit. Mike has held the Gough Whitlam and Malcom Fraser Chair at Harvard University, has served on Global Water Partnership's Technical Committee and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security. He was a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. In 2006, Mike was awarded Australia’s premier water research prize – the Land and Water Australia Eureka Award for Water Research. He has played a critical role in the consideration of options for the Murray Darling Basin. Prior to joining the University of Adelaide, Mike spent 30 years with CSIRO where, amongst other things, he established their Policy and Economic Research Unit. In 2003, Mike was awarded a Centenary Medal “for outstanding service through environmental economics”. His full curriculum vitae lists over 240 publications.


Jo Ong, Associate Director, EMM Consulting
Jo is a regulatory and strategic advisor with over 14 years’ legal, policy & project experience across the public & private sectors. Prior to working at EMM, Jo spent 10 years leading the implementation and reform of natural resource regulatory frameworks across water, mining, Crown land and energy for NSW and Commonwealth governments in senior executive legal and policy roles. As an environment & planning lawyer at Clayton Utz, she provided regulatory advice across a broad range of environmental, climate & energy frameworks. She has a depth of experience navigating and creating regulatory pathways, managing complex stakeholder environments, driving strategic negotiations and collaborating across governments.


Vanessa O'Keefe, Associate Director,
Vanessa has been intimately involved in water resource management for over 30 years, both as a consultant and as a senior public servant in the NSW government. Prior to working at EMM, she was the Executive Director of Policy and Planning at NSW DPIE-Water, having re-joined the public sector in 2018 after 14 years as a consultant. In this role Vanessa drove the development, implementation and review of water resource management regulatory frameworks, policies and plans based on best practice science, analytics and modelling across the state. As a consultant she has provided results focused advice to Governments in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region on regulatory, governance, policy, and planning frameworks, and management and implementation mechanisms for water, environmental and disaster risk management. She also advises the private sector on the water resource management and regulatory aspects of both large and smaller developments, bringing a systems thinking lens to resolution of complex issues. Vanessa’s strategic and innovative approaches to water resource management and the associated regulatory issues focuses on finding efficient and effective pathways to project success and achieving integrated and sustainable business outcomes.