Meet our ADGO Advisory board

David is the Director of the UQ Gas & Energy Transition Research Centre, where he leads an experienced, multi-disciplinary team undertaking independent research to address the complexities and challenges of the energy transition in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. Prior to his role at UQ, David acquired deep technical, operational, and commercial expertise working on all aspects of upstream projects across Australia, Canada, the USA, and Mexico. David has also led stakeholder engagement, land access, and environmental approvals on a variety of projects providing him with insight into many of the ‘real world’ challenges faced by resource and energy projects.

David is committed to technology agnostic, non-partisan research into all aspects of the energy transition and seeks to provide robust, frank, and always respectful input to the various debates that inevitably surround conversation about energy in Australia (and beyond). 

David holds a D.Phil. in Marine Geophysics from the University of Oxford and a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Tasmania.

Ying has more than 15 years of experience working in the energy sector in onshore gas, LNG and hydrogen.

She began her career as a Graduate Mechanical Engineer with Santos. She progressed through several roles over the following decade including Production Engineer, and Operations Engineer where she implemented solutions to design and operability issues identified during the commissioning and start-up of the GLNG Project upstream wells and facilities.

Ying also worked in the Corporate Strategy and Planning team, providing oil, LNG and domestic gas market analysis, supporting the development of Santos’ 10-year strategic plan. Her last four years with Santos were as the Project and Strategy Lead for the Energy Solutions division. Ying developed, implemented, and maintained the Energy Solutions strategy and led a portfolio of emissions reduction, renewable integration and hydrogen projects.

Most recently she worked as the Senior Adviser, Hydrogen Development for the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group where she led the development of Australia’s largest renewable hydrogen production and blending project in Albury-Wodonga, Victoria.

Ying has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honours; Bachelor of Science (Mathematics, Computer Science) with First Class Honours; Graduate Certificate in Energy and Resources Policy and Practice and an MBA. She was awarded the Sir John Monash Scholarship for Excellence at Monash University and the Exceptional Young Women in Resources from the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy.

Whitney Merchant is a core member of the Boston Consulting Group's Energy and Climate & Sustainability practices, and leads the Transformation practice for Australia and New Zealand. She has extensive experience in strategy and transformation in Australia, Canada, and Central Asia/Asia Pacific. 

Whitney has nearly 20 years of experience in the LNG and domestic gas sector in Australia, and has worked extensively across the entire energy value chain (upstream, midstream, downstream, power, decarbonisation of end customers). In 2021 she led BCG’s global partnership with the World Petroleum Council on Untapped Reserves 2.0, which focused on unlocking the power of diversity and inclusion in the energy industry. She works with her clients to navigate their toughest strategic and commercial challenges—often through the use of advanced analytics—as well as through the delivery of major transformation programs. Her experience spans strategy, new business builds, net zero planning, complex data science models, capital delivery, opex improvement, and major operating model redesigns.

Before joining BCG, Whitney worked in Business Development for Kinder Morgan Canada.

Mr Nicholls was appointed to the Board of Elixir on 14 April 2025 as its Chief Executive Officer.

Stuart Nicholls is a dynamic, nationally recognised leader in Australia’s energy sector with a proven track record of turning around businesses and leading innovative, high-impact projects. As CEO and Managing Director of Strike Energy Limited, Stuart led the company from a small exploration business to becoming an ASX200 listed entity, delivering multi-million-dollar revenues and groundbreaking achievements in the gas and energy industries. With extensive experience across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia, he is a passionate advocate for a timely, reliable and sustainable energy transition. Stuart’s experience also includes management roles within Shell in exploration, commercial, strategy outside of his time in military leadership positions. His leadership focus is on innovation, team empowerment, and results-driven execution which has consistently delivered growth. 

Keith Orchison AM has been engaged with the Australian resources and energy industry sectors since the mid-1970s after migrating from South Africa, where he was a journalist.  He was executive director of the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association and then chief executive of the Electricity Supply Association of Australia between 1980 and 2003. He served on the federal government’s Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council in the wake of 9/11 and was an energy consultant from 2004 to 2016. He has written extensively in the media on energy issues over the past quarter century and has been publishing a monthly newsletter on electricity gas issues since January 2005. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004 for services to the energy sector. He is an honorary life member of Australian Energy Producers.

Perry is the Head of Advisory – ANZ for Rystad Energy. He was educated as an engineer in the UK and US and is experienced across a variety of geographies (Europe, Africa and Oceania) and industry sectors (Energy & Resources, Finance, Manufacturing & Transport – Road, Rail and Sea). He specialises in strategy development, M&A and policy advisory across the energy supply chain and is passionate about supporting business with their energy transition, connecting the reality of safe and affordable energy with realistic climate ambition.

Rick Wilkinson is the CEO of EnergyQuest, which he joined 8 years ago. He has more than 37 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. 

He held various roles with Santos over 13 years, including Vice-President Commercial, and President GLNG and Queensland where he oversaw the initiation, and definition for final investment of the CSG to LNG project.

Rick was appointed a Gas Fields Commissioner by the Queensland Government, a position he held for 7 years.

He has held managerial and engineering positions with SLB in Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan and the USA.

Rick is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland – Gas and Energy Transition Research Centre.

Kevin Morrison is an Energy Finance Analyst, Australian Gas. Kevin works closely with the global oil and gas team to examine issues facing the Australian LNG and gas sector.

Prior to joining IEEFA, Kevin worked for more than 30 years as a financial journalist for Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald, the Financial Times (FT) and Argus Media. Half of this working period was covering the energy and resources sector both in Australia and the UK.

Kevin wrote a book about the global resources sector after working at the FT, called "Living in a Material World." He still harbours ambitions about updating the book, which was published in 2008, and release it at a more affordable price than the original publication.

In 2018, Kevin graduated with a masters by research with the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) that focused on resource taxation in Australia.

Kevin plays soccer (football) in a community league during the winter. He took up ocean swimming during the COVID lockdown, though a nearby shark attack paused these open water swims for a time. He intends to resume ocean swimming soon, preferably at a busier beach!