Speakers

David Berman is the Commercial Director for ExxonMobil Australia and Esso Australia with responsibility for marketing, analytics, strategy and commercial operations. He has over 20 years of international experience with ExxonMobil in exploration, development, production, research and business development.

David holds degrees in Science (Hons) and Commerce from the University of Melbourne, is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

David is the Director of the University of Queensland Centre for Natural Gas, where he leads an experienced team undertaking research across all aspects of the role of gas in the energy transition. The Centre’s research focus areas include communities and co-existence, environment, decarbonisation and energy security. David has extensive technical, commercial and operational experience, and has led stakeholder engagement, land access, project management and environmental approvals on a variety of projects. David holds a D.Phil. in Marine Geophysics from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.Sc. (Hons 1st Class) from the University of Tasmania.

Stephen Harty is Chief Executive Officer at GLNG since 2019 and has responsibility for the overall management, safety and operation of the GLNG project. With over 25 years of energy experience, Stephen has worked in a variety of operations, project development and marketing roles. 

Stephen has a keen interest in the Australian east coast gas market, and has been heavily involved in the development of the ADGSM, Code of Conduct, and each of the HOA’s negotiated since 2017. 

Stephen is also a non-executive director of CS Energy Limited, a Queensland owned energy company that generates and sells electricity, an energy retailer to commercial and industrial businesses, and is an investor in new energy assets including gas power generation, renewable hydrogen, solar and wind farms, and battery storage. 
    
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) from the University of Ballarat Australia, a Master of Business Administration from Deakin University Australia, and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mark Hatfield is the managing director of Chevron Australia and head of the Australasia business unit located in Perth, Western Australia. Mark is responsible for Chevron's upstream interests and activities in Australia. This includes leading the development and operations of the Gorgon and Wheatstone natural gas projects; participating interests in the North West Shelf Venture; oil production operation on Barrow Island; and exploration and appraisal activities offshore Australia. Mark joined Chevron in 1982 as a production engineer in New Orleans after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. In 1992, he earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of New Orleans.

Saul Kavonic is respected gas industry analyst. He frequently presents at leading industry conferences in the region, is the top ranked energy equity analyst in Australia according to industry surveys, and is a regular gas and energy commentator in print and broadcast media.

Saul has worked across the energy sector in commercial, project, research and government policy roles. Most recently, he was Director APAC Markets and the Head of Integrated Energy, Resources and Carbon Research at Credit Suisse, covering the oil, gas, mining, new energy, and carbon markets sectors. He was previously head of oil, gas, LNG and renewable research in Australasia for Wood Mackenzie, and has delivered strategic consulting projects across the oil and gas, renewables and logistics sectors.

Saul is a member of the industry advisory board for the University of Western Australia Oceans Graduate School and a co-founder of Refugees Welcome Australia. Saul holds degrees in Law (Honours) and Chemical Engineering (Honours) from the University of Melbourne.