Matt Allfree

Matt did a BA and a Teaching Diploma. His extensive experience is in work based training and apprenticeships, having worked for both government agencies and industry organisations. Matt has been deeply involved in qualification development, training evaluation and quality assurance, as well as government funding of providers and industry organisations. His most recent project has been developing an on line learning platform for IRHACE and populating it with courses.

Mike Baker

Mike Baker is a degree qualified Mechanical Engineer who spent his first 15 years working in Western Australian thermal power stations. 

He moved into the family business, Baker Refrigeration in 2005, and has progressed from Project Engineer to the Managing Director. The business has expanded rapidly, with the fourth generation company now having offices in every mainland Australian state. 

He has been involved in the implementation of both cascade CO₂ and transcritical CO₂ technology to independent and major supermarket chains in Australia and Mike hopes to see the continued roll-out of this new and exciting technology into the future.

Mirko Bernabei

Mirko graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Padua with a Master’s degree in Refrigeration. Mirko joined SCM FRIGO at the end of 2001 as a Project Engineer. Since 2004 he has been engaged in the design and development of CO2 systems and since 2009 of NH3 systems. He currently holds the position of Technical Director and R&D Manager of the SCM Group.

Marc Chasserot

Marc Chasserot is a specialist in natural refrigeration with over 15 years of experience in the HVAC&R sector, starting as the Marketing Manager for the Norsk Hydro business unit specialised in CO₂ transcritical refrigeration and heating. He worked closely with several Japanese manufacturers selling the market innovative "CO₂ Ecocute heatpumps".

In 2006 Marc founded the industry leading website for CO₂ cooling and heating experts worldwide, called www.R744.com. This was followed by three additional industry resources for hydrocarbons, water and ammonia (namely: www.hydrocarbons21.com, www.R718.com and www.ammonia21.com).

Marc is co-founder and CEO of shecco, an independent market development company specialised in bringing Natural Refrigerants 'faster to market', working with numerous companies worldwide. Marc has chaired and organised several international workshops bringing together leading policy and industry experts to discuss 'how to bring natural refrigerants' faster to market, known as 'ATMOsphere'. He is also an active member of ASHRAE.

Matthew Darby

A strong advocate for the support of industry apprenticeship programs and the need for wider understanding and collaboration on the impacts of the phase down of HFC’s. Matthew is Chair of the New Zealand industry companies association, and was chair of the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning Companies Association prior to that. Trade qualified, Matthew is Managing Director and owner of EcoChill, a national commercial and industrial refrigeration company specialising in natural refrigerants, as well as an international speaker. Matthew's focus is on delivering highly efficient and sustainable systems and advising companies how to use refrigeration for competitive advantage. Understanding the implications of global legislative change, EcoChill’s focus has seen them lead delivery of many New Zealand firsts, including NZ’s first Transcritical CO2 system, and seen EcoChill become trusted advisors to key New Zealand companies such as Ceres, Foodstuffs, FreshMax, Roche and Turners & Growers. 

Sean Davel

Sean Davel has 30 years’ experience working in the supermarket refrigeration industry; he was directly involved in the installation and commissioning of the first CO2 subcritical systems for Foodstuffs Wellington. In the role of Services Specialist in refrigeration at Foodstuffs for the past 5 years, Sean has overseen the implementation of new refrigeration systems in Foodstuffs’ stores. A strong advocate of CO2 refrigeration, he has directed the transition from the default systems being synthetic refrigeration to CO2.

Jan Dusek

Jan holds a Doctor of Engineering degree in System Design from Hosei University in Tokyo and a Master’s degree from the Czech Technical University in Prague. During his studies, and research undertaken in the USA, Europe and Japan, Jan has centered his academic focus on environmental technologies and marketing strategies. Having lived in Japan for over 8 years, Jan communicates fluently in Japanese and has a rich experience cooperating with Japanese industry. Jan is currently based in Tokyo, responsible for business development activities and monitoring Asian markets on behalf of shecco Japan.

Michael Englebright

Mr. Englebright holds Refrigeration and HVAC accreditations from RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) in Melbourne Australia. He has over 15 years of experience in Natural Refrigerant Technologies in both subcritical and transcritical applications from around the globe with different retailers and OEMs. Mr. Englebright served as Global Applications Engineering Manager in his previous employment at Danfoss. In this position he was responsible for managing specialized CO₂ projects, the development of CO₂ refrigerated products and services, and formulating and implementing training procedures for safe and efficient CO₂ system installations. Mr. Englebright used to serve as CAREL's Global Key Accounts Manager for Retail, promoting natural refrigerants and energy solutions to end users and OEM’s. He is also very active in lobbying for the use of natural refrigerants at leading international seminars. Currently he serves as the Head of Engineering at Woolworths.

Glenn Evans

Glenn is CEO of the Australian Refrigeration Council (ARC) a position he has held since 2008. The ARC is the RAC Industry Board which administers the Australian refrigeration and air conditioning licence scheme on behalf of the Commonwealth Government, with over 85,000 licensed individuals and businesses Australia-wide. With over 30 years in the building and aligned industries Glenn has a technical, regulatory and building background having at various times being a Building Surveyor (Certifier), Project Manager, Technical Director and responsible for the building registration scheme in Victoria.

In addition to various undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in building, training, fire engineering and project management, Glenn also has a Master of Business Administration. Glenn has at different times been a member of the Victorian Building Appeals Board, Building Regulations Advisory Committee, Building Advisory Council and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  

Dario Ferlin

Dario Ferlin graduated with an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from Melbourne University. He entered the refrigeration industry in 2001 as a rack design engineer for EPTA (Italy) and collaborated in the first transcritical CO₂ projects being piloted in Europe. In 2004 he starting working for EPTA as an applications engineer in the export department and oversaw turn-key projects for key supermarket accounts in developing countries. In 2009 he relocated to Sydney to work for Woolworths; firstly in the capacity of a refrigeration engineer focusing on developing the showcase and refrigeration plant specifications and more recently in the role of innovations engineer.

Ian Garradd

Abel Gnanakumar

In 2000, Abel Gnanakumar joined Emerson Climate Technologies' Asian head quarters as the Manager of the Hong Kong engineering center, where he led several engineering research and development projects in the advancements of HVAC systems, compressor testing and development. In 2007, he took the position of Director of the Refrigeration Marketing (Asia) before becoming Vice President of Refrigeration (Asia) in 2015.

Wynand Groenewald

Wynand Groenewald holds a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering, his thesis ‘a Techno-economical analysis of a CO2 heat pump’ being the first thesis on the subject CO2 in Africa. He joined his current company Commercial Refrigeration Services in 2010 and played an integral part in the development of Africa’s first CO2 refrigeration systems and other related CO2 products. Currently he holds the position as Head of Engineering at his company, where his team strives daily to reach higher frontiers within the development and implementation of natural refrigerants.

Tim Hill

Timothy Hill is a carpenter by trade and a Quantity Surveyor by profession. Prior to joining Costco in 2011, he was Managing Director of Northcroft Australia Pty Ltd.
He has a Bachelor of Construction Management from University of Newcastle, Graduate Certificate in Project Management from University of Sydney and Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies from University of New England. 
His role at Costco includes procurement of sites and facilities including building services and equipment.

Stefan Jensen

Stefan Jensen graduated in 1978 in Denmark with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. His professional career commenced in 1978 with Danfoss in Denmark followed by two years at SABROE Refrigeration A/S also in Denmark as a Project Engineer. In 1983, he joined Wildridge & Sinclair in Brisbane, Australia, as Technical Manager in Industrial Refrigeration. He later became co-inventor of the Rotadisk flake ice maker. In 1988 he joined the food machinery manufacturer Heat and Control Pty. Ltd. and was in 1992 appointed General Manager of the Heat and Control Refrigeration Division.

In April 1996, Stefan co-founded Scantec Refrigeration Technologies. He currently holds the position of Managing Director. Stefan is a Fellow of AIRAH and an Engineers Australia Fellow. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Queensland and also included in the National Engineering Register. He has authored over 40 technical papers for AIRAH, IIR and IIAR conferences, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration (IIAR) in Washington, USA.

Stefan is a member of the scientific committee for the 8th International Ammonia and CO2 Refrigeration Technologies conference to be held in Ohrid, Macedonia in April, 2019.

Steve Laing

Steve began his career within the Commercial Refrigeration sector in 1994 with education accreditation for Refrigeration & HVAC from RMIT university in Melbourne completion in 1997. Throughout his career Steve has predominantly been involved in the field as a service engineer within the retail sector for Coles & Woolworth’s at contractor organizations including a 3 year stint of self-employment. Steve decided to change his career path in 2009 where he gained significant experience in the wholesale and equipment manufacturing segment for a period of 5 years with Heatcraft until recently being engaged to represent the establishment of Epta Australia in February 2016 to drive and strategize one of the globes leading manufacturers of Natural Refrigerant solutions for Australia & New Zealand.

Kim Limburg

Kim Limburg has over a decade’s experience running a family-owned refrigeration and air-conditioning business. Kim established the Australian Refrigeration Mechanics Association (ARMA) in 2015, after experiencing first-hand the devastating effects of the take-up of shortcut Certificate II and III courses on the industry, which pushed and continue to push qualified air-conditioning and refrigeration tradespeople out of their jobs. As ARMA’s CEO, Kim is passionate about the inclusion of education about natural refrigerants in all levels of refrigeration and air-conditioning vocational training and upskilling.

Robbie Mayer

F. Mayer Imports was established in 1967 by Fred Mayer and his son, Robbie joined the business in 1983. The company is still 100% family-owned.

F. Mayer Imports is an importer and distributor of cheese, butter, chocolate, smoked salmon, mineral water, pasta, oils, vinegars and other delicacies. The company warehouses are located in Melbourne and Sydney, supplying goods nationally to Australia.  

Arla Foods Mayer Australia is a joint venture with Arla Foods Amba of Denmark, which is a dairy farmers' cooperative with co-ops in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, UK and now Australia, with FMI as the service provider. 

Patrick McInerney

Patrick McInerney is Director of the International Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Section in the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy.
He has worked on ozone layer protection and synthetic greenhouse gas policy since 2003.
Patrick co-chaired Montreal Protocol negotiations that led to the 2016 Kigali Amendment to phase-down HFC production and imports.
Patrick led Australia’s review of ozone protection and synthetic greenhouse gas policy which resulted in the Government deciding in 2016 to implement a range of measures to further reduce emissions, including the HFC phase-down. Patrick was responsible for establishing Australia's end use controls in the fire protection and refrigeration and air conditioning industries. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2016 for his contribution to ozone layer protection and climate system protection.

Trent Miller

Trent Miller has over twenty years’ experience within the plumbing and water treatment industry’s to which he holds applicable industry accreditations and licenses and a family history in the Plumbing Industry dating back to 1925. He has worked previously in both pre sales and after sales management positions which included National and International roles.

Trent has strong enthusiasm for the use of natural refrigerants for the production of Hot Water and his current focus is promoting MTH hot water heating products to the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Currently, Trent serves as the A2W Manager for MHIAA Oceania region.

Martin Millow

Mr. Millow has held the position of New Zealand Regional Manager for Mayekawa Australia Pty Ltd since 1997. In this role, he is responsible for the sales, marketing and engineering of Mayekawa Compressor Units and Packages for the Industrial Refrigeration Market of New Zealand. Mr. Millow has been involved in the Industrial Refrigeration Industry for 30 years and has strong interests and motivation in the promotion and use of natural refrigerants within the industrial refrigeration sector.

Peter O’Neill

Peter has been involved in the refrigeration industry for over thirty years, having previously worked for another major international organisation. He is currently responsible for the sales and marketing of Mayekawa products in Australia and has held this role for just over two years. He is an ardent supporter of natural refrigerants in his role with Mayekawa and is interested in developments within the refrigeration sector that encompass natural refrigerants.

William Pagani

Graduated in 1999 in Business Management from Milan Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, he started his career in the Robert Bosch Group in Italy and continued in Switzerland, where he worked until 2001. He was later appointed Sales & Marketing Manager for Bosch's Power Tools Accessories segment in the Louisville (KY) and Chicago (IL) offices in USA and eventually returned to the Swiss branch as Sales Director. In 2006, he joined Brembo SpA as Aftermarket Sales Director.

William pursued his professional growth in the Epta Group, where in 2010 he filled the position of  International Sales Director, later became International Sales & Marketing Director and lastly, in 2015, Group Marketing Director. In the current position, William Pagani is called to advocate company growth and sustainable development, in consonance with the new corporate leading concept “#EptaExperience is the way”. This concept accurately interprets the Company’s mission - “Proud to contribute to the success of our customer's sales outlet. Simple, safe and appealing purchases” - and its will to contribute to the success of its Customers, by transforming retail stores from Points of Sale into Points of Experience. It also confirms Epta’s commitment in being an industry at the service of innovation, to offer Operators in the Retail, Ho.Re.Ca. and Food & Beverage sectors complete industrialized solutions to satisfy their every need, all over the world.

Brian Rees

Brian Rees is the Group Technical Manager for Hussmann Oceania. Based in Auckland (NZ) with direct responsibilities for New Zealand, and matrixed responsibilities for Australia and the Oceania region for Hussmann and Panasonic. He also works very closely with R&D teams in China, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and the USA on various global refrigeration initiatives for Hussmann and Panasonic.

Brian has worked in the refrigeration industry for over 35 years, with the past 26 years focusing on the supermarket and food processing refrigeration markets. Brian has been researching alternate refrigeration systems for the last 14 years, including in-depth R&D Lab analysis. He is the holder of 3 patents, recipient of a Rutherford Merit Award for electro-technology efficiency, and recipient of the IIR Ian Syminton Award for advances in research and development for NZ refrigeration. He is an active member of the Australian Standards Committees’ ME006 since 1996 & ME008 since 2000.

Hayato Sakamoto

Hayato Sakamoto is the Assistant Manager of Engineering and Development section. He has 14 years of experience in design and development of turbomachines such as centrifugal blowers and compressors. In 2007, he joined the development team of water refrigerant centrifugal chiller and played an integral role of the development and the commercialization of Kawasaki turbo chiller using R718(water) as a refrigerant. After the launch of this new chiller, he has been engaged in the improvement of technologies and the market development.

Inderpal Saund

Indy has a background in the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning trade from Australia and the UK. After completing a diploma in Process Controls, Indy pursued a career at Danfoss in Sales of Electronic Controls and Industrial Refrigeration products. Indy has been at Danfoss for 10 years maintaining various roles with the Electronic Controls side of the business. Over the years, Indy has been active in promoting CO₂ technology within the Refrigeration industry throughout the APAC region. He has been involved in a number of first installations within Australia, Thailand and China.

Kristian Sørensen

Kristian Sørensen is Service Manager for Advansor’s Service Department and from the very beginning of the technology, he has been part of the transcritical CO2 adventure. Kristian has more than 10 years of experience in the technology, of which the last 7 years have been with Advansor. Kristian also works as part of the R&D team at Advansor, and thus involved in resolving numerous technical and challenging solutions. He has been part of more than 200 commissioning of Advansor’s systems.

Steve Smith

Steve is a head teacher of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning trades with TAFENSW and is based at the Nirimba College, Quakers Hill, in the western suburbs of Sydney. He has an extensive 33 years of experience in delivering and assessing the Certificate III trade course to apprentices and others in the industry.

In 2009 Steve produced the training manuals currently being used for the nationally accredited Hydrocarbon course. This was followed with ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions that he conducted with most of the other training providers across Australia.

Ian Suffield

Ian Suffield holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1999. After working for Austral Refrigeration in a variety of roles, he moved to Woolworths to take on the role of Refrigeration Engineering Manager, where he was initially responsible for the refinement of their refrigeration specifications, including the development of their CO2 system specifications, a first for an Australian Supermarket. Whilst in this position, Ian oversaw the growth of the Woolworths CO2 fleet from just 4 stores in 2008 to over 150 stores during his time at Woolworths. Today, Ian is the National Engineering Manager for BITZER Australia and has been heavily involved with the delivery of the world's first transcritical CO2 combined cooling store to Coles Coburg North as well as the delivery of several transcritical systems to the New Zealand Market.

Klaas Visser

Klaas Visser has an extensive international experience in the design, building and trouble shooting of medium to large ammonia systems with involvement in more than 800 NH3 projects during the past 45 years.

The world’s first Multi Function 2 Stage Transcritical CO2 Refrigerating System with Parallel Compression (MF2STCCO2RSPC) has now been operating seven years, performing six cooling and nine heating functions at a small food processing plant.
Commissioning of the second MR2STCC02RSPC system near Sydney has been delayed. It is the first CO2 system in the world employing an evaporative condenser/gas cooler (ECGC). 
A case study comparing ECGCs and Adiabatically Assisted Air Cooled CO2 Gas Coolers in terms of their Energy and Water Consumption and the COP Improvement of the refrigeration systems at ambient Wet Bulb Temperatures up to 28 degrees C – not exceeded in 98% of the World’s climates - achieving 31 degrees C Gas Cooler Exit Temperature.   
The design of a MF2STCC02RSPC with an ECGC for a −30°C 40,000 cubic metre cold store near Kuala Lumpur is complete and waiting for building approval.

Ian Wilson

Ian Wilson is the Director of Strathbrook Industrial Services, a refrigeration contractor working in the commercial and industrial sectors in Sydney. Ian has previously served an apprenticeship in fitting and turning before moving to the refrigeration industry where he gained experience in industrial refrigeration, wholesaling and equipment manufacturing.