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Anna Freeman
Policy Director - Energy Generation & Hydrogen at Clean Energy Council
Professional Background
Anna Freeman is a highly accomplished communications and public affairs professional whose impressive career spans over several years in various sectors including renewable energy, corporate communications, and public policy. With extensive experience in both government and private organizations, she has developed a reputation for her exceptional skills in strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and policy development.
Most notably, Anna has served as the Policy Director for Energy Generation & Hydrogen at the Clean Energy Council, where she played a key role in shaping energy policies and promoting renewable energy solutions in Australia. Her expertise in the energy sector was further solidified through her current position as a Board Member at the NSW Renewable Energy Sector Board. Here, Anna works closely with key stakeholders to facilitate and enhance the development of sustainable energy initiatives across the New South Wales region.
In addition to her leadership roles, Anna has also showcased her skills in corporate communications as the Communications Manager for Newcrest Mining, one of the world’s largest gold mining companies. Her experience is marked by excellence in media relations, community engagement, and public affairs. Anna's background includes pivotal roles in government communications, exemplified by her tenure as Media Adviser at the Climate Change Authority and her work as Public Affairs Manager at the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
Education and Achievements
Anna Freeman's educational achievements reflect her dedication to mastering her craft. She earned her Master of Business Administration from the prestigious University of Melbourne, specifically from the Melbourne Business School, where she gained significant insights into business strategy, management, and leadership. Her commitment to effective communication began with her Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations from RMIT University, where she developed foundational skills that have propelled her career forward.
Throughout her career, Anna has consistently sought opportunities that allow her to merge her passion for public engagement with her extensive knowledge of environmental issues, sustainability, and policy advocacy. Her role as the Director of Public Affairs during the Garnaut Climate Change Review highlighted her expertise in climate change policy and its implications for Australia’s future.
Notable Positions and Contributions
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Corporate Communications Manager at Newcrest Mining: Here, Anna honed her skills in corporate messaging, enhancing the company's public perception amidst various industry challenges.
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Policy Director - Energy Generation & Hydrogen at Clean Energy Council: In this influential role, Anna was responsible for advocating and developing innovative policies that promote a sustainable energy future in Australia.
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Media Adviser at Climate Change Authority: She effectively managed media relations and communications strategies, ensuring a clear and impactful public understanding of Australia’s climate policies.
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Public Affairs Manager at Garnaut Climate Change Review: Anna was instrumental in communicating the findings and recommendations of the review, significantly influencing public and government discourses around climate action.
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Public Affairs Manager at the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission: Her ability to handle high-pressure situations with poise and professionalism aided in the transparent management of communications during this critical inquiry.
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International Media Relations Specialist at Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games: This international role allowed Anna to showcase her communication skills on a global stage, further diversifying her experience.
Achievements
Anna Freeman's impactful career is marked by numerous achievements through her strategic vision and leadership in public affairs and communications. She has successfully navigated complex political landscapes while advancing the conversations around energy policy and sustainability in Australia. Her contributions extend beyond traditional roles as she frequently engages in thought leadership within the renewable energy sector and is committed to advocating for effective communication strategies among stakeholders.
Through her work on various boards and commissions, Anna continues to influence and drive important initiatives that aim to address pressing environmental challenges. Her commitment to sustainability and effective communication positions her as a prominent figure in the realm of public relations and policy advocacy, and she inspires others in the industry to pursue excellence in their respective fields.
Highlights
Today’s edition of the Economist feels like a timely reminder of where the real future of energy is at.
‘Installed solar capacity doubles roughly every three years, and so grows ten-fold each decade. Such sustained growth is seldom seen in anything that matters. That makes it hard for people to get their heads round what is going on. When it was a tenth of its current size ten years ago, solar power was still seen as marginal even by experts who knew how fast it had grown. The next ten-fold increase will be equivalent to multiplying the world’s entire fleet of nuclear reactors by eight in less than the time it typically takes to build just a single one of them.’
The business community and renewable energy leaders turned out in force in Sydney today for a bracing wake-up call about the dangers of Australia coming to the global green investment stimulus party too late, and finding that all our dance partners have coupled up.
We could of course sit around and complain that the eye watering levels of incentives being provided by the US Inflation Reduction Act are unfair, said Deloitte’s Dr Pradeep Philip. But that won’t change the outcome. Capital is on the march now.
The Clean Energy Council's Kane Thornton said that although the Australian Government had been able to rightly announce in 2022 that “Australia is back”, the world has moved again since the northern hemisphere summer, and we would need to dig deep to keep pace.
What’s at stake is hundreds of billions of dollars of green energy investment in Australia.
According to a new Deloitte report released last week, a mature renewable hydrogen industry in Australia could be worth around $50 billion per annum by 2050, and ‘bring forward 436 GW of solar and wind capacity by 2050, underwriting ‘manufacturing capabilities for the 48,500 wind turbines and 523 million solar panels needed for this alone’.
Even an experienced energy executive has difficulty in wrapping their head around the sheer scale of these numbers and what they mean in practical terms for the energy system, regional development and local manufacturing.
Of course green hydrogen doesn’t just matter for decarbonising the 94 million tonnes of fossil-fuel based H2 consumed by the world every year. It matters because it (and its derivatives like methanol and ammonia) could play an important role in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors like shipping, chemicals production and metals processing. And based on Australia’s natural comparative advantages, we should be in the box seat to produce it.
But natural advantages are no longer enough. Our policies too must be globally competitive.
From next year, the cheapest place in the world to produce green hydrogen will be the United States, and the fear is that in a very short space of time the Americans could snatch up some of our most prospective markets (eg. Japan and Korea) and lock them in for decades. (And thus lock us out.)
We don’t have time to procrastinate. A year, tops. Or otherwise, according to Fortescue Future Industries' Andrew Forrest, ‘the bus will have left the station’.
So Australia, are we ready to be bold and get on board the bus to a new future as a clean energy superpower?
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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