our team

MEET OUR TEAM

Headquartered in Manly on Sydney's Northern Beaches, Spark Renewables is made up of a team of passionate and driven renewable energy experts from a wide range of backgrounds, united by our shared passion for driving the energy transition and building Australia’s renewable energy future.

With decades of combined experience in the renewable energy and infrastructure industries, we work collaboratively developing projects in the wind, solar, green hydrogen and storage spaces, as well as prospecting for new projects and technologies to continue building our rapidly expanding development portfolio.

Anthony Marriner
Anthony Marriner

Head of Spark Renewables

Anthony is a passionate advocate for sustainability and the clean energy transition with more than 20 years’ experience in the renewables industry.

As Head of Spark Renewables, Anthony has led the business from the beginning. Initially driving its significant growth as a division of Spark Infrastructure, leading the business’ first renewable asset acquisition in 2018, to establishing Spark Renewables as a standalone business in 2021.

Starting in investment banking, Anthony has long had a focus on energy and utilities. He has held senior roles in South Africa and Australia, and has advised on a significant number of successful privatisations, acquisitions, divestments and mergers, including numerous transactions relating to regulated networks as well as renewables.

Claire Dawson (1)
Claire Dawson

Head of Legal & Community

A lawyer for more than two decades, Claire has spent the majority of her career working with leading ASX-listed, unlisted and global organisations in the renewable energy and environmental services industries. 

As Head of Legal and Community, Claire oversees all legal, regulatory and community work for Spark Renewables, including leading on community stakeholder management, transactions, project agreements and all compliance functions.  

Claire has deep experience advising on broad-ranging and complex matters including significant M&A transactions, all aspects of renewable energy and environmental infrastructure, and major land deals.

Will Stone
Will Stone

Head of Development

Will is a renewable energy development expert, with close to two decades experience in delivering renewable energy projects in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Thailand and Central America. 

As Head of Development, Will leads the development team, who are responsible for delivering Spark Renewables’ rapidly growing sizeable portfolio of wind, solar, and battery storage projects in the magnitude of 150 to 2,500 megawatts. 

Will has a strong technical background and extensive experience in all aspects of renewable energy development and is responsible for having developed over a gigawatt of renewable energy projects currently operating across wind, solar, storage and micro-hydroelectric plants.

Charbel Antoun
Charbel Antoun

Head of Grid Connections

Charbel is a passionate engineer with over a decade of experience across the power industry, and a diverse background working across power equipment, consulting and transmission network businesses.

As Head of Grid Connections, Charbel has a leadership role in overseeing the connection of Spark Renewables’ generator projects within the National Electricity Market (NEM), including connection strategy and optimisation, generator connection processes, ongoing generator compliance and performance.

Charbel has more than 10 years’ experience in the industry, having started his career with a major global manufacturer of high voltage power equipment. Charbel joined the generator connections space and has led over five gigawatts of renewable generation connection projects to the NEM, including solar, wind and battery energy storage technologies.

Julian Kasby
Julian Kasby

Senior Development Manager

Julian has significant experience leading the development and delivery of large infrastructure projects throughout their full lifecycle, from site identification to operation, across the renewables, transport and health sectors, in both Australia and Europe. 

As Senior Development Manager, Julian is focused on the planning, connection and design elements of the Dinawan Energy Hub and Mallee Wind Farm. He also manages the Bomen Solar Farm asset on behalf of Spark Renewables. 

With more than 14 years' experience in renewable energy development, Julian has particular expertise developing wind farms in NSW, and is responsible for the development of more than a gigawatt of wind energy now under construction or operational.

Dan Leahy
Dan Leahy

Senior Development Manager

Dan has over 14 years of renewable energy experience working in all aspects of pre-construction development processes, from greenfield origination, through to financial close, in the UK, Japan and Australia.

As Senior Development Manager, Dan is focused on new project development of wind, solar, storage and hydrogen co-production projects.

With particular experience in wind development project management in various roles, Dan is responsible for the development of wind and solar farms.

Marcos Venegas (1)
Marcos Venegas

Senior Development Engineer

Marcos is a passionate Renewable Energy Engineer and expert in resource assessment and wind farm planning and development. 

As Senior Development Engineer, Marcos provides expert technical advice during pre-feasibility, feasibility and concept design stages to optimise wind and solar farm layouts.

With more than 5 years’ experience as a wind energy expert in Australia and Europe, Marcos has also supported the development of offshore wind programs across the full project life-cycle from foundation design to installation. 

Laurie Wallis (1)
Laurie Wallis

Senior Development Officer

Laurie is an accomplished project manager and environmental adviser to major energy and infrastructure projects, supporting the delivery of high-profile projects across the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors.

As Senior Development Officer, Laurie supports the delivery of projects across all stages of the development cycle, from feasibility to operation, guiding projects to achieve their objectives, obtain and comply with permits and approvals and respond to changes in government policy. 

Laurie has more than 5 years’ experience having previously been a project consultant, developing sustainable solutions for projects in unique locations including for pumped hydro, solar, batteries, dams and water infrastructure, transport, aviation, gas, waste and resource projects. 

Marju Tonisson (1)
Marju Tonisson

Community Engagement

Passionate about sustainability and decarbonisation, Marju has been involved in renewables development, community engagement and ESG risk advisory for more than a decade.  

As Community Engagement Manager, Marju works with key community stakeholders to build awareness, understanding and trust around project, as well as working with industry to overcome challenges facing the renewables industry.

Marju has over 10 years' experience as a communications, stakeholder engagement, and investor relations specialist. She has advised ASX-listed companies and boards across the energy, utilities, banking and diversified financial services sectors. 

Felix Daddo
Felix Daddo

Development Engineer

Felix has a passion and interest in sustainability and clean energy, which brought him to the renewables industry, after completing a Bachelor of Aeronautical and Space Engineering, with first class honours in 2022 at the University of Sydney.

As a Development Engineer, Felix provides technical support to projects throughout the entire development cycle in layout optimisation, geographic information system, feasibility studies and applications preparation.

In 2022, Felix completed an internship with Spark Renewables, developing a detailed model for glare analysis at Bomen Solar Farm and new solar developments. Following this project, he spent time volunteering in Peru, designing, building, and maintaining small-scale wind turbines to provide electricity to off-grid, remote communities.  

Shaurntae Lyons
Shaurntae Lyons

Engagement Coordinator

Shaurntae is an experienced and recognised community engagement coordinator, having been involved in renewable project development and community engagement for a decade.  

As Engagement Coordinator, Shaurntae is a key contact officer with community stakeholders, Elders and knowledge-holders at our projects in the Wiradjuri Country, as well as advising on benefit sharing from renewable energy projects, Reconciliation Action Plan, and on matters that are of importance to First Nations people.

Shaurntae has worked on several renewable energy construction projects with Beon Energy Solutions as a community coordinator and stakeholder engagement.