Firm leadership changes as funding wave turns to Carnegie

Australian company Carnegie Clean Energy has accepted the resignation of its chief officer Michael Ottaviano, and appointed Jonathan Fievez to lead the company which has just agreed to receive part of the milestone payment the government committed for its Albany wave energy project.

Michael Ottaviano, former CEO of Carnegie (Photo: Carnegie Clean Energy)

Effective immediately, Jonathan Fievez has been named as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Carnegie, who was appointed after Michael Ottaviano resigned from the position of Managing Director and CEO after a decade in the role.

Ottaviano will cease to be employed by Carnegie at the end of 2018, and will in the meantime assist in the transition of leadership, the company said.

Carnegie’s Chairman, Terry Stinson, said: “Having held the role of Chief Technology Officer for Carnegie for over seven years, Fievez has a deep understanding of business, renewables and technology development and is well placed to lead the continued commercialization of Carnegie’s CETO technology.”

The leadership change announcement was accompanied with an update to the CETO 6 and Albany Wave Energy Project (AWEP) activities. Namely, Carnegie received variation payment confirmation of AU$2.6 million from the Western Australian government, as part of the full milestone commitment of approximately AU$5.3 million.

Carnegie has once again warned that the remaining procurement activities associated with the balance of the first milestone, and more generally, the timing of the delivery of AWEP is being impacted by the uncertainty associated with the proposed changes to the federal government’s R&D Tax Incentive scheme.

The demonstration of the company’s new wave energy technology unit – the CETO 6 – will take place at the AWEP site, Carnegie said earlier, revealing plans to deploy the device during the 2019/2020 summer weather window.

The AWEP project is supported by Au$15.8 million committed by Western Australian government, and Au$11.7 million of undrawn funding from Carnegie’s Au$13 million CETO 6 grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).