Life #14: Social Résumé
This two-part chapter chronicles a climate crusade through the international business career of a chartered accountant. It is dedicated with thanks to my family, fellow colleagues, business managers who offered these opportunities, and companions along the way.
Episode 1
Carboniferous Era
To whom it may concern, my curriculum vitae
Career opportunities, I could never repay
I’ve worked hard to live
It’s now time to give
Thanks to all those who joined, this vocational relay
To colleagues I’ve worked with, and companions I’ve loved
Where worlds have collided, or maybe consciences tugged
You all form the sum
Of whom I’ve become
From confidantes, exemplars, to my own flesh and blood
I see parts of you, in the person I now am
I admired, you inspired me, to be a better man
Long bonds enduring
Fronds still unfurling
On this silver leaf fern, back to where this began
That germinating spore, nurtured on the farm
Like generations before, life could do no harm
Had my future been planned
To remain on that land
An agricultural calling, had considerable charm
But milking cows could not earn a decent dollar
While at school I was a reasonable scholar
Forming aspirations
For farther destinations
Thus I had to unleash, that familial collar
Otago University was a defining decision
Found freedom at last, to further my ambition
Horizons were broadened
No longer felt cordoned
Like-minded students, on a kindred-like mission
I graduated with a commerce degree
Embarked on a career in accountancy
Then with that expertise
I ventured overseas
Leaving family and friends, still special to me
Arriving in London, in need to earn a bob
British Gas restructure, was a momentous job
Stock market flotation
Of a complex operation
From North Sea gas fields, to the kitchen gas hob
Then to Hamilton Oil, soon acquired by BHP
First oil exploration, in the northern Arctic Sea
A gear-changing adventure
Russian: Western joint venture
The cold war had thawed, to a frenzied drilling spree
Our first baby was born, to apprehension and glee
When BHP put a proposition to me
To relocate to Melbourne
Such an offer made seldom
So we immigrated, as a family of three
To Australia, endowed with oil and gas
And BHP Petroleum, before the oil market crash
From Bass Strait, Timor Sea
North West Shelf to PNG
Expansively exploring and expending cash
Through a glaze of gasoline, my vocation was forming
Before more awareness, of greenhouse gas warming
Oil was a prized jewel
Gas was wonder fuel
Then Mother Nature hollered, her desperate death warning
I transferred to BHP Transport and Logistics
Selling assets, with non-core characteristics
Everything could be caught
Even sold a private port
As we merged with Billiton, post the Sydney Olympics
We spun off the division, of BHP Steel
Transport and logistics, were part of the deal
To OneSteel and BlueScope
Long before any hope
That low carbon green steel, could one day be real
I would leave corporations, stronger than at the start
Stabilise them, globalise them, even pull them apart
Improve capability
Refocus activity
I’d help businesses be better, by my time to depart
Meanwhile people still mocked, that accounting was boring
So dull in their minds, they would mimic loud snoring
But in fact a good wicket
Foundational meal ticket
But I aspired a more sustainable … technological mooring
Episode Two
Climatic Era
I discovered a worthy, environmental liturgy
To power a cleaner world, an existential synergy
I took an about-steer
To de-carbon my career
In those pioneering years, of renewable energy
The first financed wind farm, was at Challicum Hills
But climate change science, was in denial still
Federal politics were hard
Don’t build in my back yard
So Pacific Hydro offshored, to Chile and Brazil
Tunnelling hydros through the Andes, in Chile’s Cachapoal
Early wind farms in Brazil, in the far north near Natal
We survived the GFC
Financial calamity
As a world-class development team, high on morale
I moved to TRUenergy, which was looking to grow
Bought Energy Australia, the brand name we now know
Built a top tier retailer
That could be a curtailer
Of coal-fired generation, when the wind farms would blow
Not always plain sailing; rode many a rough ride
Contended stormy seas, fought a torrid riptide
When a malevolent force
Tried to blow one off course
Those Ill winds turned good, away from the dark side
The Gillard government enacted, climate legislation
Including creating a new organisation
A green development bank
Ten billion in the tank
And called it the Clean Energy Finance Corporation
I’d joined them in charge of, strategy and governance
But we faced dissolution, by successive governments
New PM Tony Abbott
Was determined to scrap it
Climate change was a hoax, his political embuggerance
He vowed to abolish us, cajoled and connived
Tried twice through the Senate, each vote we survived
We continued to invest
Built a climate war chest
Grew the world’s largest green bank, we eventually thrived
But each role commitment, could be quite an impost
Family life imbalance, a consequential cost
Working from a distance
A difficult existence
But our tight tribal unit, we thankfully never lost
Appointed to the new Board, of New Zealand GIF
Sounds of CEFC, with a similar riff
Decarbonisation
Of my own home nation
And my chance to repay, its educational gift
This Green Investment Finance institution
Has made innovative financing solutions
I’ve been there from the start
So proud to be a part
Of abating New Zealand’s carbon pollution
Now at SIMEC Energy, as Managing Director
Projects, markets and money, the energy trifecta
Helping GFG Alliance
To reduce its reliance
On fossil fuels to forge steel, a hard-to-abate sector
So producing green steel, with hydrogen and renewables
To minimise carbon, in a crucial consumable
An admirable ambition
Ground-breaking transition
A huge transformation, but belief that it’s doable
But my proudest achievements, when one earnestly delves
Are former team members, who have reached higher shelves
It’s so cool to come by
Energy alumni
I may have helped flourish, as finer versions of themselves
To where passion and vocation interconnected
Opportunity with duty, have intersected
When we followed our hearts
Seldom planned from the start
It is how we responded, to the unexpected
Lucky breaks, twists of fate, likely never replayed
A résumé spanning, six exciting decades
And now the environment
No chance of retirement
A career that’s careered to a carbon crusade
So I sincerely owe this journey, to my family and dearest mates
And to every fellow traveller, with global warming to abate
Dedicated, driven
And stridently striven
To this climate revision …. and the whole-wide-world that’s at stake
Kevin Holmes • 18th Jan 2024
