Our Advisory Team

Michelle Bannister is the CEO of Intelligent Energy Systems, a role she has held since 2022. She brings over 25 years of experience in strategy and business development across the consulting, software, government and energy sectors in both Australia and the UK. Michelle has held senior leadership roles in both the public and private sectors and has a strong track record of driving growth and innovation.

Dr. Stuart Thorncraft has been a Director at Intelligent Energy Systems for 20 years, leading projects across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. He specialises in providing technical assistance to government agencies, utilities, and market operators. Stuart has deep expertise in energy policy, power system planning, market design, system modelling, regulatory frameworks, and renewable energy integration. He has worked extensively across Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, including in countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Georgia.

Patrick Wang is a Managing Consultant at Intelligent Energy Systems, joining in 2015 . He specialises in modelling competitive energy markets to support policy development, investment planning, and due diligence. Patrick holds degrees in Actuarial Studies and Applied Finance from Macquarie University.

He led the IES team responsible for the reliability modelling as part of AEMC’s 2022 Reliability Standards and Settings Review and amendments to the reliability price settings (REL0082 and ERC0353), as well as the cost-benefit modelling for the integration of price-responsive resources in the National Electricity Market in 2024 (ERC0352). His expertise includes reliability modelling, emissions and net-zero analysis, curtailment studies, and dispatch simulation. Patrick also mentors IES analysts, supporting their technical development and industry knowledge.

Dr Sami Aoude is a Senior Consultant at IES Advisory, where he has led our portfolio of work in energy market regulation and market systems auditing since 2019. Sami holds a PhD and Master’s degrees in Applied Finance, a Masters of Applied Statistics, and a BSC in Mechanical Engineering. He has over twenty years of experience in the energy sector, having occupied several senior management roles, including Group VP of Energy and later VP Strategy and Business Development for Australasia, before joining our team. At IES Advisory, Sami provides advice on energy policy and regulatory areas of energy markets, leads the auditing of energy systems, conducts a range of economic and financial analyses for investments in energy infrastructure. Sami has extensive project experience including in New Zealand, Europe and South America having directed the procurement and management of diversified energy portfolios and at IES, having delivered a range of assignments on energy markets in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Anthony Kubursy is a Senior Consultant at IES, specialising in electricity market development, power system modelling, and renewable energy integration across Asia. He provides techno-economic advice to clients including governments, utilities, financial institutions, and development agencies.

Anthony has worked on major regional interconnection and market development projects in the Asia-Pacific, including in ASEAN, South Asia, and the MENA region.