Simon Klapish

Simon grew up in Manchester, U.K. in 1957. Failing in his ambition to become a vet, he studied Applied Biology at Plymouth Polytechnic, majoring in microbiology and parasitology, but jobs in anything interesting like working for the World Health Organisation in malaria research were impossible to land. So, he came to Australia in 1979, on a 12-month working visa, fell in love with the country, the pay rates, the people
and lifestyle, returned home and applied for migration, returning as a migrant in January 1982.

He worked for Telecom/Tesltra for 12 years, predominantly in MobileNet in business development and marketing roles, and introduced and managed the MessageBank voicemail system for mobile phone users.

Due to limited advancement opportunities at Telstra he moved into the power industry just ahead of the Victorian privatisation process in 1995, first as the Marketing Executive
for Hazelwood Power, and when it was acquired by International Power, into business development roles, which included a major role in building 2 wind farms in South Australia.

For the last 5 years of his 23 years in the power industry, he managed ENGIE’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, which provided a million dollars per year to causes and organisations in the communities where its Australian power stations were located, mainly in Victoria, SA and WA.

He also spent almost 12 years in the Australian Army Reserve (Royal Australian Infantry), retiring as a captain in 1993. Apart from occasional consultancy work in renewable energy project community consultation, he is semi-retired, and loves to
travel, having ‘ticked off’ 86 countries so far.

He also writes novels, with 5 published and 2 due for release shortly.