Following an extraordinary eleven years with Climateworks, senior executive Amandine Denis-Ryan will step back from her full time role with Climateworks, initially taking several months break to travel with her family. Amandine will, however, continue her strong connection with Climateworks as an Affiliate to Monash. This ensures her ongoing contribution as an advisor to our work – something to which she remains deeply committed.
Reflecting on her decision, Amandine summed up her trajectory. ‘I could not have imagined back in 2011, the wild journey I was embarking upon when I joined the organisation as a project manager. I am truly proud of what we have all achieved in this time. My first project will be to go and spend time with family and friends in France during the European summer. And although, moving ahead, I’m keen to explore something new, becoming a Monash Affiliate will allow me to remain part of Climateworks’ growing impact.’
CEO Anna Skarbek also extended her heartfelt thanks.
“Personally I have had the joy of working closely with Amandine since 2009, throughout our whole journey together in building Climateworks from its very first Low Carbon Growth Plan for Australia to our current scale and success. She brought entrepreneurship, intelligence, dedication and skill, as well as warmth and empathy and fun. Over a decade, Amandine held leadership roles as Head of Research and then Head of National Programs and ultimately, Head of Systems Change and Capabilities. All the while she has maintained active external engagement, hiring great people and building great teams and projects too. We 100% support her decision, and we’re glad Amandine will remain ‘part of the family’ as an Affiliate and friend, but of course, she’ll also be missed.”
For Amandine, the past decade holds some pivotal memories.
‘Thinking back about how things have changed in just over ten years, it is truly incredible: Now we can actually see the solutions to get us to net zero emissions, or near zero, across most sectors. And improvements in data, solutions and understanding around ‘well below 2 degree’ pathways has skyrocketed.
‘In terms of my contributions, one of my proudest achievements was setting up Climateworks’ research and analysis capabilities, which have not only flourished over the years but also enabled a lot of our influence. In particular, the Deep Decarbonisation Pathways Project stands out in my mind as a key turning point for the organisation: We not only developed the first net zero pathway for Australia, but also shifted our strategy to a backcasting approach, a focus on net zero emissions and the four pillars of decarbonisation – which was a first.’
Under Amandine’s leadership, her team’s work has helped lift ambition in Australia, and was pivotal in normalising net zero commitments.
‘I am also proud of our role in supporting first movers on setting net zero commitments (in particular state governments, but also businesses and investors), and then encouraging others to follow. I also feel we were instrumental in ensuring commitments made were meaningful, by placing the bar high on what a good net zero commitment looks like, in particular covering the most material emissions influenced by an organisation.’
Amandine later managed Climateworks’ shift from a project to a program approach, which supported the growth in scale of the organisation.
‘When I took the role of Head of National Programs, we were just starting to move into programs with Land Use Futures. I also had the opportunity to help design and implement several other programs – including the Australian Industry ETI and the Net Zero Momentum Tracker. This was a key turning point for me in terms of how high we could aim and taking an integrated approach in our work to ensure it would drive change.’
Her most recent task involved operationalising Climateworks’ strategy to support the organisation’s system-level change ambition.
‘Taking on the Head of System Change and Capability role, there were a lot of unknowns for me on what it would look like, and this involved a lot of learning, and also ‘blind exploration’. I am very proud of the work we’ve completed over the past year, refining our role, developing our 2025 strategic goals and designing our first set of organisational OKRs (outcomes and key results) for 2022.’
While it can feel like there’s never a good time to leave an increasingly successful organisation, Amandine knows she will do so with great confidence.
‘I believe our new strategy and the work underpinning it helps set extremely strong foundations for the organisation in the years to come.’
Climateworks’ Board has warmly acknowledged the significant contributions Amandine has made to the organisation, from its early beginnings through all our growth and achievements. And of course, they’re pleased to know she will continue contributing to the organisation’s shared mission.
Amandine continues her work until late June 2022 and the Climateworks team will celebrate her contribution and farewell her in due course.
A recruitment process will commence shortly. Please direct enquiries to the Climateworks COO.