Ekistica is a leading advisory and technical consultancy firm in regional Australia. We work nationally and internationally with clients in challenging engineering and project development and delivery problems.

Established in 2007 by our parent company, the Indigenous controlled Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd, our team of professional project managers includes electrical, renewable, environmental, civil, structural and mechanical engineers, engagement specialists, data analysts and IT systems and financial experts. Read more about our people here.

We have delivered many successful projects, across a range of different markets, including a number of ground-breaking projects that challenged the status quo. Many of our most prominent projects are in the renewable energy sector, however, our underlying principles and philosophies are what have allowed us to be innovative and successful across a broader range of infrastructure and technology projects.

Our key strength is our unique comprehension of the challenges associated with developing and building infrastructure in remote, regional or marginalised areas. An understanding that there are a common set of barriers to all remote area infrastructure development which are key determinants to a project’s success or failure:

  1. People and governance: people matter, and so too does the interface between people and the governance and regulatory frameworks that a project operates in.
     
  2. Technology and supply chains: cost and quality are critical but must be contextualized by consideration for the intellectual, labour and logistical supply chains available to support delivery.
     
  3. Finance: capital cost equations require consideration of the valuation of risk and the extant capital constraints in potential finance markets.

Ekistica is well-regarded for successfully delivering projects and providing quality independent advice to clients nationally and internationally. Our processes and ISO 9001 accredited Quality Management System ensure all our services are delivered to a consistently high standard.  

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Lyndon Frearson

Lyndon Frearson

Managing Director
Principal Consultant

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Michael Tuckwell

General Manager - Operations
Senior Consultant

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Vanessa Ratard

Executive Principal Consultant - Enviromental Engineering


Oliver Fitz-Henry

Principal Consultant - Structural & Civil Engineering

Kate Summers

Principal Consultant - Power Systems

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Paul Rodden

Principal Consultant - Off-Grid Power Systems
Senior Project Manager & Engineer - Renewables


Catherine Vero

Principal Engineer - Water

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PJ (Peter) Young

Senior Project Manager
Senior Engineer - Civil & Water

Caitlin Connellan

Practice Lead - Energy Advisory


Skye Haigh

Practice Lead - Remote Development
Water & Environmental Engineer

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Josiah Fajardo

Practice Lead - Infrastructure Analytics
Civil & Structural Engineer

Ashleigh Atkins

Renewable Energy Engineer


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Sam Mitchell

Renewable Energy Engineer

Jonathan Lines

Project Engineer

Rebecca Pink

Project Engineer - Enviromental


Jessica Peters

Project Engineer - Power Systems

Murugan Pandit

Project Manager

Enoch Kwei

Electrical Engineer


George Dickeson

Senior Data Analyst

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Sandeep Nimmakayalu

Project Engineer - Infrastructure Analytics

Chaitanya Meshram

Project Administrator Officer


Connor Sabapathy

Graduate Engineer

Joe Stinson

Graduate Engineer

Srivenkata Moturi

Graduate Civil Engineer


Judy Koonce

Corporate Services Manager


Mike Fowler

Bid Manager

Keith de Mel

Finance Manager

Paula O’Brien

Finance Business Support Officer


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Grant Behrendorff

Chairman, Ekistica Board

Grant is a dynamic and innovative leader and entrepreneur in the renewable energy sector in Australia.  He is an accomplished and respected business owner, developer and manager with over 30 years experience working in a range of technical and senior managerial roles across the utility, NGO and private sectors. He has a passion for leadership and change, and is a sucker for a challenge.

Grant has a proven ability to recognise opportunity, formulate and share a vision, and assemble and lead the resources required to realise it. These skills have been demonstrated in numerous successful roles and projects in the energy sector in Australia, India, North America, and the Pacific Islands.

In 2011 Grant co-founded AC Solar Warehouse which has grown rapidly to become the largest specialist AC Solar wholesale business in the Asia Pacific region.

 
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LYNDON FREARSON

Managing Director & Principal Consultant

Lyndon is a leader in the field of remote and regional infrastructure development and deployment, policy and financing. A chartered electrical engineer, Lyndon’s experience includes seven years in heavy industry and automotive manufacturing as a production manager, design engineer and project manager, and over a decade in the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. As Ekistica’s Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Lyndon has overseen its development as regional and remote Australia’s leading advisory and technical consultancy firm. In this role, he is and continued to be one of Australia’s thought-leaders in the energy sector.

 
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Olivia Coldrey

Olivia has 25 years experience in energy markets, gained in legal, finance and strategy roles in the public and private sectors and in international organisations. She has held senior executive or senior advisory positions with Sustainable Energy for All, REEEP, the Australian Solar Institute, the Asian Development Bank and UNDP.

Starting her career as a lawyer, for 12 years Olivia advised on project and structured trade finance and political risk insurance transactions with Baker McKenzie, Latham & Watkins, and in-house at Export Finance Australia. A Fulbright Scholar and U.S. Department of State Climate Change Fellow, Olivia is admitted as a Lawyer in the Supreme Court of New South Wales and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

 
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Peter Renehan

Chairman, Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd.

Peter, of Central Arrernte heritage, is Board Chair of the Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd, Ekistica’s parent company. Peter has a strong community engagement approach and practical knowledge of interacting and working with Aboriginal people and is committed to assisting Aboriginal people work through complex arrangements so they can interact and engage within educational and economic systems for a sustainable future.

Peter brings strong Governance capability and integrity through longstanding Board appointments to both NFP’s, Trusts and Commercial Companies.  This is balanced with a practical commitment to developing solutions for minimising impacts to the environment particularly around Aboriginal sites of significance.  

 
 
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Jo Hume

General Manager at Fulcrum3D

Jo is a Masters degree qualified engineer with over 20 years engineering and commercial experience across the energy and sustainable development sectors. She has deep experience in investment strategy, analysis and management. She has also evaluated and worked on energy companies and technologies with valuations from $10m to $10b.

Jo is currently the General Manager for a Fulcrum3D (a wind and solar energy monitoring and forecasting company). She was previously a Venture Partner at the Renewable Energy Venture Capital fund and has worked on major projects and investments at AGL and CVC, and ran the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Indigenous communities around the world are constantly impacted by the decisions of others and type-cast as importers of knowledge.

Ekistica was established to reverse this model, to export the Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd’s more than 35 years of experience working in remote areas to other contexts and locations; and to constructively impact the world around us, to help shape the world we are all part of and to demonstrate that this can be done from a remote area, with remote area knowledge.

Established in 2007, Ekistica is the commercial services arm of the Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd, a not-for-profit corporation working creatively at the interface of technology and economy in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd is owned and governed by an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board and knows a thing or two about working in remote areas and how to design and deliver services to the people and communities who live there. Click here to learn more about what they do.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
— James Boswell, 1775