Board & Management
John Poynton AO, CitWA, FAICD, SFFin (Life), FAIM
Non-Executive Chair
John has decades of advisory and capital markets experience across equity, debt, infrastructure, and property.
In parallel with his career as an investment banker, John has also been an active non-executive director of ASX-listed companies, government and education bodies and not-for-profit organisations.
John is executive chair of Poynton Stavrianou Pty Ltd and is a non-executive director of Perth Airport Pty Ltd.
John has served on the boards of ASX, Multiplex, Alinta and Austal, and for the Federal Government he has been a director of EFIC, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board and the Higher Education Endowment Fund.
In February 2024 John stepped down after 10 years as a Guardian of Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the $220+ bn Future Fund.
In the not-for-profit arena, John has served as chair of the Council of Christ Church Grammar School, Celebrate WA, Giving West and the Foundation of the WA Museum.
In 2006 John was the recipient of the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award in the Industry and Commerce category. In 2016 he was appointed as an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
John holds a Bachelor of Commerce and an honorary Doctor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia where he was also awarded a Dean’s Medal.
John was appointed to the Board as Chair on 10 April 2017.
Stuart Nicholls
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Mr Nicholls joined Strike as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in early 2017. Mr Nicholls has led the transformation of Strike from its exploration roots into one of Australia’s first integrated developers of gas, renewable energy and fertilisers. Mr Nicholls has a broad ranging background across the energy landscape that included time in the up and downstreams at Royal Dutch Shell across most disciplines primarily from within Royal Dutch Shell’s gas businesses. He has a key focus on the transition of our energy system and his commitment to lead Strike to carbon neutral by 2030. Mr Nicholls previous experience also includes six years with the Australian Army in senior leadership positions and he has worked in Australia, The Netherlands, Myanmar and Malaysia in corporate and operational capacities and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from UWA.
Nev Power
Non-Executive Director and Deputy Chair
Mr Power is also Non-Executive Chairman of Future Battery Minerals and a Non-Executive and Lead Independent Director of employment services provider APM Human Services International Ltd.
With more than four decades of experience in mining, minerals processing, construction and steel making, Nev has accumulated a wide range of skills and knowledge across multiple sectors of the commercial and Not for Profit global business landscape. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nev was appointed by the Prime Minister to lead an expert advisory board, the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC). The Commission’s role was to help minimise and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 on jobs and businesses.
From 2011 to 2018, Nev was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, one of the world’s largest, lowest cost producers of iron ore.
During his time Fortescue more than quadrupled its production to over 170 million tonnes per annum and positioned itself as the lowest cost supplier of seaborne iron ore to China.
Before joining Fortescue, he held Chief Executive positions at Thiess and the Smorgon Steel Group. Nev also has an extensive background in agribusiness and aviation, holding both fixed wing and helicopter commercial pilot licenses.
Mr Power was appointed to the Board on 25 September 2019.
Stephen Bizzell
Non-Executive Director
Mr Bizzell is the Chairman of boutique corporate advisory and funds management group Bizzell Capital Partners Pty Ltd. He is also currently Chairman of ASX listed MAAS Group Holdings Limited and Savannah Goldfields Limited and a Non-Executive Director of Challenger Energy Group Plc and Renascor Resources Limited.
Mr Bizzell was an Executive Director of Arrow Energy Ltd from 1999 until its acquisition in 2010 by Shell and PetroChina for $3.5 billion. He was instrumental in Arrow’s corporate and commercial success and its growth from a junior explorer to a large integrated energy company.
He was a founding director of Bow Energy Ltd until its $550 million takeover and was also a founding director of Stanmore Resources Ltd and a former director of Queensland Treasury Corporation.
Mr Bizzell qualified as a Chartered Accountant and early in his career was employed in the Corporate Finance division of Ernst & Young and the Corporate Tax division of Coopers & Lybrand. He has had considerable experience and success in the fields of corporate restructuring, debt and equity financing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Mr Bizzell has over 25 years’ corporate finance and public company management experience in the resources sector in Australia and Canada with various public companies.
Mr Bizzell was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 31 December 2018.
Mary Hackett
Non-Executive Director
Ms Hackett has an extensive career in the resource sector, spanning more than 30 years, with senior executive roles in Brown & Root, Woodside, and General Electric, including Senior VP, Australia Oil, Woodside and CEO of General Electric Oil & Gas for Australasia.
Ms Hackett is also currently Independent Chair of Future Energy Exports Cooperative Research Centre, Non-Executive Director Blue Ocean Monitoring and Non- Executive Director of Clean Marine Fuel Institute. She also is a member of, or chairs, Audit and Risk, ESG, Major Projects and Remuneration Committees for several of the boards she serves.
A Graduate of AICD and a Fellow of Engineers Australia, Ms Hackett holds an honours degree in
Mechanical Engineering from University College Galway, Ireland.
Ms Hackett was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 27 October 2020.
Andrew Seaton
Non-Executive Director
Andrew Seaton
Non-Executive Director, BE (Chem) Hons, Grad Dip Bus Admin, GAICD
Mr Seaton has 35 years’ business experience across a range of finance, engineering, project management, investment banking and senior executive roles.
Mr Seaton was previously CFO of Santos Limited, Australia’s largest producer of domestic natural gas and a key supplier of LNG into Asia.
During his time with Santos, the company expanded its LNG portfolio to include interests in Darwin LNG, PNG LNG and Gladstone LNG.
Prior to this he worked in investment banking with Merrill Lynch in Melbourne and New York across a broad range of advisory, M&A, equity and debt capital markets transactions, and with NAB in corporate and institutional banking.
His early career included process engineering and project management roles across upstream oil and gas and petrochemicals.
Mr Seaton is currently the Managing Director of Australian Naval Infrastructure, and a non-executive Director of Rex Minerals Ltd and Homestart Finance Ltd.
Mr Seaton was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 18 August 2017.
Jill Hoffmann
Non-Executive Director
Ms Hoffmann has more than 30 years in the energy industry, including 12 years as a senior executive for Woodside Energy Ltd as well as time spent at Chevron and Worley.
This experience includes a broad range of roles across the energy value chain and of note are her Senior Vice President roles in marketing and trading across Woodside’s full suite of energy products. This provided Ms Hoffmann with a deep understanding of the WA domestic gas market and regional gas market. Ms Hoffmann also led the development and implementation of renewable energy and environment and cultural heritage protection strategies at Woodside.
Ms Hoffmann is also a Non-Executive Director at Qube Holdings Limited. Ms Hoffmann is a former chair of Fremantle Ports, where she was also Chair of the Audit and Risk committee.
Ms Hoffmann holds a Master of Business Administration from Henley Management College, England and a Bachelor of Business from Massey University, New Zealand. She is also a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Ms Hoffmann was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 1 May 2023.
Justin Ferravant
Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary
Mr Ferravant is a Certified Practising Accountant (Australia) with over 15 years’ experience in Australia and Asia.
At Strike, he is responsible for finance, tax, treasury, information technology and company secretary functions. Prior to Strike, Mr Ferravant was Finance Manager at Santos Limited for the Cooper Basin and responsible for joint venture, financial reporting and controllership.
He has held leadership roles in commercial analysis, finance and reporting at Origin Energy, General Electric Plastics (Japan) and Deloitte Consulting (Japan).
Mr. Ferravant joined Strike in August 2017.
Lucy Gauvin
General Counsel
Lucy Gauvin has near 20 years’ experience as a corporate and commercial lawyer in the energy and resources sector. Prior to joining Strike as General Counsel in April 2017, Ms Gauvin was Partner in the Corporate and Commercial team at national law firm Piper Alderman, and prior to that a Partner at boutique Adelaide based energy and resources law firm, Watsons Lawyers. Ms Gauvin’s experience covers all legal, corporate and commercial aspects of the upstream oil and gas business, including joint ventures, gas sales, infrastructure access, business and asset acquisitions and divestments, procurement, capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and compliance.
Kevin Craig
Chief Operations Officer
Mr Craig has more than 30 years’ experience in the energy industry having held senior operations roles at Royal Dutch Shell in the North Sea, onshore Nigeria, Russia and Australia and until recently the role of Director and Executive General Manager- West for Upstream Production Solutions. He has a broad and deeply diligent experience set in operations, maintenance, projects, contract management and low-cost production operations. Mr Craig joined Strike Energy as the Chief Operations Officer in April 2021 and is preparing the business to successfully commence production operations.
Crispin Collier
Chief Development & Marketing Officer
Mr. Crispin Collier, Strike Energy’s Chief Development and Marketing officer has assumed the role within Strike’s newly formed development company that has current carriage of the Project Haber fertiliser development, the Mid-West Geothermal project and Strike’s other downstream business development activities. Due to Mr. Colliers long involvement as a producer, buyer and user of industrial energy in WA, he will also take on the Company’s gas marketing and sales activities. Mr. Collier has 20 years of experience from the energy and resources industry, working for some of the biggest and lowest cost producers of their key commodities in the region. This experience includes time with both BHP and Fortescue Metals Group and more recently for Wesfarmers in both their Corporate Business Development and Chemicals, Energy and Fertilisers divisions. Mr. Collier has held senior executive and operational roles throughout his tenure at his previous employers. Mr. Colliers time has also served on the Boards of Quadrant and the Pilbara Ports Authority.