George Hunt

George Hunt is a recognized leader within the global utility sector with over 30 years of executive leadership in energy and water utilities, plus extensive experience in consulting, regulation, stakeholder management and strategy development. He was formerly a member of the Sydney Water Executive Team as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and General Manager – Digital Business. In this role he had full responsibility for digitalization of Sydney Water in both the IT and OT domains and also led numerous successful programs focused on the customer service and operational excellence. In 2018 he was acknowledged as Australia’s #1 CIO in the annual CIO50 awards for his leadership and innovation, plus his role as WaterAid ambassador. During his time at Sydney Water he also spent 12 months as General Manager – Customer, Strategy and Regulation where he had responsibility for developing Sydney Water 2.0 as well as leading the regulatory submission for 2020-2024 including direct liaison with the NSW Government, media, and other key environmental and health regulators.

Other key roles in his extensive career include being the Group CIO of Wessex Water, CTO of Npower Retail and Thames Water in the UK, plus CTO of American Water. He has also spent considerable time as an energy and water utilities consultant for both KPMG and Wipro supporting major transformation programs in companies that include British Gas, National Grid, Cincinnati Water and Melbourne Water.

He firmly believes that energy and water are key to a healthy life with environmental sustainability and economic prosperity, and also that the nexus between energy and water is not only very real, it is key to that goal and the realization of circular economies.