Pangolin Associates appoints Gary Cafe as Principal Consultant
Australian climate consultancy Pangolin Associates has recruited former Schneider Electric leader Gary Cafe as a Principal Consultant.
Gary Cafe has spent the past fourteen years based in the Netherlands, most recently serving as Schneider Electric’s global segment lead for ‘sustainable glass’. A UTS graduate, he now returns to Sydney as a principal consultant within the decarbonisation advisory team of Pangolin Associates.
Established in 2010 with outlets in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, Pangolin Associates is B-Corp certified and has been backed by private equity industry specialist Viridios Capital since late 2023, with an approximate team of around 30 professionals.
“Truly happy to have returned to these shores and into such a great organisation,” Cafe said. “I’ve witnessed a huge acceleration in Australia over the past few years with a raft of policy and legislation that is already bearing fruit. I see Australia as at a tipping point where renewables, electrification, and flexible demand are poised to accelerate.”
Coinciding with his electrical & telecommunications engineering degree with the University of Technology Sydney (since complemented with a renewable energy masters via Murdoch), Cafe joined Shell for a four-year stint in late 1996, before then spending time at BAI Communications and heading to Holland for the first time a decade later to take up a role with T-Mobile.
Obviously a fan of herring and chocolate sprinkles for breakfast, Cafe returned to the Netherlands after four years with BAI again back in Sydney, first with industrial gases company Air Products before then joining Schneider in 2018 as a sustainability consultancy manager in Amsterdam, where there’s a ‘Gary Deli’ on Kinkerstraat but maybe not a similarly-named coffee outlet in the city.
From there, he worked his way up to being Schneider’s global sustainable glass leader, establishing the firm’s low-carbon glass business focused on designing & executing transition strategies, which covered renewables, electrification, and digitisation. Now he brings that global expertise and three decades of experience back to Australia, as the country addresses its own transition challenges.
Pangolin Associates says: “With Australia targeting up to 70 percent emissions reductions by 2035, organisations are navigating structural shifts in energy supply, electrification, and market dynamics. Clients are increasingly seeking commercially-grounded pathways that align operational change with long-term competitiveness. Gary’s appointment reflects this growing demand.”
“Gary brings more than 15 years of global experience across APAC, EMEA and North America, having led the development of energy strategies across heavy industry, logistics, food & beverage, and the manufacturing sectors, and this appointment reinforces Pangolin’s decarbonisation advisory team in response to growing client demand.”
