Foresight Consulting Group hires William Birrell as associate director
Climate change and sustainability advisory firm Foresight has welcomed its latest senior hire: William Birrell.
Appointed an associate director, Birrell brings extensive experience in managing climate risks and opportunities, including through mergers and acquisitions. He has more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance and strategy in Australia and internationally, including conducting climate risk and opportunity analyses, and in developing fully costed decarbonisation pathways and strategies.
Birrell spent more than 15 years at EY in transactions, based in London and Melbourne, providing due diligence, disclosure and financial modelling expertise. While on secondment from EY, he worked on a major mining demerger – BHP’s spin-off of South32 – dealing with business and transaction risks, including climate risks and opportunities.
More recently, he was a principal consultant at Pangolin Associates, where he led work on climate-related financial disclosures aligned with the standards that are now mandatory for many Australian companies. In addition, he led work on asset and portfolio-level physical and transition climate risk assessments, and advised companies on decarbonisation projects and Safeguard Mechanism compliance.
Birrell also has experience in developing long-term programs for purchasing nature-based carbon abatement via carbon markets.
“William’s work sits at the intersection of climate science, financial modelling, business resilience and governance,” said Foresight Consulting Group founder and chief executive Josh Martin. “He is an expert at translating climate uncertainty into quantified advice to support board decision-making,”
“William has a deep understanding of the federal Safeguard Mechanism that regulates emissions from large facilities,” added Foresight chair and executive director Terence Jeyaretnam. “He has also spearheaded physical adaptation work at an international level.”
“I am thrilled to be joining Foresight,” Birrell said. “The firm is highly respected, and is the independent market leader in climate, nature and sustainability.”
