Kris Funston and Sandra James join partner team of Deloitte
Deloitte has added two new partners to its leadership team in Australia: Kris Funston and Sandra James.
Kris Funston joins the global accounting and consulting firm from Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), where he served as Executive General Manager for the Retail and Wholesale Markets sectors. During his 2,5 years with the regulator, Funston worked across the entire supply chain (wholesale, network, and retail markets) overseeing significant market reform in the wholesale electricity market and in 2017 led the development of the strategic priorities for the sector. Prior to that, he worked for Sydney Water as Manager Competition and Regulation, for Telstra as Senior Regulatory Advisor and for New Zealand’s Commerce Commission as Deputy Chief Economist.
At Deloitte, Funston has been appointed a partner in the firm’s Access Economics unit – the wing was established in 2011 after the Big Four firm acquired Access Economics, creating one of Australia’s leading economics advisory players. Commenting on his joining, Stephen Smith, Managing Partner of Deloitte Access Economics remarked “Kris is a microeconomist with expertise in competition, regulatory and network economics, access pricing, the cost of capital, regulatory finance, and the market and regulatory design for utility services. He has an excellent understanding of competition and regulatory frameworks in telecommunications, electricity, gas and water sectors internationally, particularly in Australia and New Zealand.”
Meanwhile, in a press release issued announcing Funston’s successor at AEMC [David Feeney], the institution’s Chief Executive Officer Anne Pearson took the opportunity to thank the new Sydney-based Deloitte partner for his “outstanding service” to the organisation.
Sandra James has been picked up from rival professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY), where she worked for nearly eight years. Prior to that, she served Energy Advisory Services, a management consulting company providing regulatory due diligence advice to equity and debt participants on energy and infrastructure related transactions, as well as regulatory, commercial and project management advice to governments, utilities and regulators. James specialises in regulatory strategy, (non-)economic regulatory frameworks, red tape reduction and implementation programmes.
James has been appointed a partner in Deloitte’s Financial Advisory practice, and operates from the firm’s Brisbane office.
Both Funston and James have also affiliated to Deloitte’s Energy, Resources and Industrials industry practice, led by Michael Rath. Their appointments come at a time when industry, regulator and government clients in the sector are facing significant changes to their industry.
Deloitte Australia generates revenues of $2.01 billion. The firm is part of the global Deloitte network, which employs 264,000 professionals in more than 150 countries.
