Picker elected ARC chair
2nd December 2023
AUSTRALIA: Dr Greg Picker has been elected chair of the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Board at the Australian Refrigeration Council’s AGM yesterday.
He takes over from Michael Bennett, who has completed his term and is retiring.
Greg Picker is executive director of Refrigerants Australia, a role he has filled for the past decade, and brings a wealth of knowledge from the refrigerants and products sectors. With both Australian government and United Nations experience, Picker fully understands environmental policy drivers and the refrigeration and air conditioning industry.
ARC also welcomed Refrigerant Reclaim Australia general manager Kylie Farrelley to the board to fill the vacancy created by Michael Bennett’s retirement.
Farrelley previously spent 20 years as business manager for fluorochemicals with specialty chemical and synthetic refrigerant producer Arkema.
Michael Bennett steps down after a remarkable career in the refrigeration industry. He has spent most of his career involved with industrial gases, beginning at BOC in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he was involved in establishing Australia’s first refrigerant recovery, reclamation and destruction scheme, Refrigerant Reclaim Australia (RRA). He became CEO in 1997, stepping down in 2019.
Amongst his many contributions to the industry, he was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Technical and Economic Advisory Panel (TEAP) Special Report – Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate System. The IPCC and TEAP authors were collectively awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
To crown his career, he received the Member of the Order of Australia in this year’s Australia Day honours, for his significant service to the refrigeration industry and to the environment.
