After more than four decades in the energy sector, ENGIE ANZ Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Generation, Graeme York, has bid both ENGIE and the industry farewell.
Mr York began his career 1983 with the original State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC), and has since worked overseas in Europe, the US and south-east Asia. With the support of ENGIE, he returned to Australia to work in his current role in January 2023. His last day with ENGIE will be Friday 16 May 2025.
Reflecting on his career, Mr York said that when he first stepped into the industry as a junior engineer at one of the SEC’s La Trobe Valley power station, his goal wasn’t to race to the top of the corporate ladder.
“It wasn’t really my objective to get into management,” he said.
“I found myself a manager of 120 people within about nine years. But I think from day one, I enjoyed just a variety of different things that you can do in power stations.”
When the Victorian energy sector began to shift towards privatisation, Mr York moved to the newly commissioned Loy Yang B power station. This role with international company, Edison Mission Energy, kickstarted Mr York’s first venture overseas, where he worked in the UK and the US, before returning to Australia and Loy Yang B in 2003 as its Plant Manager. He then joined International Power – which was later bought by ENGIE – as the CEO of Hazelwood Power Station in 2005.
“I’ve worked across all the power stations in the La Trobe Valley at some stage,” he said.
“I was the CEO of Hazelwood, and that was a very difficult job because it was an old asset, but that actually really developed me and set me up for international roles again.
“So, when ENGIE bought International Power, I moved to London, [and took up the role as] Head of Operations, [where I] drove the operating standards of our plants all around the world.”
Mr York spent four years in the UK, before gradually working his way back to Australia – moving to Bangkok in 2015 and subsequently Singapore in 2019 as the COO for ENGIE’s Asia-Pacific Business Unit.
“When we moved our office to Singapore, I got the opportunity to run one of our assets again at a plant called Senoko Power Station – so I’ve been an asset manager four times in my career,” Mr York said.
After a combined total of 18 years overseas, Mr York and his family felt it was time to return to Australia – a move that he is grateful of ENGIE’s support for.
“I was lucky that [ENGIE] found a position for me here in Australia to support the business. And I must say, it was nice to start my career in Australia and finish my career in Australia,” he said.
During his time with ENGIE, Mr York has spearheaded a number of key projects in Australia.
He led ENGIE’s Yuri Renewable Hydrogen Project, which is currently being built in the Pilbara, Western Australia, to produce renewable hydrogen as a zero-carbon feedstock for Yara Pilbara Fertiliser’s ammonia production facility in Karratha.
Mr York has also overseen ENGIE’s gas power stations in South Australia, including the flagship 489MW Pelican Point Power Station, which has recently been upgraded to allow it to run more efficiently and at lower levels, to better firm the huge amount of renewable energy in the state.
While a lot has changed in the sector since 1983, Mr York said that new and different technologies come with exciting opportunities and he feels very blessed to have had so many of these opportunities over the course of his career.
“What I like about the energy sector is that it’s dynamic – we’re seeing the technological change and it’s just so exciting,” he said.
“I’ve had so many opportunities, having worked overseas for 18 years in in multiple different countries, and working with all corners of the globe, and in different electricity markets.
“But even if you come back to Australia, you can spend your life in a power station and not get bored because there’s change and there’s new challenges.”
Following Mr York’s departure, Frederik Baerts has now started as Managing Director of Generation. He was previously the President and CEO of Singapore’s Senoko Energy, which owns and operates a 2.6GW power plant and retails electricity and energy solutions to businesses and households in the island nation.
Keep an eye out for the full interview with Mr York in the upcoming July 2025 issue of Utility.
