Professor Lachlan Blackhall, Founding Professor of the Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program at the Australian National University and previously co-founder of Reposit Power, is the recipient of the 2025 ACT Chief Minister's Pearcey Award. The award was presented by ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr at the 2025 Pearcey Round Table in Canberra on Thursday, 2 October 2025.
Prof. Blackhall is the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the Australian National University (ANU) and a Director of Engineers Australia, and has been recognised for his contributions to IT systems for renewable energy, particularly battery storage and grid integration. He was appointed to his current role in February 2024 after successfully establishing the ANU Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program as an Entrepreneurial Fellow. Prof. Blackhall has been a serial entrepreneur, founding or co-founding multiple businesses over the last 15 years, including Reposit Power, a local start-up that uses software control for electricity grid management.
Dr Tim Turner, ACT Pearcey Foundation Chair, commented,
We are proud to recognise Lachlan Blackhall as this year’s ACT Chief Minister’s Pearcey Entrepreneur. His contributions to the ACT and national IT and energy industry are significant and ongoing. He has shaped open-source and public interest technologies, national standards, and institutional collaborations, which are critical as Australia’s energy system transitions to renewable and distributed energy resources.
Prof. Blackhall’s entrepreneurial and innovation contributions have been widely recognised. He has led the development of world-first capabilities to monitor, optimise and control residential solar generation and battery storage, as well as the development of virtual power plant technology to aggregate energy storage to deliver services to energy networks, markets and utilities.
Prof. Blackhall is a Fellow of both Engineers Australia and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) – he was the youngest ever member of ATSE when he was elected in 2017 at the age of 33. He has also received several of Australia’s highest peer awards, including ATSE’s Batterham Medal and Engineers Australia’s M A Sargent Medal.
The Pearcey Foundation ACT Chief Minister's Entrepreneur Award is an annual award presented as part of the broader Pearcey Foundation awards program, which recognises outstanding Australian individuals in the technology and entrepreneurial sectors. This specific award acknowledges individuals in the ACT who have demonstrated innovation, success, and leadership in entrepreneurship, especially in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). It aims to highlight local achievements and promote the entrepreneurial culture within Canberra.
The 2025 event, attended by over 30 people, was held on Thursday, 2 October 2025 on Level 4, in CBRIN's offices. It included a Pearcey Round Table discussion that was monitored and then reported on by our collaborators this year, AI CoLab. A report on the Round Table discussion was produced by AI CoLab's AI agent, "Fred", in the minutes after the discussion closed, and presented to the Chief Minister when he also received the ACT Chapter's response to his challenge for 2025.
The award was presented to Dean Spaccavento (co-founder of Reposit Power and former Pearcey Award winner, representing Lachlan Blackhall) by the ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr.
Pictured: (L-R) ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, Dean Spaccavento, Wayne Fitzsimmons National President Pearcey Foundation
The Pearcey Foundation acknowledges the ongoing support of the ACT Government and the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, for sponsoring and participating in this prestigious ICT award.
