About Us

PC specialises in Integrated Building Design; using simulation tools to assist in the design and delivery of sustainable buildings, in particular, in predicting the performance of the mechanical services. He has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, 30 years of consulting, research and teaching experience in Sustainable Buildings, Building Energy Simulation, Energy Auditing, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, and Solar Energy. He understands the philosophy of all green building rating schemes in Australia that relate to non-residential buildings, namely the National Australian Building Environmental Rating Scheme (NABERS), the mandatory Commercial Building Disclosure scheme (CBD), GreenStar (equivalent to LEED) and Section-J of the Building Code of Australia (BCA). He is involved at some level with teaching, developing or reviewing each of them. PC enjoy’s working in a team environment to help design and retrofit buildings to deliver sustainable, high performance buildings. He is a founding Director of Team Catalyst Proprietary Limited, with the motto, “Driving Sustainability Through Teamwork”! PC is also Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Sydney.

GS has over 30 years in the Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) industry. He specialises in providing optimal solutions that maximise HVAC plant efficiency and minimise green-house gas emissions using simulation tools and selection software. He has extensive knowledge of products, systems, and control strategies that make up large central plant air conditioning systems for both industrial and commercial applications, having worked with global leaders in HVAC products and system manufacturing in previous roles. He has a first-class honours degree in mechanical engineering followed by an MBA (Executive) from the Australian Graduate School of Management. GS is an auditor, trainer and supervisor with the NABERS scheme and a member of the NABERS independent design review panel. GS is also an auditor and trainer for the federal government Commercial Building  Disclosure (CBD) scheme. He is Director, Team Catalyst Proprietary Limited, whose core expertise is in helping large buildings reduce their greenhouse emissions by improving energy efficiency.

Aysh specialises in Sustainable building design with a focus on low energy and highly thermally comfortable buildings. She has a Masters in Sustainable Design and a Bachelors in Architecture and is a Certified Passivhaus designer. At Team Catalyst, her expertise is in the optimisation of the building envelope using building energy simulation to test the impact of orientation, insulation, glazing selection and shading in reducing system capacity and improving thermal comfort. She has over 10 years’ experience in Architecture and sustainable design and understands the requirements of the green rating systems for commercial buildings - NABERS, GREENSTAR, NCC Section J requirements and the Passivhaus standard and the residential building requirements around NATHERS and BASIX. She is proficient in using several software platforms that assist in designing sustainable building; DesignBuilder/EnergyPlus, Autodesk AutoCAD and Autodesk Revit, Ecotect, Therm and Windows, and Accurate.

Dr Peter Lyons, PhD, is Principal of Fenestralia, and works closely with Team Catalyst on a number of projects. He is a recognised expert in residential building energy efficiency, with more than 25 years of experience and expertise in advanced window systems, energy modelling and green building rating systems for residential buildings. These include BCA (now NCC) Section-J and BASIX, and the use of Accurate software and its variants. PC and Peter developed the original Window Energy Rating Scheme (WERS) under contract to the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industries and Energy in 1995. The system is currently managed by the (Australian Fenestration Rating Council) AFRC and used to provide certification for residential window projects. Peter is a foundation member of the AFRC Technical Advisory Committee. AFRC-compliant ratings for windows, glazed doors and skylights are a mandatory requirement of the NCC/BCA. He has recently delivered a report to DCCEE on new skylight modelling algorithms for AccuRate and other NatHERS software tools. He was an active member of several working groups for the Australian Building Codes Board. Peter is a co-founder of DesignBuilder Software Australia and he supports and trains in the use of that software which runs the EnergyPlus simulation engine. He is proficient in the use of DesignBuilder interface for EnergyPlus and in the use of EnergyPlus itself. Peter is a Guest Scientist with the Windows & Envelope Materials Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Dr Rebecca Powles, PhD, obtained her doctorate in Applied Physics from the University of Sydney studying the optical properties of coated glazing.  She spent several years working in the Windows and Daylighting Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where she wrote the components of the Optics and WINDOW software that calculate the optical properties of fenestration products.  During this time, she also helped to develop the International Glazing Database (IGDB) format and data submission procedure and worked on new ways to measure the properties of glazing and shading materials.  She has also worked on several applied physics research projects, studying the atomic structure of materials using computer simulations.  Rebecca is an independent consultant who collaborates with Team Catalyst on a number of projects. Rebecca has developed a method for scripting AccuRate simulations to run thousands of simulations for a parametric study of building energy use.  She has also produced DesignBuilder plugins which generate custom reports for DesignBuilder Software Australia.  Rebecca has strong skills in data analysis, software automation and scripting. 

Akshay is a driven building professional, with a background in Building Design and construction. He has completed his Masters in High Performance Buildings and Sustainable Design From Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, at The University of Sydney.  The main focus of his post graduate degree was on High Performance Building Envelope, Thermal Comfort and Indoor Environment Quality by using sustainable design concepts. He works to create an energy conscious world, through cost effective built environment and innovative solution. He uses multi-disciplinary software’s for modelling to create complete building design solutions. His work has been focused on several Residential, Commercial, Retail and Social projects, across Australia and India. At Team Catalyst he is researching advanced building modelling workflow.