Michael Bray

Michael Bray has 30 years experience in providing audit and advisory services, mainly to companies in the energy and natural resources sector, and including ASX 100 companies. He has been an audit partner for 22 years and is audit partner for SP Ausnet, Tigers Realm Coal, Boom Logistics and OZ Minerals. He has been KPMG's audit partner for BHP Billiton Base Metals and Energy Coal, International Power and Pacific Hydro. BHP Billiton's base metals mines include Olympic Dam in Australia and Escondida in Chile; mines which he has visited a number of times. During his time on the BHP Billiton audit, Michael led KPMG's work on the purchase price allocation for the WMC acquisition. He had previously been KPMG's lead partner for WMC, where KPMG was the internal auditor. He has experience with significant capital markets transactions, such as acquisitions, and debt and equity raisings, including in the USA.

Previously the partner in charge of KPMG's treasury advisory practice, Michael focused on energy and natural resources and industrial market companies, including direct advice and specialist audit support on the audits of companies such as Ashton Mining, North and Pacific Dunlop. These roles and his current audits have involved complex commodity, foreign exchange and interest rate financial instrument portfolios, with the accounting and auditing considerations associated with such portfolios.

Michael has been Chairman of KPMG's Australian Energy & Natural Resources (ENR) Group since 2009 and of its Asia Pacific Practice since 2011. The practice focuses on the power & utilities, mining, oil & gas and forestry industries. In his role, Michael works with industry leaders, capital markets participants and KPMG's client service teams for ENR clients. As a director of The Energy Policy Institute, Michael works with leading energy businesses and energy industry associations in promoting sound energy policy, effective energy markets and capital markets efficiency in financing the required large-scale energy investments. Michael was Global Executive Partner of KPMG's global Energy & Natural Resources Practice between 2000 and 2005.

Michael is a lead participant in the Australian Business Reporting Leaders Forum (BRLF) and Leader of KPMG Australia's Better Business Reporting Group (BBRG). He authored KPMG's 'The Journey to Better Business Reporting' and other publications in KPMG's 'Better Business Reporting' series, and has worked with many organisations on their reporting strategies. BRLF participants include leading members of the Australian business community, including the Group of 100. The BRLF is working with the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) as the IIRC exposes its integrated reporting framework and progresses its global pilot programme.

As a lead contributor to the group Michael wrote KPMG's global response to the IIRC's September 2011 Discussion Paper, 'Towards Integrated Reporting: Communicating Value in the 21st Century', and KPMG's commentary on release of that paper, 'Integrated Reporting – Performance Insight Through Better Business Reporting'.

Michael began work in the area in 1999, leading a team in KPMG's global R&D Centre in Montvale, New Jersey, in 2000 and 2001 in developing KPMG's ground-breaking service then known as Performance Insight. This subject matter has come to be known as Integrated Reporting.

Seminar

The Role of Investors & Assurance in the Journey to Better Business Reporting

Michael explored various issues in relation to the potential for Integrated Reporting approaches to be adopted by entities globally. Michael discussed Integrated Reporting in the context of IFRS, and he also considered the implications of integrated reporting for investors and assurance professionals and for the future of sustainability reporting globally. The benefits to business of this 'new form' of reporting, including for resource allocation decisions by for understanding broader company performance was also considered.