Rux Energy is proud to have a gender and culturally diverse team that is working to solve the world’s most pressing challenge – climate change.
For the 2026 celebrations of International Women’s Day, Rux Energy’s inspirational women leaders participated in a fantastic initiative TakingUpSpace – a portrait gallery celebrating the women shaping Sydney’s deep tech ecosystem. The concept was simple but powerful: fill Cicada Innovations with faces and stories of women already building, leading and innovating in deep tech. These are the women who are defining the next generation of innovation.
At Rux Energy, we are committed to excellence and to solving some of the most difficult challenges in science and engineering to develop a world class solution that will enable the transition away from fossil fuels to zero-emission energy sources. Building a diverse team has been a core value from the start, and essential to achieving our objectives. We need the best intellects in science and engineering, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or any other diversity measures. We believe that this will ensure that our solutions will be more technically credible, financially viable, sustainable and socially responsible. We will develop solutions where all aspects have been considered, reflecting the values and attitudes of our diverse team and consequently we will have identified a wide range of risks and will manage these. Importantly, we avoid “group think”, value input form every member of the team. Put simply, this will drive our innovative capacity, encourage ethical behaviour, enable good governance and ensure our reputation as a leader in the energy transition.
As shown by research by Professor Scott Page at the University of Michigan a diverse group of competent performers almost always outperform a homogenous group of star performers by a substantial margin when it comes to complex problem solving or innovating.
Beyond theoretical modelling, surveys by leading management consultants like McKinsey research by MIT Sloan Institute, has shown that the best performing companies on every measure are committed to diversity and inclusion,achieving above-average less-volatile profitability, driving organizational effectiveness and performance with increased innovation, and improved employee engagement.
We’re incredibly proud that Rux Energy’s female leaders in deep technology were featured in the exhibition including: Dr Emily Reynolds, Head of Research, Dr Chanel Leong, Head of Project Management and Operations, Dr Chiara Fois, Research Experimental Manufacturing Manager, and Dr Dayana Mathews, Laboratory Scientist. Their fields of specialisation include chemicals engineering (2), advanced chemistry (3) and data science(1).
They are pictured in the photo below with their feature posters along with Kara Hatherly Head of Data Science and Dr Marlene Kanga, Chair Rux Energy.
This is a great demonstration of our commitment to diversity, we value every difference, because this is what will make the difference and deliver the change we want.
Dr Marlene Kanga AO FTSE FAA FREng DEng HonFIEAust FAICD
Chair Rux Energy
L to R: Dr Marlene Kanga AO, Rux Energy Chair; Dr Dayana Mathews, Laboratory Scientist; Dr Chanel Leong, Head of Project Management and Operations; Dr Emily Reynolds, Head of Research; Dr Chiara Fois, Research and Experimental Manufacturing Manager; Kara Hatherly, Head of Data Science.
