Management Team

We have a great management team representing diverse disciplines and skills. Their combined years of leading teams to solve STEM related problems for industry add up to over 100 years, providing a wealth of experience to draw from in tackling the most complex of challenges.

Larry Platt is Executive Chairman and founder of Emergent Group. He is a professional chemical engineer with a long history in the manufacturing and chemical processing sectors, and specialist skills in risk and dangerous goods. He founded Advitech in 1987 in response to major restructuring in the manufacturing sector.

The business grew from engineering and environmental consulting to become a group of complementary entrepreneurial companies in the science and technology space. Emergent Group expanded beyond consulting to offer broader technical solutions, including the manufacture of niche products and technologies, servicing sectors such as mining, manufacturing, agriculture, defence, construction, government and more.

Larry believes that the future for Australia depends on knowledge intensive smart manufacturing and services, and aligned Emergent Group with this future. He is heavily involved in the Hunter business community in various capacities, including the City of Newcastle Strategy & Innovation Advisory Committee and Hunter Angels.

>Interview: Larry Platt – Looking back, looking forward

Steven brings a wealth of manufacturing, engineering and project management experience across all sectors to Emergent Group. As Managing Director, he provides oversight of Emergent Group’s companies Advitech, Novecom and Acubis.

Steven also has overall responsibility for Advitech’s consulting services in engineering design, project management, risk management, functional safety, sustainability and environmental management.

With a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical – First-Class Honours), Steven’s specific areas of expertise include problem analysis, feasibility investigations, engineering assessments, risk management, project development and project management.

Steven is actively involved in the support of engineering-based manufacturing in the Hunter Region. He is currently a Director of Hunter Manufacturing Awards and was Chairman from 2017 to 2022. He has had a long-standing involvement with HunterNet, having been a Director (1998-2006) and Chairman (2001-2003). He was also a long-term member of the Industry Advisory Committee for the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Newcastle.

Glenn is an influential leader with an international reputation in the energy, clean technology and R&D sectors. As Executive Director – Strategy and Innovation, Glenn is tasked with identifying how Emergent Group’s world-class engineering and science expertise can be brought to solve the biggest challenges of Australia’s industries.

He has 20 years in the renewable energy and clean-technology sectors, on topics ranging from grid operations, to energy storage, energy efficiency, microgrids and solar energy. He has held executive positions and advisory roles for several technology and engineering firms, and has founded multiple start-up companies involved in the development of new energy technologies.

Glenn has led project teams from engineers to economists and provided a broad range of advice and technology solutions, leading many Australian clean technology firsts – including first virtual power station, first flow battery deployment, and first vehicle-to-grid project.

Through his leadership, advisory roles and development of new energy technologies, Glenn has made significant contributions to governments and businesses around the world. Throughout his career, Glenn has received multiple awards including Australia’s Mission Innovation Champion, Australian Financial Review Young Executive of the Year as well as medals for Entrepreneurship and Environmental Achievement.

Phil is an experienced leader, with more than 30 years developing advanced safety and communication technologies, across the mining and agriculture sectors.

Initially taking up a trade in industrial electronics, Phil worked on remote operated mining machines and through-the-earth communications, developing new technologies for the industry.

Phil was a founding partner of a technology company, ‘Newcomm solutions’, which employed up to 150 staff. Following the acquisition of the business by ‘Becker Mining Solutions’, Phil took up a position with ‘TR Group’, a national company focusing on Defence and Industrial instrumentation calibration.

Phil went on to develop and deploy mine safety technologies, including the development of AI visual collision avoidance systems, utilising cameras on vehicles to distinguish between humans and objects to protect people from machinery.

As CEO of Novecom, Phil aims to maintain a customer-first approach in developing and deploying advanced IoT and analytics technologies to help Australian industry transform their productivity, safety and environmental performance.

Jeff has over 25 years of experience in the IT networking and wireless communications sector including design, support, project management and business management.

His early career focused on global Tier 1 ISP Telecommunications, and subsequently moved into the mining wireless communications space, which he has been doing for over a decade. Jeff has held a number of senior technical and leadership roles in this area.

Jeff started with Acubis in March 2020 as the Operations Manager and oversaw extraordinary company growth, expanding the business from Queensland into NSW and WA while nearly tripling the size of the workforce.

Moving into the General Manager role in early 2024 was a natural progression, building on his previous experiences to continue to lead Acubis into the future.

Jeff received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Radford University in Virginia, USA and holds several industry related technical qualifications.