Amirhomayoun (Andrew) Izadyar
Founding Director
Richard Thomson
Business Coach/Advisor
Stay tuned, as more information about our team members will come soon.
Originally from Iran, he came to Australia in 2011 with the purpose of the pursuit of his studies.
Prior to Australia, in Iran, Andrew studied civil engineering and worked for an Urban Development Company as the supervisor of the infrastructures development. In that role, he was responsible for the supervision and inspection of land development, road and building construction, and hand over of completed assets and their operationality. Central to his role was the supervision of the contractors and consultants of the infrastructure projects. As part of his tasks and as the representative of the client, Andrew was required to build relationships between the housing unions and the constructors of the residential buildings to deliver successfully completed buildings to the members of the unions.
In Australia, Andrew received his Master’s degree in the field of water resources management, majoring in hydrogeology from Flinders University. He obtained work experience by being the assistant to the superintendent of the wastewater pipeline and wastewater treatment projects in South Australia. This provided an excellent opportunity to compare his previous work experiences with the new working environment. Following that, the Department for Environment and Water of South Australia was another positive work experience for him. Gaining experience from the working context of a government department and being among a team of professionals and groundwater experts provided Andrew with a diverse understanding about groundwater management and the operating model of a regulator of water resources.
While he was completing his Masters degree at Flinders University, he was awarded a scholarship by New Venture Institute (NVI) of Flinders University to participate in an intense MBA program which was held from March to October 2014 in Adelaide. For him, that program was a game-changer so that by the end of that, he had become familiar with the concepts of entrepreneurship, and also, he had realised that he could be more productive in an entrepreneurial role.
It was November 2014 when he began his entrepreneurial journey by focusing on commercialising the technology of subsurface dams as a new water supply infrastructure in Australia. The advanced technology of subsurface dams has proven application in Japan over the last few decades. From November 2014 to February 2017, Andrew was carrying out the preliminary works of commercialising that technology and to continue his journey officially, he founded Aquor in February 2017 as a design management company to engage with stakeholders and the external suppliers.
In March 2017, he participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which was held in Brisbane, Australia. That Bootcamp aimed to intensely train the participants by the MIT academia according to the MIT entrepreneurship methods to prepare them to develop new ventures.
From September to November 2019, Andrew participated in the Science to Policy Leadership Program of Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust in Canberra after being awarded the Glencore scholarship. The aim of that program was enabling the participants to develop the leadership skills to be able to have positive impacts and be change-makers in the water and environment sectors.
Apart from pursuing entrepreneurial goals and working on a new venture which are time-consuming, Andrew seeks balance through other activities in his life. He likes reading widely, doing exercise, travelling, music, and tasting different foods. In addition to engineering, his favourite topics are international affairs, sociology, history, cultural heritage and nature.
Richard’s international chemical engineering career spanned 30 years where he worked in chemicals, sugar, petrochemicals, oil and gas, and renewable energy industries. His early career involved commissioning and production management of highly sophisticated petro-chemical plants; management of the development, operations and technical services of Cooper Basin oil fields, and of the SWQ Jackson oil field and pipeline.
He represented the Australian Government providing advice to the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company on handling waxy crudes and reducing energy consumption in the oil production and transportation processes in China.
During the 1990s and 2000s he was Principal and Director of his own businesses Beasley Industries, Thomson Wagstaff and Australian Energy Advisors. His consultancy businesses provided national and global project evaluation and asset management services to the upstream oil and gas industry; gas price contract negotiations, major pipeline operations and tariff structures. He provided expert witness testimonies for the Esso-BHP PRRT determination, and for gas price arbitrations in four State jurisdictions between 1993 and 2005.
As part of a UN specialist advisory group Richard worked with the Government of Kuwait in relation to assessing the damage sustained to all Kuwaiti assets, the environmental damage and remediation required as a result of the Iraqi aggression in 1990, and a basis of reparation by Iraq.
Richard was a member of a United Nations led consortium to provide specialist advice to the Government of Poland on accessible energy sources within the country and the potential for moving to energy self-sufficiency following the fall of the Soviet Republic in 1991.
Together with two colleagues he developed Drillsupport International into a significant design, construction and operating company for underwater ‘remotely operated vehicles’ (ROVs), specifically for the offshore oil and gas industry.
Both Beasley Industries and Drillsupport International held substantive patents, respectively in frost tolerant solar thermal collector design, and provision of stable operating platforms for ROVs in high current situations.
Following his purchase of Beasley Industries, Richard has specialised in solar thermal systems and more generally in the application of renewables in the energy system. During 2015 – 2017 he has worked with CSIRO in developing domestic scale solar thermal air conditioning, and in commercialising CSIRO intellectual property in this space.
Richard has provided solar thermal engineering consultancy services to Rinnai Australia and the Clean Energy Regulator as auditor for small-scale technology certificates; and separately supports the development of a solar still to provide low cost potable water in under-developed countries. He also undertakes young entrepreneur mentoring through the Business SA SAYES and NES programs.
As well as senior management roles in major corporations with whom he has worked, and the experience of starting and operating his own businesses, he has extensive government, joint venture, and ASX-listed companies board governance experience and was the founding Chairman of the Barbara Hardy Centre, UniSA, in 2008, and subsequently Chair of the Advisory Board of the Barbara Hardy Institute until 2015.
Richard has been the business coach/advisor to Aquor since August 2017. He assisted the founder of Aquor on identifying the essentials of the business of the Company, the structure of the business, business model development, and engagement with external suppliers.
Stay tuned, as more information about our team members will come soon.