Page 200 - ISES SWC50

Dr. Mrs. Janak Palta McGilligan
Country: India
Year joined industry: 1985
Company first worked for: Barli Development Institute for Rural Women
Technology area: Solar Thermal
Still active in the industry: Yes

Dr. Mrs. Janak Palta McGilligan is a leading voice for women empowerment and solar cooking through sustainable
community development in India. She has devoted over 30 years of her life studying issues related to rural and
tribal women, a group that wields the least power in the social order of the country. She has created, sustained,
and managed institutions that help these women become agents of social change. Dr. McGilligan is a Padma Shree
Awardee and Director of the Jimmy McGilligan Centre for Sustainable Development. She is also Co-founder of
Jaivik Setu, the National Coordinator for the Solar Food Processing Network India. The Jimmy McGilligan Centre
for Sustainable Development has trained more than 40,000 students in sustainable development. She was the
Director of the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women Indore from 1985 to 2011, which trained more than
6000 tribal girls and young women from 500 villages of India in solar cooking, food processing, and installed 500
SK 14 solar cookers in Indian villages. The Institute uses solar cookers for cooking food for its more than 100
residents for 300 days a year. The trainees are also trained in use and maintenance of portable solar cookers so
they can continue to use this sustainable method of cooking at home. In her lifetime spent mentoring tribal girls,
Dr. McGilligan understood the impact of good training. Dr. McGilligan is a Solar Cookers International (SCI) Global
Advisor. She received the SCI Order of Excellence award in 2018 for her dedicated efforts on the 6th SCI World
Conference 2017 organizing committee. Hundreds of people from around the world came together to share solar
cooking knowledge. Dr. McGilligan joined the SCI United Nations advocacy team to advocate to government leaders
at events such as the High Level Political Forum for environmentally friendly, clean, sustainable solutions including
solar cooking.

Bob Mulligan
Country: Australia
Year joined industry: 1987
Company first worked for: Cairns Solar Equipment
Technology area: PV
Still active in the industry: Yes

Bob Mulligan started with power generation in the late 80’s doing diesel power stations with integrated solar in
remote communities, mainly doing design and consulting. In the early nineties he was mainly involved in solar
with my marine electrical business, but soon it became evident that solar power was starting to become prevalent
in remote cattle properties so started selling and installing solar to remote regions. Around 1993 he became the
distributor for Solahart Hot Water Systems for North Queensland which provided opportunities to promote PV into
the area. By 1995 the Daintree area was one of the major regions in Australia that became solar dependent, in doing
so the Daintree region became a large consumer of panels, batteries etc and provided opportunity for the industry
to grow in the region. He then became a BP Solar Distributor which meant that he could sell to dealers within the
region and provide support for the products. By having a BP Solar Distributor in the region, he felt it provided a
huge boost for the promotion of PV in the NQ region for over a decade in the stand-alone arena. He then started
distributing, retailing, and installing BP Solar grid connect systems throughout Queensland through several dealers.
It was a sad day when the BP Solar network had to close within Australia. By 2012 he started setting up purchasing
agreements with other reputable suppliers up until 2015 when Solahart started providing PV products in addition
to solar hot water and continued to do so up until March 2020 when he decided that retirement was now due. He is
still active doing consultancy work for installers and designers in the PV and power generation field.

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