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Introducing Australia’s representatives for the 2026 IEC Young Professionals Programme
Statements
Each year, Standards Australia selects two Australians participants to take part in the IEC Young Professionals (YP) Programme – a unique opportunity for early-career professionals to engage with international experts, build leadership skills and contribute to the development of global standards.
Standards Australia is pleased to introduce our 2026 participants: Blake Ashton and Srushti Lokesh. Both participants bring rich experience and passion for advancing standards in energy and electrotechnology, and we are excited to support them in this week-long program.
For Blake Ashton, is an Energy Transition Strategy Lead at SA Power Networks has highlighted the importance of global knowledge sharing.
“The use of IEC standards in my work has exposed me to the global collaboration that is facilitated by the IEC,” said Blake. ”Utilising this collective knowledge for standardisation of my work and hopefully contributing back into it was my main motivator to apply.”
As part of the program, Blake hopes to “showcase the leading role South Australia is playing in the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and tap into global advancements in standardisation in this domain… and ensure that the Australian experience and perspective is represented.”
Srushti Lokesh is a Technical Product Compliance Specialist at Dometic, who brings over five years of experience applying Australian and international standards in product testing, certification and regulatory compliance.
“When I first started my career, I saw standards mainly as documents used during product testing and certification,” said Srushti. “As I gained experience working in product compliance, I realised they play a much bigger role in influencing product design, safety, quality and innovation from the early stages of development. That made me interested in understanding not just how standards are applied, but how they are developed.”
Already active as a member of the TE-003-19 Standards Australia Committee and a contributor to the EL-002 committee with the Australian Industry Group, Srushti champions a proactive “compliance-by-design” approach to her daily work.
Looking ahead, Srushti aims to dive into the mechanics of global consensus.
“I hope to gain a better understanding of how international standards are developed, how technical committees collaborate to reach consensus and how different countries contribute to that process,” she said, adding that she also looks forward to expanding her network and exploring global conformity assessment.
Both representatives will attend the IEC Young Professionals Programme workshop, held during the 2026 IEC General Meeting in Hamburg, Germany, from 16-20 November 2026.
By supporting emerging leaders in this global initiative, Standards Australia ensures that local industries shape the international standards that will define the future of our power systems and technologies.
Applications for the 2027 program will open in Q2 2027. More information will be available here.
Each year, Standards Australia selects two Australians participants to take part in the IEC Young Professionals (YP) Programme – a unique opportunity for early-career professionals to engage with international experts, build leadership skills and contribute to the development of global standards.
Standards Australia is pleased to introduce our 2026 participants: Blake Ashton and Srushti Lokesh. Both participants bring rich experience and passion for advancing standards in energy and electrotechnology, and we are excited to support them in this week-long program.
For Blake Ashton, is an Energy Transition Strategy Lead at SA Power Networks has highlighted the importance of global knowledge sharing.
“The use of IEC standards in my work has exposed me to the global collaboration that is facilitated by the IEC,” said Blake. ”Utilising this collective knowledge for standardisation of my work and hopefully contributing back into it was my main motivator to apply.”
As part of the program, Blake hopes to “showcase the leading role South Australia is playing in the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and tap into global advancements in standardisation in this domain… and ensure that the Australian experience and perspective is represented.”
Srushti Lokesh is a Technical Product Compliance Specialist at Dometic, who brings over five years of experience applying Australian and international standards in product testing, certification and regulatory compliance.
“When I first started my career, I saw standards mainly as documents used during product testing and certification,” said Srushti. “As I gained experience working in product compliance, I realised they play a much bigger role in influencing product design, safety, quality and innovation from the early stages of development. That made me interested in understanding not just how standards are applied, but how they are developed.”
Already active as a member of the TE-003-19 Standards Australia Committee and a contributor to the EL-002 committee with the Australian Industry Group, Srushti champions a proactive “compliance-by-design” approach to her daily work.
Looking ahead, Srushti aims to dive into the mechanics of global consensus.
“I hope to gain a better understanding of how international standards are developed, how technical committees collaborate to reach consensus and how different countries contribute to that process,” she said, adding that she also looks forward to expanding her network and exploring global conformity assessment.
Both representatives will attend the IEC Young Professionals Programme workshop, held during the 2026 IEC General Meeting in Hamburg, Germany, from 16-20 November 2026.
By supporting emerging leaders in this global initiative, Standards Australia ensures that local industries shape the international standards that will define the future of our power systems and technologies.
Applications for the 2027 program will open in Q2 2027. More information will be available here.
