PERTH, Western Australia - 13 November 2026 - Regen Power CEO Nikhil Jayaraj has been named runner-up in the Energy and Mining Executive of the Year category at The CEO Magazine’s 2026 Executive of the Year Awards, announced at the International Convention Centre Sydney on Wednesday 11 November.
The result places a Perth-based residential solar and battery company on a national stage alongside leaders from some of Australia’s largest energy, infrastructure and resources organisations. Regen Power congratulates the category winner and every finalist who shared the room on the night.
The full list of winners and coverage of the evening is on The CEO Magazine’s website: 15 years of excellence: The CEO Magazine’s 2026 Executive of the Year Awards.
Why this award matters
Now in their 15th year, The CEO Magazine’s Executive of the Year Awards recognise individual leadership across Australian business, with category results decided by an independent judging panel. Finalists were announced in September, and the category winners were revealed in Sydney this week.
For Regen Power, the significance is less about the placing and more about what it says of the sector. Energy and mining is a category usually associated with very large organisations. A home solar and battery installer from Western Australia being recognised within it reflects how central rooftop solar and household batteries have become to the country’s energy story.
A career in solar, in brief
Dr Jayaraj joined Regen Power in 2010, while still a graduate student, and has spent his whole career in solar. He became General Manager in 2016 and now leads the company as CEO, continuing the work of its founder, the late Emeritus Professor Chem Nayar of Curtin University, who established the business in Perth in 2003 with a conviction that good engineering and good research belong together.
Alongside running the company, he completed a Doctor of Business Administration at Curtin University, where he is now a Research Adjunct, and he publishes peer-reviewed work on how households adopt solar storage. He was named a Business News 40 Under 40 winner in 2020 and 2024, and has been a finalist in these awards before.
How research supports the business
Regen Power’s view is simple: installers hold the real-world data, and universities hold the rigour to make sense of it. Through the Regen Research Lab and its long-standing partnership with Curtin University, the company puts both to work on the same questions.
That includes an Australian Research Council Linkage project examining battery adoption, solar storage and the shift to electric vehicles, with five PhD scholars contributing to the program. What the research finds flows back into how systems are designed, how batteries are sized and how plainly the options are explained to a family deciding what is right for their home. The findings are published openly, so the wider industry can use them too.
Thank you to 45,000 households
More than anything, this recognition is a reflection of the 45,000-plus Australian households who have trusted Regen Power with their rooftops since 2003. Every installation, every review and every piece of feedback has shaped the company, and it is their experience that sits behind any award with Regen Power’s name near it.
“I was honoured simply to be in that room, and I’m grateful to the judges and to The CEO Magazine. But an individual award in a business like ours is never individual. It belongs to our installers and office team, to the researchers we work with at Curtin, and above all to the 45,000 families who chose us. Thank you. We will keep working to deserve that trust.” – Dr Nikhil Jayaraj, CEO, Regen Power
Read more
See all the 2026 winners and the story of the night at The CEO Magazine: 2026 Executive of the Year Awards - winners and event coverage.About Regen Power
Regen Power is a Perth-based solar, battery storage and EV charging company founded in 2003 by Emeritus Professor Chem Nayar of Curtin University. It has completed more than 45,000 installations and maintains an active research partnership with Curtin University. Power That Doesn’t Cost The Earth.
