Advisors

Advisors for Downstream 2023 are:

Tracey Hickman

Chief Customer Officer
Genesis

Tracey Hickman joined the Genesis Executive Team in 2012 as General Manager Generation. In 2019, she took on a new portfolio as Executive General Manager Retail Operations. Prior to her current role, Tracey led Genesis’ Generation, Wholesale and Fuels portfolio businesses as Executive General Manager. On 1 September, 2020, Tracey took up the role of Chief Customer Officer. Tracey is accountable for the Genesis Retail brand, LPG operations and a range of retail support functions for the whole business.

Lisa Hannifin

Chief Customer Officer
Meridian

Lisa Hannifin was appointed as Chief Customer Officer in November 2019. As General Manager of Meridian’s retail business, Lisa's role includes accountability for the Meridian and Powershop customer brands and the operational retail functions of the Meridian Group. She brings rich experience and insight from a number of customer roles in her career, including a decade in the New Zealand electricity market.

Keith Hutchinson

Regulatory Manager
Electricity Networks Association (ENA)

Keith Hutchinson is responsible for co-ordinating the regulatory aspects of the ENA’s work. His background is in the development and implementation of regulatory and pricing frameworks for utilities and regulators across New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

LinkedIn

Bennet Tucker

Head of Strategy & Insights
Manawa Energy

Bennet is the Strategic Analysis Manager at Trustpower, soon to be Manawa Energy and currently leads the strategy function for the Manawa side of the business. Before joining Trustpower 2 years ago, Bennet led the security of supply function at Transpower, and prior to that worked as a strategic analyst at Meridian Energy. Bennet’s expertise includes strategic planning, economic analysis and operations research, essentially a professional tea-leaf reader trying to understand what the future might hold for the energy industry.

Caitlin Tromop van Dalen

Senior Advisor
Gas Industry Company

Caitlin is a senior adviser at Gas Industry Co. After completing a mechanical engineering degree and a masters of energy studies, she worked as a market analyst at Transpower with a focus on electricity security of supply. In her current role at Gas Industry Co., she is involved in projects assessing the role of gas out to the future. She was one of the lead authors of the Gas Market Settings Investigation, which assessed if the current market, regulatory and commercial settings in the gas sector were fit for purpose for New Zealand’s decarbonisation transition.

Penny Kibblewhite

General Manager Customer and Corporate Relations
Mainpower

Penny has over 15 years’ experience in customer engagement, marketing and communications. Penny has worked across a range of industries, holding roles at Wyma Solutions, Cavell Leitch, Seequent and Fujitsu.

Jonathan Young

Head of Policy, Research and Insights
Ara Ake

For the past 12 years, Jonathan served as the MP for the New Plymouth electorate. Through his role as Energy & Resources spokesman, he travelled throughout New Zealand gaining a thorough knowledge of the integrated energy system. He has travelled overseas gaining insight into other countries energy systems, gaining a broad understanding of the global energy transition.

LinkedIn

Nicolas Vessiot

Acting General Manager Strategy and Customer
Transpower

Nicolas has held a series of senior positions within the energy industry, across electricity and gas in Aotearoa New Zealand and in France, including generation, transmission and distribution. He currently works for Transpower as Senior Strategy Manger at Transpower where he is responsible for driving Transpower’s strategy and insight pieces such as Whakamana i Te Mauri Hiko and the Electrification Roadmap.

Liam Casey

Conference Producer
Brightstar

After joining Brightstar at the beginning of 2021, Liam has delivered many events covering a variety of sectors. He is excited to produce and deliver Downstream 2022 and has really enjoyed learning and researching about the energy sector. Liam is an avid reader and sports enthusiast.

LinkedIn

Irwin Munro

General Manager
Freeman

Irwin is the General Manager at Freeman, which sees him take responsibility for the commercial side of the energy sector products of Freeman, including all events, surveys, stakeholder management and business development.

LinkedIn