James is the General Manager of Strategy at Contact Energy. James has worked at Contact Energy for over 20 years and prior to his current role, he has held a number of senior electricity trading, risk management and gas trading roles.
James has high-level governance and advisory experience from sitting on many national electricity market working groups. Most recently, James was a member of the Electricity Authority’s Market Development Advisory Group (MDAG) which focuses on evolving the ‘machinery’ of the electricity markets. One special MDAG project looked at how the wholesale electricity market might operate (including how prices would be discovered) under a 100 percent renewable electricity supply.
In 2022, James was elected as Director of Simply Energy, a subsidy of Contact that takes care of the day-to-day energy supply for many of New Zealand’s largest businesses and enterprises. Simply also works with numerous other energy industry partners and is also responsible for the design and set-up of innovative energy solutions.