Speakers

Nigel joined Powerco in October 2002 and was appointed Chief Executive in October 2011. He was previously General Manager Electricity and has also held a range of other executive-level Commercial and Corporate roles within Powerco. He has an economics and legal background and has previously held roles with Transpower and Bank of New Zealand.

Peter is a behavioural scientist whose expertise lies in behavioural economics, research methodology, innovation and experimentation, data analytics, and the psychology of decision making. At Medallia, he works to understand what makes companies successful, what will make them successful in the future, and to help shape our product to make that future happen. Prior to joining Medallia, Peter completed his doctoral degree in behavioural decision research, with a focus on how real people both should and actually do make decisions.

Since taking up the role of Chief Executive in September 2014, Fraser Whineray has been described as one of the forward-thinkers in the New Zealand energy sector – with a customer-first focus and advocacy for electricity as the ‘home-grown’ transport fuel, along with other opportunities to work New Zealand’s renewables advantage over the long-term for the benefit of all Kiwis and our country.

Over the last 20 years John has had dual careers in Marketing and Technology and Digital delivery.  During that time John has helped companies navigate the waves of change resulting from new technologies starting with the dot com era through to the current social and mobility age.  He has worked across the UK government, banking and energy sectors helping organisations to adopt new technologies and ways of working that both improve the experience for their customers and take advantage of the opportunities offered by emerging technologies and new customer interaction channels.

Simon is a director at Concept Consulting.  He has advised governments, regulators, and industry participants on a wide range of issues ranging from market design, through to commercial and strategic advice. 

He also heads up Concept’s modelling and quantitative analysis group which provides market forecasting and bespoke analysis services to clients. 

Prior to joining Concept, Simon held a senior manager role at Contact Energy.

Carl has been the Electricity Authority's Chief Executive since inception in November 2010.

Carl has been involved in the evolution of the New Zealand electricity market, as a senior executive and director, independent advisor and economist. He has chaired sector technical and advisory groups and acted as principal adviser to a number of industry bodies.

Fiona joined Trustpower in 1996. Holding a number of senior roles at Trustpower, her career has focused on leading and implementing change that supports our multi utility proposition and values our customer’s experience. In her present role, Fiona is responsible for the Customer Operations business; this encompasses almost all customer touch points and includes meter reading, provisioning, billing, collections and our Contact Centre.

Eric is the Commercial Manager at Powerco,  New Zealand’s second largest electricity utility. He leads the customer and commercial side of the electricity business and is focused on lifting the engagement with consumers and integration of new energy technologies into the grid. Eric is also accountable for Powerco’s Emerging Energy Consumers and Markets programme which is aimed at understanding what New Zealander’s are looking for from their distribution utility now and in the future.

Tim Fairchild is the Director of the SAS Global Communications and Energy Practice. In this role he leads a team responsible for developing global product strategy and defining and delivering market-driven offerings for the Communications and Energy industries. His team works closely with global customers, alliance partners, and SAS Research & Development to ensure that SAS Communications and Energy solutions meet the needs of the market.

With a passion for new technologies and innovation, Hans has helped Spark to transition from a traditional telco provider to New Zealand’s market leader in Digital and Communications Services. In his current role, Hans leads the development of customer insights and strategies to improve customer experience and increase Spark’s marketing and sales effectiveness. In 2017 Hans presented at Dreamforce Spark’s innovative solution to improving customer experience using customer analytics and Insights.

Since migrating to NZ eight years ago with her family, Tracy has been fortunate enough to work some amazing NZ Brands.  Firstly in the energy sector for Mercury Energy.  Then as GM of Client Services of a specialist data driven, customer relationship marketing agency Track (formerly RAPP), where she headed up the teams on Spark and Air New Zealand.  Currently at Westpac leading the CRM team where she has driven 3 award winning, highly effective, customer engagement programmes:  First 100 Days, Home Ownership Programme and Value Me.

Jamie is a strategic new energy/ business innovation advisor and business case specialist with 25 years industry experience in the UK, New Zealand and leading global distributed teams. His capability is founded in a deep analytical ability to understand and simplify complexity, detail and emerging trends to plot the roadmap to a solution.

Paul Mitchell is a Chief Adviser within the Regulation Branch at the Commerce Commission, working on all aspects of price quality regulation relating to electricity lines and gas pipeline businesses. Prior to joining the Commission, Paul was Head of Regulation at SSE and SGN operating under the RIIO framework and has also held positions with other regulated utilities and Ofgem in the UK. Paul has also worked for MBIE and the Gas Industry Company in New Zealand. He has a MA in European Studies (Economics), a BA(Hons) in Business and Finance and comes from an engineering background.

John Hancock is an independent consultant to utility companies and their suppliers, drawing on his valuable combination of deep experience in both technology and deregulation as key dimensions of the strategic environment in the sector. He has a 20 year career in the utilities industry including 14 years with Ernst & Young, Capgemini and Hewlett Packard (HP) in the Asia Pacific. John has worked with over 50 clients in the utility industry across 11 countries.