Rob McDonald
Independent Non-Executive Chair
Term of office: Appointed director 12 November 2015, last elected 2017 annual meeting.
Board committees: Member of the People Committee
Rob’s finance career spans over 30 years, having worked overseas before joining Coopers and Lybrand in the corporate advisory and valuations practice in 1985. He is a director of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Sovereign Assurance Company Limited, and was formerly the chief financial officer with Air New Zealand. From 1 September 2018 he will be a director of Fletcher Building Limited. He is a former board member of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand Inc. and the former vice chairman of the IATA Financial Committee. Rob has a Bachelor of Commerce from Auckland University and in 1999 completed the Program of Management Development at Harvard Business School. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Victoria Crone
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 12 November 2015, last elected 2017 annual meeting.
Board committees: Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Victoria has over 20 years’ experience in the communications and IT sectors. Her experience spans from start-ups to mature products across consumer, small business and enterprise sectors. She is chief executive of Callaghan Innovation, Chair of Statistics New Zealand, and Co-chair of Figure.NZ. A former managing director of Xero New Zealand, Victoria also held senior management roles in sales and marketing at Chorus and Telecom. She is a passionate kiwi and a member of NZ Global Women. Victoria holds a Master’s degree in Commerce and Administration (Marketing and Management) from Victoria University.
Whaimutu Dewes
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 22 February 2010, last re-elected 2018 annual meeting.
Board committees: Member of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee and Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Whaimutu Dewes is of Ngati Porou and Ngati Rangitihi descent and lives in Gisborne. He is the chair of Aotearoa Fisheries Limited and Sealord Group Limited. His former directorships include the Treasury Board, Housing New Zealand Board, Television New Zealand Limited and the AMP New Zealand Advisory Board. Whaimutu has also held senior management roles at Fletcher Challenge and the Department of Maori Affairs. Whaimutu has a Master’s degree in public administration and degrees in arts and law.
Elena Trout
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 3 October 2016, last elected 2016 annual meeting.
Board committees: Chair of the Tauhara, and Health, Safety and Environment Committees
Elena is an experienced company director and a professional engineer who has held a number of leadership positions in the transport, infrastructure and energy sectors. She has over 30 years of experience in the management, planning and delivery of large projects. She is a director of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, Harrison Grierson Holdings Limited, Marsden Maritime Holdings Limited, Ngapuhi Asset Holdings Company Ltd and a Council member of Unitec. Her former directorships include Electricity Authority and Transpower New Zealand Limited. She is a Past-President of Engineering New Zealand with a membership status of Fellow and is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors. Elena holds a Master's of Civil Engineering degree from Canterbury University.
Dame Therese Walsh
Independent Non-Executive Director
Board committees: Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee and Member of the People Committee
David Smol
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 1 October 2018, last elected 2018 annual meeting.
Board committees: Member of the Tauhara, and Health, Safety and Environment Committees
David has over thirty five years of work experience, including in the energy sector in the UK and New Zealand, for Conoco UK Limited, Electricity Corporation and ILEX Energy Consulting. He was part of the Contact Energy establishment team in 1995-1996 and a member of the team that developed the rules for the New Zealand electricity market. In 2008 David was appointed as chief executive of Ministry of Economic Development and, from 2012-2017 was the inaugural chief executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), following the merger of four government departments. David is currently Chair of both the Capital & Coast, and Hutt Valley, District Health Boards. David has an M-Phil in economics from Cambridge University and was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order in 2018.
Jon Macdonald
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointment effective 1 November 2018, last elected 2018 annual meeting.
Board committees: Chair of the People Committee, and Member of the Tauhara Committee
Mike Fuge
Chief Executive Officer
Mike Fuge was appointed CEO in September 2019 and joined Contact in February 2020.
Mike was previously the chief executive of Refining NZ and has a long history in the energy sector, both in New Zealand and internationally. He has previously been the chief executive of global renewable energy owner operator and developer Pacific Hydro in Australia, and held senior roles at Genesis Energy and Royal Dutch Shell Group.
James Kilty
Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Appointed to the newly created role of Deputy Chief Executive Officer in July 2020. In addition to his Deputy CEO responsibilities, James’ role includes specific responsibility for development and demand growth at Contact Energy as we lead the decarbonisation of New Zealand’s economy. James was our Chief Generation and Development Officer from October 2014 and was responsible for our commercial end-to-end activities of development, fuel, generation and trading. Prior to that James has held leadership roles across the full range of Contact’s business activities. James has been part of the energy industry for over 20 years and has a unique set of skills and capabilities that have demonstrated strong leadership in our sector.
Jan Bibby
Chief People Officer
Jan Bibby was appointed Chief People Officer in November 2019. Jan joined Contact from Vodafone where she has held HR and Organisation Effectiveness roles both here in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Jan will be responsible for our People and Safety team looking after one of our biggest assets – our people. She is skilled at leading transformational change and developing and implementing people and culture strategies. Jan combines experience in both HR and commercial sales and marketing, which enables her to look at the business in a holistic manner and bring the commercial and financial aspects to bear on key organisational decisions.
Venasio-Lorenzo (Vena) Crawley
Chief Customer Officer
Vena joined Contact in October 2014 in a newly created role of Chief Customer Officer. Vena oversees all of Contact's functions that have been aligned to build the delivery of a best in class customer experience through our Retail, Commercial and Industrial channels, these include; marketing, sales, product and services management, retail operations and metering, customer insight, pricing, networks and reconciliation, LPG cylinder delivery, performance management and business intelligence and customer change.
Dorian Devers
Chief Financial Officer
Dorian joined Contact in December 2018 as Contact’s Chief Financial Officer . Dorian is experienced in business transformations having led successful turnarounds of businesses in both the UK and South Africa. He has successfully delivered a number of acquisitions including ones in the Australian and New Zealand energy sector. He has governance experience having served on the Board of Afrox a publicly listed company and the largest industrial gases business in Africa, as well as being a previous Board member of Liquigas a New Zealand LPG infrastructure business.
Jacqui Nelson
Chief Generation Officer
Jacqui has been with Contact for over 15 years taking the role of Chief Generation Officer in July 2020. As Chief Generation Officer she has responsibility for operations and energy market trading. Previously Jacqui has held a wide range of roles within Contact across finance, resource management, trading and most recently as General Manager of Operations.