Contact announces Victoria Crone and Rob McDonald to join Board  
 
Today Contact Energy Limited (Contact) announced that Victoria Crone and Rob McDonald have been appointed as directors to join its Board effective 12 November. 
 
“We are excited to be welcoming both Victoria and Rob to the Contact Board. They bring with them a great depth of experience in leading customer-inspired businesses that leverage the power of their organisations’ culture alongside great products and leading edge technology” said Phil Pryke, Contact’s interim Chairman. 
 
The appointment of Victoria Crone and Rob McDonald follows our September 2015 announcement that Sir Ralph Norris is joining Contact’s Board to be Chairman following his election at the upcoming Annual Meeting.  
 
“We are satisfied at the progress we are making in reconstituting the Board with the right depth of skills and experience that Contact needs now and for the future. The addition of Sir Ralph Norris, Victoria Crone and Rob McDonald complements the experience held by our current Board members. It is important a board’s directors cover the full gamut of skills required to govern the business and we believe over time we will add at least one further director to ensure that we have the right type of expertise in the area of large infrastructure operations and management” Phil Pryke said. 
 
Victoria Crone, currently Managing Director for Xero New Zealand, holds directorships at Aura Information Security, Creative HQ, NZ Hi-Tech Trust (Trustee) and chair of Figure NZ. Ms Crone has near two decades of experience in the communications and IT sectors, covering a wide range of functional areas including strategy, product development, digital, data, marketing, sales and business development. 
 
Rob McDonald is currently Chief Financial Officer at Air New Zealand and is an alternate director at Virgin Australia Holdings Limited. Mr McDonald has over three decades of experience with large national and multi-national entities across various finance roles. Also Mr McDonald has responsibility for Information Technology at Air New Zealand. In 2010 he was named New Zealand CFO of the Year and is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. 
 
The Contact Board has determined that Victoria Crone and Rob McDonald are independent directors.