Rob McDonald
Independent Non-Executive Chair
Term of office: Appointed director 12 November 2015, last elected 2023 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 Fletcher Building Limited, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and was formerly the chief financial officer with Air New Zealand. He is a former board member of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand Inc., and AIA Limited, 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.
Elena Trout
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 3 October 2016, last elected 2022 annual meeting.
Board committees: Chair of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee.
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 the Chair of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, and a director of Harrison Grierson Holdings Limited, Ngapuhi Asset Holdings Company Ltd and Motiti Investments Ltd. Her former directorships include Electricity Authority and Transpower New Zealand Limited. She is a Distinguished Fellow and past-president of Engineering New Zealand and is a chartered fellow of the Institute of Directors. Elena holds a Master's of Civil Engineering degree from Canterbury University.
Sandra Dodds
Independent Non-Executive Director
Board committees: Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
David Smol
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 1 October 2018, last elected 2023 annual meeting.
Board committees: Member of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee and Audit and Risk Committee.
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 GNS Science and a board member of The Co-operative Bank Limited and Waka Kotahi. 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 2021 annual meeting.
Board committees: Chair of the People Committee
Rukumoana Schaafhausen
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 1 March 2021, last elected 2023 annual meeting.
Board committees: Member of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee and People Committee.
She was recently the Chair of Waikato-Tainui and is currently serving across a number of Iwi, community, private and public organisations in governance roles including Water Governance Board, AgResearch, Miro Berries, Tindall Foundation, and The Princes Trust. Previously, she was a director at Genesis Energy and has received the Sir Peter Blake Award and the US embassy Wahine Toa Award for Leadership. Rukumoana is a commercial and property lawyer and holds a Bachelor’s in Law.
David Gibson
Independent Non-Executive Director
Term of office: Appointed director 20 February 2024.
Board committees: Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
David has over 20 years’ investment banking experience, including as Co-Head of Investment Banking in New Zealand for Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Craigs where he completed a number of New Zealand’s largest M&A and equity transactions, including within the energy sector. He is currently Deputy Chair of Goodman (NZ) Limited and a Director of Freightways, NZME and Rangatira Limited. He is a former director of Trustpower. David holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Canterbury.
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.
Chris Abbott
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer
Chris Abbott was appointed Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in December 2021.
Chris joined Contact as General Manager of Regulatory Affairs in November 2019. Chris has previously held senior roles in regulation, economics and public policy in the telecommunications and finance sectors both in New Zealand and the UK.
Jack Ariel
Major Projects Director
Jack Ariel was appointed to the newly created role of Major Projects Director in April 2021.
Jack returned to New Zealand to join Contact from Worley in the USA, where he led Chemical Infrastructure and Renewable Fuels Projects.
Jack has an extensive career in the Oil and Gas business with Royal Dutch Shell Group where he held several senior leadership roles in Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Project Delivery internationally and in New Zealand. During his career, Jack also gained experience in directorship roles in Chile and New Zealand.
Jack shares with the Leadership Team a passion for diversity of views and ideas and for the safety and wellbeing of our people.
Jan Bibby
Chief People Experience Officer
Jan Bibby was appointed Chief People Experience 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.
Matt Bolton
Chief Retail Officer
Matt has been with Contact for over a decade and was appointed Chief Retail Officer in October 2021. When Matt first joined Contact, he worked across a number of senior roles in finance and operations, before moving into retail team in 2014. Since then, he spent several years heading up Contact’s LPG and Commercial & Industrial divisions, before moving to lead the growth of the mass market business primarily through marketing, sales and broadband. Prior to joining Contact Matt held senior finance roles in financial services in the United Kingdom, following a five year career with Deloitte in New Zealand.
John Clark
Chief Generation Officer
John joined Contact in October 2018 as Head of Geothermal Generation and joined the Leadership Team in February 2022, as Chief Generation Officer. John has had a broad career spanning mining and exploration, technical support and sales for heavy manufacturing industry as well as law enforcement, which included 6 months peacekeeping in the Solomon Islands. John then entered the generation industry specialising in Geothermal Geoscience. John is a qualified Geologist with a Masters in Science (Geothermal) as well as having completed an MBA.
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.
Iain Gauld
Chief Information Officer
Iain Gauld joined Contact in 2017 as the Head of Customer Technology. Later in 2017 Iain was promoted to Chief Information Officer and joined the Executive Leadership team in September 2021.
Iain moved to New Zealand from Australia where he worked at Macquarie Bank for over 10 years in senior IT roles leading business transformation and profitability through developing IT aligned strategy and delivering large-scale strategic and transformational programs of work. Prior to that Iain’s IT career started in the UK specialising in Financial Services and Investment Banking.
Jacqui Nelson
Chief Development Officer
Jacqui has been with Contact for over 15 years taking the role of Chief Development Officer in October 2021. As Chief Development Officer she has responsibility for the company’s development and demand growth activities aligned with our Contact26 strategy. Previously Jacqui has held a wide range of roles within Contact across finance, resource management, trading and most recently as Chief Generation Officer.
Tighe Wall
Chief Digital Officer
Tighe joined Contact in February of 2020 to lead our mission to become the most digital energy company in New Zealand. He is also our Chief Transformation Officer, launching and running our enterprise transformation programme. It’s Tighe’s passion for the environment and drive for decarbonisation that lured him to the energy industry, starting at one of Europe’s largest energy companies, E.ON SE in Germany, where he led the group digital transformation programme. Prior he helped transform multi-nationals and large government agencies in Europe and the US as a leader in IBM's consulting organisation.