SRC membership

Current members

Hon Heather Roy (Chair person)

Independent Chair of Utilities Disputes Limited

Hon Heather Roy

Hon Heather Roy is a professional director and principal and director of her business consultancy, TorquePoint. Heather was a Member of Parliament from 2002-2011 and a Minister of the Crown from 2008-10 holding the Consumer Affairs, Associate Defence and Associate Education portfolios. She has also worked in the health sector as both a practitioner and in policy development and was a Captain in the NZ Army Reserve (Royal NZ Engineers). She is a member of the Institute of Directors and winner of the Women on Boards ‘Inspirational Excellence Award’ 2017.

Paula Checketts

Chief Financial Officer – New Zealand Aluminium Smelters

Paula is a qualified Chartered Accountant, Chartered Secretary and Director with over 25 years of experience in accounting and commercial services, in both chartered accountancy public practice and the aluminium industry.
During her career at New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Limited (NZAS), she has led the finance and commercial functions incorporating Finance, Business Analysis, Energy, Human Resources, Health Safety and Environment, Procurement and Business Improvement. Her governance roles include company secretary for NZAS and directorship on Pacific Aluminium (NZ) Limited, subsidiary of Rio Tinto Aluminium, Electric Power Generation Limited and NZAS Retirement Fund Trustee Limited.

Barbara Elliston

Director of Elliston Power Consultants Ltd

Barbara Elliston

Barbara Elliston is a director of Elliston Power Consultants Ltd, Counties Power Limited and Easy Warm Ltd, as well as being on the Board of the Australian Solar Council. Barbara's previous roles include directorships with Genesis Energy and Transpower as well as directorship and management with Comalco New Zealand Ltd. Barbara's background includes corporate governance, strategic development and distributed generation - photovoltaics. She earned a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) with honours from the University of Auckland.

Chris Ewers

General Manager Wholesale - Meridian Energy

Chris has worked his entire career in the electricity supply industry and brings a well-rounded set of experience and knowledge. Chris holds the position of GM Wholesale at Meridian Energy, where he is responsible for leading Meridian's wholesale, planning and generation control functions. Chris also is a member of the Electricity Engineers Association (EEA) Executive.

He has spent 26 years working in a wide range of operational roles including generation control, trading, transmission connection and coordination, new windfarm connections, outage management, governance, policy, various industry working and advisory groups, and process safety.
Prior to this, Chris was part of the ECNZ graduate engineering programme, where he worked on thermal and hydro assets around the country.
While undertaking his BE (Hons) at the University of Canterbury, he worked summers at the Tasman Electric Power Board in a wide range of roles including transformer refurbishment and network planning.

Ben Gerritsen

General Manager Customer and Regulation - Firstgas

Ben Gerritsen

Ben Gerritsen is the General Manager Customer and Regulatory at Firstgas Group. He leads the commercial management of the gas transmission system, Firstgas distribution networks, and has responsibility for group strategy, policy and regulatory engagement, marketing and external communications. Ben is on the Board of the Gas Association of New Zealand and the Executive Committee of the LPG Association. Ben has undergraduate degrees in law and economics and holds a Masters’ degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Phil Gibson

GM Portfolio – Mercury Energy

Phil Gibson

Phil is responsible for managing Mercury’s fuel portfolio, generation development, portfolio strategy, wholesale market activities and sales to large commercial and industrial customers. Phil joined Mercury in 2004 and has held a number of roles across the business including General Manager Hydro & Wholesale, Wholesale Markets Manager and Head of Technology & Innovation in Consumer Markets. Prior to joining the electricity industry, Phil spent six years in structural engineering roles in Auckland, Wellington and London.

Nanette Moreau

Ex Commisioner Utilities Disputes

Nanette Moreau

Nanette is a highly experienced lawyer and mediator. Nanette joined the Electricity Complaints Commission when it was established in 2002, becoming the Commissioner in 2016 until retirement in 2019. 

Nathan Strong

General Manager Commercial at Unison Networks Limited

Nathan Strong

Nathan Strong is the General Manager Commercial at Unison Networks Limited. He has responsibilities for Unison’s legal, regulatory, pricing and revenue, customer experience, communications and marketing activities. He also is a Member of a number of the Electricity Networks Association’s Working Groups, including Regulatory and Distribution Pricing. Nathan’s background is in economics and he has held roles at the Commerce Commission and in economics consultancy.

Mike Underhill

Mike Underhill

Mike Underhill is currently a director of Network Waitaki, Electra, and Wellington Water.

His 25 years as a Chief Executive included WEL Networks, TransAlta NZ, EnergyDirect, and EECA. Mike has had a long involvement with all sectors of the industry and was a member of the original Electricity Industry Task Force and a Board member of the Transpower Establishment Board

Mike has a B.E. (electrical); MCom(hons) in economics. He has completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard and completed a 3-year term with VSA in the EPC in Samoa

Mike is a Fellow of Engineering NZ