The affairs of the Electricity Engineers’ Association (EEA) are governed by the Executive Committee, consisting of a President, Vice President and seven other persons. All Executive Committee Members are elected biennially and need to be full members of the EEA.
Geoff Douch (President) – Chief Executive, Electra
Geoff is currently the Chief Executive at Electra, the electricity distributor supplying the Kāpiti and Horowhenua region.
Prior to joining Electra in late 2023, Geoff was Chief Executive of Network Waitaki, and he has previously held senior leadership roles at Counties Power and Wellington Electricity. He has over 20 years’ experience in the electricity distribution industry across a variety of technical and leadership roles.
Geoff has been a member of the EEA Executive Committee since 2017, vice president since 2019, and has previously been a member of the EEA Asset Management Group.
He has a degree in Electrical Engineering, a Graduate Diploma in Business, has completed the Advanced Management Programme at the Melbourne Business School, and is a Member of the IET and the Institute of Directors.
Pete Armstrong – General Manager, Network, EA Networks
Pete Armstrong is a power systems engineer and senior executive with over 30 years of industry experience in distribution, transmission, generation and consulting sectors in NZ and internationally, including power planning in NZ, Australia, Samoa, Cambodia and Afghanistan.
He has worked in five NZ electricity distribution networks and currently is EA Networks’ General Manager – Network. Pete is qualified with a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Canterbury and a Master of Business Administration with distinction from the University of Waikato Management School.
He has a strong interest in safety climate and effective safety leadership through his MBA Major Research Project “The relationship between Safety Climate and Safety Leadership in an Electricity Distribution Company” and applying that knowledge in safety leadership within the electricity sector.
He is also strongly interested in responding to the challenges of electrification of process heat and transportation and applying Advanced Distribution Management System applications for the benefit of customer reliability and connection of utility scale solar generation.
He has governance experience on the Board of Trustees of A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand since February 2021 and has reported to the Boards of Mighty River Power, Powerco, Waipa Networks and EA Networks in a management capacity since 2007.
He has significant financial, operational and regulatory management experience in the NZ electricity sector to bring to bear if successful in being elected to the EEA Executive. Pete has had a long association with the EEA, attending and presenting a number of papers at EEA Conferences since 2001 and winning the Best Paper Award for a Member in 2017 for his paper “Initial Lessons from St Kilda a 100 percent PV subdivision”.
Chantelle Bramley – Executive General Manager Operations , Transpower
Chantelle was appointed Executive General Manager Operations in February 2024 after joining Transpower in July 2022.
Prior to joining Transpower, Chantelle was Executive General Manager of Corporate Affairs at Essential Energy, the distribution network business covering regional and rural New South Wales. An economist by training with twenty years of international energy and electricity experience, Chantelle held senior roles in Canada and the US at Direct Energy and was the Executive General Manager Strategy and Economics at the Australian Energy Market Commission prior to joining Essential Energy.
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.
He has spent 22 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 work summers at the Tasman Electric Power Board in a wide range of roles including transformer refurbishment and network planning.
Karen Frew – General Manager Electricity, Powerco
Karen’s team manages our electricity network, responsible for planning, designing, constructing, maintaining and operating our network 24/7. The team utilise the best information and engineering advice from within the electricity group for investment decisions and operations.
Karen has an electrical engineering degree and a diploma in management. She is a chartered engineer with 25 years’ experience in electricity generation, distribution and large industrial sectors in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She has held leadership roles in Powerco across engineering, asset management, strategy, system project delivery, regulation, and service delivery and operations. She was the winner of the NZ Energy Awards Young Executive of the Year in 2013. She joined Powerco in 2002.
Michael Gibbs – Chief Operating Officer, Network, Northpower
Michael Gibbs is an accomplished executive and electrical engineer with over 15 years of experience in the electricity industry. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer – Network at Northpower, where he leads the electricity distribution business through a multidisciplinary team of over 100 professionals – across strategy, operations, engineering, customer relations, regulatory compliance, and digital.
Michael has held a range of leadership roles spanning asset management, project delivery, and strategic planning. His career includes pivotal roles at Transpower NZ and ABA Project Management, where he held leadership roles in large-scale infrastructure projects, asset management and regulatory submissions, including Transpower’s RCP3 and the Aurora Energy Customised Price Path (CPP).
Michael holds an MBA from the University of Otago, a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Canterbury, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Business from Massey University.
Emma Lloyd – Intermediate Electrical Engineer, Connectics
Emma is an Intermediate Electrical Engineer who works in the substations team at Connetics, a Christchurch based power design consultancy. She is a recent university graduate who has been working in the industry since 2021. Since beginning her career, Emma has been involved in a diverse range of projects including designs for major distribution substations, generation network upgrades, industrial solar installations, and private network de-carbonisation.
As a young engineer, Emma is passionate about the benefits of collaboration between established engineers and those who are new to the industry. She has been actively involved in initiatives to encourage more women, Māori, and school students to pursue engineering. She is also currently on the committee for the Canterbury branch of Engineering New Zealand’s Young Engineers and serves as Vice-Chair on the IEEE South Section.
Emma strongly believes that young professionals and students who have not yet entered the electricity industry are essential to bridging the talent gap. She can see that representation from this group along with experienced executives, will enhance the boards perspective, increase diversity of thought, leading to progress and innovation in establishing a robust future workforce.
Steve Macdonald – General Manager: Electricity Network, Orion NZ
Steve is the General Manager – Electricity Network at Orion NZ and leads a team responsible for customer management, health and safety, construction, maintenance and operation of the Electricity network. He has a NZCE (Electrical) and has worked for Orion and its predecessors for 30 years in different trade, technical and management roles within the business, including its subsidiary company, Connetics.
Steve is passionate about the industry and believes that good governance supports good management.
Mat O'Neill – Program Manager: Network Planning & Development, Waipā Networks
Mat has over 25 years’ experience in New Zealand electricity generation and distribution businesses and is currently Program Manager – Network Planning & Development at Waipā Networks. Mat comes from a trade background and is a registered electrician as well as holding a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Canterbury.
Mat has held senior leadership roles in asset management, engineering, network planning, network operations, works planning and delivery. With a strong analytical and practical engineering skill set, he is passionate about the safe integration of distributed energy resources, the advancement of distribution system operators and the application of big data in asset and network management.