James joined Powerco in 2021. He has over 20 years’ experience in the energy industry behind him. Prior to joining Powerco he was Deputy Chief Executive of Contact Energy. In addition to his Deputy CEO responsibilities, James’ role included specific responsibility for development and demand growth, helping to drive the decarbonisation of New Zealand’s economy. James was a Director of Simply Energy, a commercial and industrial decarbonisation services business, and the Chair of Western Energy Services, an innovative geothermal resource and well services business. James was Chief Generation and Development Officer from October 2014 and was responsible for commercial end-to-end activities of development, fuel, generation and trading. Prior to that James held leadership roles across the full range of Contact Energy’s business activities.