Meet the Consulting Team

Brad Rooney is the General Manager. Brad leads the team with a focus on customers, technical quality and commercial relationships. Brad is a chartered professional engineer with extensive experience in the transmission and distribution industry within New Zealand and Australia, where he has previously held technical and business development roles.

His experience in design provides a foundation of technical knowledge and his previous role as Business Development Leader has led to a customer centric approach.

Matt is our Business Development Leader and Principal Consultant.

Matt leads the team responsible for growing the ElectroNet Consulting business as well as building and maintaining relationships with our clients.

Matt is a Chartered Engineer, with over 20 years’ experience in the transmission and distribution industry in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. Matt has worked with multiple consultancy companies leading the delivery of major substations design and design-build projects for many customers.

Matt is passionate about understanding the customers’ needs and providing clear and honest advice so they can make informed decisions. Matt has a strong commercial awareness of the electricity industry and develops out of the box innovative solutions that are tailored to the needs of the customer. Matt is excited to be a leader of transformation of the NZ power system to be 100% renewable, sustainable and carbon neutral.

Michael is the Engineering Director and a Chartered Engineer. He has over 15 years experience in both New Zealand and the UK which is mainly centred on the transmission industry.

He has led various transmission projects as both a project manager and a technical lead, and has experience on both the client and consultant sides. Michael has a strong primary engineering base and has continued to broaden his technical expertise into secondary design and project management. Michael became the Transpower Market Leader in 2020 and later the Engineering Director in 2025 where he manages each of the Market Leaders and focuses on technical excellence and strategy.

Kieran is our EPC Manager, as well as a Principal Power Engineer. Kieran leads our Engineer, Procure and Construct (EPC) projects, where the ElectroNet Group deliver risk wrapped design/build projects. Kieran is responsible for growing ElectroNet EPC opportunties, by building and maintaining relationships with our EPC clients. He also governs the delivery of our in-flight EPC projects. He is a client centric, skilled relationship manager, who strives to provide clients with optimal results. He drives customer engagement, continuous improvement and efficiency, aiming to deliver projects that exceed expectations.

Kieran has eighteen years’ experience in the transmission industry, being involved since graduating from University in 2007.  Initially specialising in power system earthing (both design and testing), Kieran has an extensive earthing knowledge and has presented on earthing related topics across New Zealand, Australia and the United States. From 2011, Kieran became primarily involved with high voltage primary substation design, particularly indoor 33 kV switchgear, primary indoor to outdoor interfacing design, switchroom building design, HV cabling design, and construction support. Kieran has also gained considerable knowledge of 33 kV busbar, feeder, bus section and supply transformer protection requirements, as well as RTU upgrades.

More recently over the past five years, Kieran has focused on business development and advisory services, prior to becoming the EPC Manager in late 2025.

Grace is our Office Manager and Executive Assistant. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, she leads the administration team and oversees office facilitation across ElectroNet’s Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland locations.

She brings a strong foundation in operational support, coordination, and stakeholder management, ensuring the smooth day-to-day running of the business and the delivery of effective support systems.

Known for her organised, proactive approach and attention to detail, Grace provides reliable leadership and support that enables teams to work efficiently and achieve excellent results.

Sarah Velluppillai is the Delivery Manager with a strong  foundation in project management and engineering. She has extensive  experience as a Delivery Manager, Strategic Leader, Client Relationship Lead  and Project Manager, Sarah has successfully delivered complex projects in the  water and power sectors.

Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and  Electronics Engineering from the University of Canterbury, Sarah is currently  pursuing an MBA to enhance business expertise. As a certified Project  Management Professional (PMP)®, Sarah is committed to driving strategic  solutions that deliver measurable impact. At ElectroNet Group, Sarah leads  the delivery team and is advancing the delivery outcomes of sustainable  electrical energy and technology solutions that support communities across  New Zealand and the UK, including projects in substations, renewable energy,  and network safety.

James Crouch is ElectroNet’s UK Director and joined ElectroNet Consulting in 2024 to lead the new UK business. He has a BSc in Physics from the University of Nottingham and a BEng in Power System Engineering from Aston University, and has been in the power transmission & distribution sector since 2008.

Throughout this career, James has gathered a broad range of experience, having served in a number of technical and business senior leadership roles. His early career focused on design engineering of substation primary and secondary systems, as well as gaining experience in power system analysis. Later, he gained experience in substation EPC project management, before then going into technical management and reaching the position of Engineering Director. James’ experience includes all typical voltages found in the UK, from LV up to 400kV,and working to technical standards across all of the UK’s DNOs and TNOs. Furthermore, he has gained experience working on projects in the United States and across Europe. 

James is also a keen technology enthusiast and has been responsible for defining company strategic technology roadmaps. He has led the implementation of several new technologies into the transmission and distribution sector, focused on dramatically speeding up substation design and ‘industrialising’ construction of substations through the use of modular solutions. James is passionate about collaborating with clients and wider industry to explore where emerging technologies can be deployed to help speed up the transition to a clean and sustainable global energy system. 

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Hayden is a Principal Consultant in our Transmission Team. As a Principal Consultant, Hayden is responsible for ensuring a consistent, high quality service is delivered to clients. He is responsible for creating and maintaining quality assurance procedures and protection templates. Hayden is also involved with mentoring younger staff and internal auditing.

Hayden has 17 years’ experience in the power industry, both in New Zealand and the UK. His expertise is in the fields of protection and control; and commissioning procedures at both distribution and transmission level.

Part of the ElectroNet team since February 2013, Hayden has been deployed on a number of Transpower projects. This includes a secondment into Transpower’s Protection and Automation (P&A) Team for 16 months to provide project and operational support.

Hayden has also fulfilled the role of Lead Protection Engineer on several of Transpower’s 33 kV outdoor to indoor conversion projects and Transpower’s RCP2 transformer replacement programme. On both projects he provided expert advice and produced settings reports and protection settings for all project phases.

Eliza joined ElectroNet in 2014 and is responsible for leading our Draughting team, collaborating with our Engineers to create quality CAD drawings for projects across generation, transmission and distribution in the power industry. She has a background in Electrical Engineering and is also a qualified Draughtsperson with a Graduate Diploma in CAD. With the combination of her engineering knowledge and draughting skills, she is able to produce quality drawings while achieving high efficiency.

Eliza’s area of expertise includes substation designs and draughting, 3D modelling, point clouds, protection design and project management. She enjoys working closely with the team to find innovative ways to produce CAD drawings more efficiently or having the visualisation of the drawings to enhance the design, making it more informative during concept or design stages of the projects.

Karl is a chartered professional senior engineer with 15 years of experience in the power industry since graduating from the University of Canterbury in 2009. He has worked for a generation company at both Hydro and Thermal sites. This has included transformer installation and commissioning, excitation system design, installation and commissioning.

Karl is the Market leader of the Power Systems Analysis (PSA) team and has been at ElectroNet for 7 years. The PSA team is responsible for connection studies of new generation in both New Zealand and Australia. The PSA team also complete feasbility studies, such as load flow contraint analysis and model validation completed post site commissioning.

Rebecca has been involved in the Electric Power Industry since graduating from University in late 2009. Her experience includes protection and operational support, secondary circuit design, protection settings, Power Factory modelling, on-site support for 11 kV switchgear installations, investigation and documentation of solution study reports, production of cost estimates and project management.

As a testament to her technical skills, leadership and industry involvement, Rebecca was named the 2018 EEA Young Engineer of the year. Along with her role at ElectroNet, she is a Futureintech Ambassador, former Chairperson of CIGRE NZ and founding Chairperson of CIGRE NZ NGN (a young members group of CIGRE).

In 2015 Rebecca presented at the CIGRE Women in Engineering Forum which was held in conjunction with the CIGRE SC B5 colloquium in Nanjing, China. She won the IET best presentation prize at the 2017 EEA conference and was co-chair of the organising committee for the CIGRE Auckland 2017 International Conference which hosted more than 230 international delegates from over 35 countries. Most recently she was co-chair of the EEA APEX forum for 2020.

Jon moved from being ElectroNet Consulting's Delivery Manager to project manage Westpower's Waitaha Hydro Fast-track application.  The scheme will be the largest hydro scheme on the West Coast and able to supply half of the Coast's peak electricity demand.

Jon is PMP qualified and has over 16 years’ experience in the electricity industry, leading large, multi-disciplinary project teams on complex and sensitive engineering projects.  He also has experience in contract negotiation, property rights and procurement. Jon has been involved in delivering end to end projects – from concept to construction and commissioning, and has a strong interest in legal and planning issues.

Torry is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng, CMEngNZ) and Market Leader of the Electrical Safety team at ElectroNet. With over 10 years of experience in earthing design and testing across New Zealand and Australia, Torry brings practical insight to complex engineering challenges. Passionate about knowledge sharing, Torry has presented at numerous industry conferences, helping raise awareness on electrical safety topics.

Torry also leads a team that provides design and advisory services for Heavy Industry clients, many of whom are major energy users. These projects often require innovative thinking and bespoke solutions, given the absence of standard designs typical in the power industry. Torry combines technical expertise with leadership to ensure designs are robust, safe, and tailored to each client’s unique needs.

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Tas is an electrical engineer with over 45 years’ experience in the electricity industry as a design engineer, project manager corporate manager and industry body governance leader. Tas initially worked as an engineer with the  NZED on earthing systems research, substation construction and power station maintenance and design.

He then joined the Canterbury Distribution Sector initially with the CCEPB, designing and commissioning NER’s and implementing SCADA designs.

Tas progressed steadily, becoming the Chief Engineer of the Christchurch MED then General Manager Network Services and  General Manager of Network Development at Orion, General Manager of Asset Management at WEL Networks and was elected the President of the Electricity Engineers’ Association executive committee from 1993 – 1997.

Tas is a fellow of Engineers New Zealand and a Member of the Institute of Directors and a Life Member of the EEA NZ. He was awarded the EEA Meritorious Service award for services to the Electricity Supply Industry in 2012.
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Tas joined ElectroNet Ltd in 2014, and based on his diverse experience in the distribution sector  has provided  a range of strategic high level advice in areas such as  quality of asset management planning, risk and maintenance practice to Line Companies, and particularly in the area of emergency preparedness  and resilience maturity reviews.

Other areas of expertise include resonant earthing and the application of Ground fault Neutralizers and  also the applications of smart metering devices to monitor network condition and status.

Philip is a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand, and is a Chartered Professional Engineer (Electrical). Philip has over twenty-five years’ experience in the transmission industry, being involved since graduating from University in 1995.  Philip has an extensive earthing knowledge and has presented on earthing related topics across New Zealand and Australia.

In 2016 Philip’s presentation won the Best Paper (Member) award at the EEA Conference. Philip also has significant experience in Lightning Protection and Substation Design, including primary and secondary design

Maulik is a Chartered Principal Engineer who has been practicing in the field of HV substation design throughout NZ and Australia since joining ElectroNet in 2013. He has been involved in wide range of projects which include large substation upgrades for Transpower as well as local and international utilities, wind farm projects, HV cable installations, on site testing and providing construction support.

He specialises in the field of secondary systems design and HV cable modelling but has the necessary knowledge to interface with other disciplines such as protection, SCADA, communications and primary systems. Maulik is a team leader of our North Island Distribution team based out of Wellington and has strong project management skills as well as excellent communication skills.

Naveed is a Principal Engineer and Team Leader within the Transmission team, leading a group of secondary and protection engineers. He entered the power industry in 2008 and has experience in both KSA and NZ. With over 16 years of experience, Naveed specializes in protection, control, and automation systems at distribution and transmission levels. He has successfully completed complex protection projects ranging from LV to EHV substations.

Since joining ElectroNet, Naveed has contributed to Transpower's protection upgrades, conducted wide area protection studies for renewables, and developed secondary designs for Transpower ODID and volumetric projects. He has also published a paper for the EEA.

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Wilhelm is a Chartered Principal Engineer and Team Lead in the Transmission Team. With over 12 years of experience in the power industry, Wilhelm specialises in primary design systems for transmission-level substations and leads a range of GIP and GXP substation concept and detailed designs.

Since joining ElectroNet in 2018, Wilhelm has delivered numerous projects, including the concept and detailed design of multiple 33 kV outdoor-to-indoor conversions, HV equipment replacements, and bus extensions for transmission and generation clients.

Johan is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng, CMEngNZ) and Team Leader within the Electrical Safety Team at ElectroNet. With over 15 years of combined experience in electrical engineering, design, and earth testing across New Zealand and South Africa.

Johan leads the Power Utilities Team within the Electrical Safety Market that provide Earth System Design, Lightning Shielding, and Earth Potential Rise (EPR) solutions including earth system testing across New Zealand and Australia while maintaining and growing trusted client relationships across the power industry.

Passionate about electrical safety and earth testing, Johan has successfully completed earth testing at more than 150 sites across New Zealand for key clients and brings extensive technical expertise, problem solving and leadership experience within the power utilities sector.

Paul is a Principal Consultant in the Generation team, with over 30 years’ experience in the power industry, including hydro power engineering experience in both New Zealand and Australia. He has acted in both consultancy and asset owner roles and thereby appreciates client needs for maintainability and life cycle cost optimisation.

Specialties include design and specification of hydroelectric protection & control systems, strategic engineering assessment and asset management of generating assets and construction support, including commissioning services for protection & control systems.

Craig is a Chartered Principal Engineer and the Distribution Northern Team Leader. He has over 15 years’ experience in the electric power industry. Craig offers a versatile wealth of engineering knowledge across the power industry and is specialised in secondary systems and protection engineering.

His experience includes engineering & project management in the distribution and generation sectors. Some projects include Kaiwera Downs stages 1 and 2, Kaiwaikawe and Turitea South Wind Farms, Various Wide area protection studies, Mangahewa, Taharoa Electrification projects, Upper Clutha Capacitors, Outram substation replacement, Raglan Resilience, Generator refurbishments/upgrades (Mt Stuart, Roma, Kangaroo Valley), various automation, protection and metering projects such as transformer voltage regulators, PLC programming, fault recorders and metering installations.

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Logan is an Intermediate Engineer and team leader of the Southern Distribution Team at ElectroNet Consulting.  With a strong focus on primary design, Logan has contributed to a wide range of projects, from straightforward switchboard replacements to the full detailed design of complex grid connections, including wind farm developments.

He brings expertise in implementing SiD principles within project frameworks, ensuring compliance with industry standards and enhancing operational safety. Logan’s experience spans the integration of innovative design solutions, coordination with multidisciplinary teams, and delivering projects that balance technical precision with practical outcomes.

Sachin Chetty is a Principal Engineer and Team Lead in the Transmission Team, responsible for delivering projects as the primary lead designer for developer and utility clients across New Zealand. Sachin leads a team skilled in secondary and primary design for Transpower projects, covering conceptual and detailed design through procurement and construction.

With 13 years of experience in transmission, distribution, and renewable power, Sachin began in Eskom’s Engineer-in-Training program in 2013 and later served as a Plant Performance Engineer. He gained expertise in operations, maintenance, and failure analysis before joining WSP in Johannesburg, where he worked on various substation and renewable energy projects across Southern Africa. Since joining Electronet in 2020, Sachin has led multiple brownfield and greenfield projects for Transpower, EDBs, and generators, including 220kV GIPs, 33kV ODIDs, 110kV bus extensions, wind farm collector networks, portable and tilt slab switchrooms.

Pieter leads the transmission market at ElectroNet and is a chartered professional engineer (CPEng, CMEngZN) with more than 20 years of local and international power system experience.

He started his career off at an EBD (Electrical Distribution Business) and later moved over to consulting and contracting where he gained most of his experienced. During this time, he also worked for two OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) thus giving him experience in the customer, consultant and contractor roles.

Most of the Pieter’s experience is in the field of power system protection where he led numerous protection projects from concept design to final commissioning. Although he is passionate about digital substations and IEC61850 he also enjoys primary plant design and seeing how protection, secondary and primary plant interacts.

Lastly Pieter is passionate about working with clients, to better understand their needs, and to ensure the delivery of a quality product or solution that is fit for purpose.

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Morgan is a Principal Engineer in the Generation Team, as well as Market Leader. Since joining ElectroNet, Morgan has enjoyed getting involved in all aspects of generation, from protection design, control systems design, and secondary and control systems design.

Starting in 2025, Morgan also took upon the role of leading the Generation Market at ElectroNet. The Generation Market looks after our generation from traditional clients in the hydro and thermal scenes, to new developers brining wind and solar generation to the mix.

Leigh Jackson is a Team Leader in the Delivery Team with more  than 25 years of experience in the Electricity Industry. She brings a broad  and valuable skillset spanning training, process development, quality systems  and internal auditing, health and safety, project management, and  comprehensive business support and administration.  

Leigh is dedicated to driving continuous improvement initiatives and  empowering her team to consistently meet—and exceed—client deliverables.

Cham is a Chartered Professional Engineer wit experience across mining, generation, transmission, and distribution utilities in Australia and New Zealand. As a Principal Consultant at ElectroNet Consulting, Cham specialises in primary electrical design, technical guidance, and quality assurance. He has led or provided QA on major multi-disciplinary substation projects for Transpower and other asset owners, and has delivered design management and technical leadership for grid connections and electrical balance-of-plant works on multiple grid-scale renewable projects from concept through to construction.

Chris has over 30 years of international experience in the electricity industry across distribution, transmission and generation projects.  Chris joined Electronet in 2013, before that working for Alstom in Australia and the USA where he was involved in turnkey substation design projects.  This work involved the design, build and commissioning of substation plant and systems at voltages ranging from 11kV up to 500kV.

Chris has extensive site experience which means he has a practical, hands-on understanding of the construction and commissioning stages of projects.  This enables Chris to complete and review design work from a whole of project viewpoint, providing the best outcomes for our Clients.

As a Principal Consultant, Chris is responsible for leading the design team to ensure a consistent, high quality service is delivered to the Client.

James Rouse is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in the New Zealand and UK power sectors. He is a Principal Consultant at ElectroNet, providing technical leadership, design authority, and trusted advisory services across high‑voltage substations, protection and control, and renewable generation projects. James combines deep hands on engineering expertise with strategic oversight. He is known for calm technical judgement, clear decision making, and the ability to lead complex, multi disciplinary projects from concept through delivery, commissioning, and handover.

Patrick is Technical Optimisation Lead at ElectroNet, where he drives improvements in engineering delivery. Acting as an internal consultant, he identifies opportunities for optimisation and leads the development of tools, technologies, and processes that support performance and efficiency across all markets. Patrick is a generalist power systems engineer with experience spanning power system studies, protection studies, primary and secondary design, and electrical safety. While his work covers a wide range of projects, he retains a strong specialist focus on power system earthing, with extensive testing, design, and investigative experience across New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific. He also supports mentoring and quality assurance internally and facilitates the Electricity Engineers’ Association’s earthing courses. Patrick is a Chartered Professional Engineer and holds a BE(Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Master of Applied Data Science.