Our People

Inspired. Agile. Genuine.

Our people are at the core of what makes Ergo different. 

Meet some of the faces and have a brief introduction to the wealth of experience and talent we have to offer at Ergo.

Richard Cuthbert

Chris Turney

Craig Brown

Barbara Elliston

Alistair Williams

Soumya Doar

Steve Gaskin

Kane Morison

Jack Stainton

Angela Lin

Kate Macdonald

Alan Barrow

Carla Smith

Richard Fairbairn

Ross Dodd

Willem Rawlins

Ben Dobson

Chris Avery

Daniel Jardine

Gavin Austin

Han Liu

John Esnaola

Shashi Patel

Stuart Dring

Want to be part of Ergo’s Team?

Current Vacancies

Do you have experience and a passion for engineering and design with substations? We are always looking for specialised individuals in Electrical or Civil & Structural engineering to become part of our team here at Ergo Consulting Ltd.  Why Ergo? Read about our Employee Benefits here

Ergo Project Managers

Ergo Consulting Ltd is a successful, New Zealand professional services practice. Founded in 2003 and independently owned, we provide electrical, civil and structural engineering consulting services to the power and energy industry. We aspire to be New Zealand’s first choice provider of these services. We undertake a wide range of interesting and challenging projects involving the design of new or upgraded HV Substation facilities and infrastructure across NZ. We are “inspired, agile and genuine”.

Power System Analysis – Intermediate/Senior/Principal Engineers

Life at Ergo is enjoying our days spent at work with our workmates - we like to have fun, do interesting work and delight our clients with quality solutions.

Senior/Principal Electrical Protection Engineer – Section Lead

Life at Ergo is enjoying our days spent at work with our workmates - we like to have fun, do interesting work and delight our clients with quality solutions.

Intermediate/Senior Protection Engineer

Ergo Consulting Ltd is a successful, New Zealand professional services practice. Founded in 2003 and independently owned, we provide electrical, civil and structural engineering consulting services to the power and energy industry. We aspire to be New Zealand’s first choice provider of these services. We undertake a wide range of interesting and challenging projects involving the design of new or upgraded HV Substation facilities and infrastructure across NZ. We are “inspired, agile and genuine”.

Electrical Engineering Interns – Auckland & Christchurch

At Ergo, flexibility is critical to the way we operate. Our people contribute openly in an environment where bureaucracy is minimised and where an agile approach enables us to work effectively with our clients. We’ve invested in making remote working easy.

Intermediate Electrical Design Engineer

Ergo Consulting Ltd is a successful, New Zealand professional services practice. Founded in 2003 and independently owned, we provide electrical, civil and structural engineering consulting services to the power and energy industry. We aspire to be New Zealand’s first choice provider of these services. We undertake a wide range of interesting and challenging projects involving the design of new or upgraded HV Substation facilities and infrastructure across NZ. We are “inspired, agile and genuine”.

Civil/Structural Engineering Graduates – Chch & Akl

As a medium-sized, NZ owned, consultancy with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Ergo deals with a wide range of electrical and civil engineering projects, giving you many opportunities to grow your skills quickly, with guidance from our experts.

Senior Primary Electrical Design Engineer

Ergo Consulting Ltd is a successful, New Zealand professional services practice. Founded in 2003 and independently owned, we provide electrical, civil and structural engineering consulting services to the power and energy industry. We aspire to be New Zealand’s first choice provider of these services. We undertake a wide range of interesting and challenging projects involving the design of new or upgraded HV Substation facilities and infrastructure across NZ. We are “inspired, agile and genuine”.

Intermediate Draughtsperson – Civil/Structural/Primary Electrical Design

At Ergo, flexibility is critical to the way we operate. Our people contribute openly in an environment where bureaucracy is minimised and where an agile approach enables us to work effectively with our clients. We’ve invested in making remote working easy.

Senior/Intermediate Electrical Design Engineer

Ergo Consulting Ltd is a successful, New Zealand professional services practice. Founded in 2003 and independently owned, we provide electrical, civil and structural engineering consulting services to the power and energy industry. We aspire to be New Zealand’s first choice provider of these services. We undertake a wide range of interesting and challenging projects involving the design of new or upgraded HV Substation facilities and infrastructure across NZ. We are “inspired, agile and genuine”.

Carla Smith

Technical Director - MV Substations

Carla has been involved in the power utilities sector since starting her career as an engineering cadet at the Auckland Electric Power Board in 1990. Throughout her twenty years with Ergo, Carla has undertaken a significant number of substation projects across the country, from single protection relay replacements to entire substation upgrades. This exposure has provided Carla with a unique insight into all aspects of design and operation of the substations for a variety of utilities.

Richard Fairbairn

Technical Director - Systems Studies/Earthing Managing Director

Richard is a Power Systems Engineer with 30 years of experience in the analysis, development, design and management of electrical infrastructure. Richard has also delivered evidence during public hearings and written electrical and gas utility asset management plans. HIs work experience also includes extensive involvement with the valuation network assets and due diligence work.

Richard Cuthbert

Chairman

Richard is a company director and advisor. A civil engineer by profession, he has held senior leadership positions for major UK multi-discipline engineering consultancies. Since joining Ergo in 2014, he has been responsible for the company’s governance and strategic development. Outside of work Richard enjoys family time and sport.

Craig Brown

Advisor to the Board

Craig oversees the administrative and financial operations of Ergo and has extensive experience in financial and systems roles. Craig has worked in the capacity of CFO or financial controller for various organisations, and has also been an audit manager for PWC. Craig is also a squash player, and enjoys escaping to Hahei.

Alistair Williams

Managing Director

Alistair joined Ergo in 2015 with extensive experience in project and design management, as well as business development for power transmission and distribution in NZ, Australia and the UK. Born and bred in Scotland, Alistair now calls NZ home with his wife and two girls.

Barbara Elliston

Advisory Board Director

Barbara is an experienced company director, having served on the Boards of Transpower, Genesis and Counties Power. Barbara is an electrical engineer with over 30 years’ experience in the power sector, she has a growing involvement in renewable energy and also has her own start-up, promoting a solar PV water heating product. 

Soumya Doar

Principal Engineer - Head of Power Systems

Soumya is a valued Principal Engineer who heads up our power systems team.  Passionate about client relationships, she works hard to ensure her team delivers outstanding solutions to all our clients.  

Steve Gaskin

Head of Department – Civil & Structural Engineering / Health & Safety Manager

Steve is the lead engineer for Ergo Consulting’s Civil/Structural team, Steve has had 13 years working in electrical industry in various roles and differing types of projects. As a Principal Engineer with more than 20 years’ experience in civil and structural engineering Steve has been responsible for the design and management of works across various sectors. 

Kane Morison

Head of GIS

Kane Morison joined Ergo Consulting in February 2021 and established our Wellington office.

Kane has worked in the Energy sector since graduating in 2009.  He has broad experience across bother Power Generation and Transmission.  Kane has now moved to Tauranga, where he is establishing Ergo’s fourth office.  In his spare time, Kane enjoys spending time with his young family.  He’s also a very keen fisherman and diver.

Jack Stainton

Christchurch Office Lead / Operations Manager

Located in our Christchurch office, Jack has experience in design management, secondary design, switchgear retrofit projects and Greenfield substation projects.  Jack also leads our Operations Team and is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of Ergo’s internal systems.

Angela Lin

Finance Manager & Company Secretary

Angela started at Ergo as Finance manager and is responsible for the day-to-day financial elements of Ergo’s operation. Having graduated from the University of Auckland and a current full member of CPA Australia, she’s always had a passion for numbers and problem solving which has resulted in, what she feels will be, a lifelong career in Accounting. In Angela’s spare time, she loves to spend time with her young family.

Kate Macdonald

HR Lead

Appointed as Ergo’s HR Manager, Kate’s background in Admin & Finance has given her a passion for the innerworkings of the business, where she excels in supporting our team’s growth and well-being. Originally from Scotland, she is an avid runner and enjoys going on adventures with her family.

Ross Dodd

Technical Director - Industrial Design

Ross has extensive experience in the power systems industry. This includes generation, transmission and distribution high level reports, conceptual and detailed design project management. Ross’s generation and transmission experience at NZED and subsequent experience in distribution substation and industrial design provides him with an excellent all-round knowledge of power systems design. He has been responsible for developing template designs within Ergo and for several of Ergo’s key clients.

Alan Barrow

Technical Director - Protection

Alan joined Ergo Consulting in 2015. Alan has been employed in various position in the protection field over the course of his career. His experience is centred around Transmission and Distribution protection. Alan enjoys client engagement, scope diversity and challenges that are typical of the consulting industry. He finds working in a growing team of protection specialists in the consutlatnce environment particularly rewarding.

Willem Rawlins

Technical Director - Asset Manager

Willem started his career in South Africa as an electrical engineer. Upon completing his studies, Willem worked his way up from an engineer in the distribution network operations department to a Senior Engineer – Operations Support, Network Manager and Chief Engineer focussing on power quality in heavy industry.

Daniel Jardine

Section Lead - Technical Specialists

Daniel is a chartered electrical engineer with local and international knowledge across a wide range of sectors including electricity distribution, EV infrastructure, commercial construction, defence, healthcare, and telecommunications. In addition, Daniel has experience in infrastructure regulation having worked for the NZ Commerce Commission. Outside of work, Daniel contributes to the industry through his role as a committee member of the Electrical Engineering Group of Engineering New Zealand.

Matt Pointon

Section Lead - Protection

Leading both the Wellington office and the Protection Team, Matt is an experienced leader specialising in high voltage power system assets. His broad expertise spans design,asset management, construction and commissioning of Protection and Control systems.

John Esnaola

Section Lead - Power Systems CAD

John has been involved in the New Zealand and Australian electricity industry since 2009. He has provided design drafting services for high voltage, power generation and distribution to infrastructure and industry clients. John has extensive experience with the Autodesk suite, specialising in the use of 3D drafting tools, LISP and Script applications. He has worked with a wide range of client drawing standards.

Gavin Austin

Section Lead - South Island Distribution & Generation

Gavin is a Senior Engineer and Design Section lead, involved in people management, project management and secondary design. Gavin has completed detailed design projects within the generation, transmission and distribution fields, including greenfield substations, large substation rebuilds and specialist secondary upgrades. In addition to this, Gavin has previous experience in the North American market, leading transmission projects at voltage levels up to 500 kV.

Ben Dobson

Section Lead - Transmission

Ben has extensive experience in Transpower’s Substation Management System, Outdoor/Indoor conversion portfolio (ODID) and various volumetric protection replacements and upgrades. Ben has considerable experience scripting designs in AutoCAD and leading multi-discipline design teams.

Han Liu

Section Lead - North Island Distribution & Industrial

Han has worked on a variety of projects including: switchboard replacement, new zone substaions design, transformer replacement, arc flash analysis and protection upgrades. Han’s skills include conceptual and detailed design for green and brown field substations and leading multi-discipline design teams.

Stuart Dring

Section Lead -South Island

Stuart is the South Island Senior Engineer for the Ergo Consulting Civil & Structural Team. He has worked in the industrial design and construction industry in a variety of roles across several sectors. Stuart is a Chartered Engineer (CPEng), a member of Engineering NZ, and a member of Structural Engineering Society.

Shashi Patel

Section Lead - North Island

Shashi has been responsible for structural design from new substations, seismic strengthening and retrofit of existing substations to façade reviews, and industrial to residential building design. In additions, Shashi has experience in the electrical industry as well as various roles, projects, and different sectors. Shashi is a member of Engineering NZ and a member of Structural Engineering Society.

Chris Avery

Section Lead - BIM Manager

Chris is an experienced Structural BIM modeller and drafter who has led the drafting and BIM modelling and coordination on many large-scale commercial building and power projects. Chris is passionate about all things 3D & BIM and enjoys leveraging these technologies to deliver well-coordinated project documentation. Chris is confident working collaboratively with engineers and designers from other disciplines to identify and resolve issues well before the construction phase

Chris Turney

Director & Founder

Chris has been involved in all aspects of electrical engineering, providing conceptual and detailed design for primary and secondary systems up to 110kV. He is passionate about the company’s culture, quality and delivery.