Richard Gibbons
Richard has over 35 years of experience in the Electrical Power Industry and is currently the General Manager of LineTech Consulting.
Richard started in the Industry as a Student Apprentice Engineer with the London Electricity Board in 1967, completing an Honours Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in1972. He worked in UK for a few years as an operational engineer in the West End of London for the Board until emigrating to NZ in 1975.
After a short time with the NZED and consultants KRTA he joined the Auckland Electric Power Board where he remained for 21 years holding several different positions, finally becoming Chief Engineering for the AEPB, then General Manager Network for Mercury Energy.
More recently his roles have included General Manager Power and Communications with the United Group NZ and before joining Line Tech was consulting, both on his own and with SKM and PB Associates.
Richard first joined the EEA in 1983 and as a young engineer was a regular contributor at regional engineering forums and EEA Conferences. He has continued over many years to contribute engineering, technical and engineering governance papers to conference and has collected a couple of Best paper Awards - most recently at the 2011 conference where he won the Best Paper for an EEA Member.
He was elected onto the EEA Board in July 1991 and served continuously until he retired from the EEA Board two decades later in 2011. Richard was EEA President from 1997 1999. During this time the EEA continued to evolve into a more independent organisation and in 1999 as a result of the restructuring of the Electricity Supply Association of New Zealand Richard oversaw the establishment of a fully independent Electricity Engineers Association.
Over the three decades of his EEA involvement Richards name appears alongside a range of EEA working groups and project committees including neutral earth resistors, Cable TV, equipment standardisation and the many industry groups that have grappled with legislation and regulatory reform of the electricity supply industry. In 1990 he very generously volunteered to be the EEA representative on the Governments Inter Agency Committee on Electric and Magnetic Fields and finally retired from this Committee in 2010. He is the industry expert in this area and many companies and individuals have benefited from his extensive knowledge.
As an engineer, Richard understands the critical role of Standards in our industry and has in the past contributed to the setting of national and international equipment and process standards. Since 2003 Richard has ably and strongly represented EEA, industry and consumers as Government appointed Director of the Standards NZ Council.