Our People

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Meet the BusinessNZ Energy Council Team

Our team is our greatest asset. Every member of our team has the right knowledge, skills and motivation to achieve quality, efficient and professional outcomes for our members.

  • Hon. David
    Caygill

  • Tina
    Schirr

  • Senior
    Policy Advisor

  • Debbie
    Bougen

  • WEC
    Working Group Members

Hon. David Caygill

Chair

The Hon. David Caygill (CNZM) is a former Cabinet Minister with extensive governance experience. A lawyer by profession, he served in the Lange/Palmer Labour Governments successively as Minister of Trade and Industry, Health and Finance. From 1993-96 he was Deputy-Leader of the Opposition. On retiring from politics in 1996 he became a partner in the national law firm, Buddle Findlay.

David has served on a number of governing bodies, including as chair of the ACC and the Electricity Commission and as Deputy Chair of the Commerce Commission. In 2000 he chaired the Ministerial Inquiry into the electricity industry and subsequently the industry's Electricity Governance Establishment Board. More recently he chaired the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme. He has also been a director of Infratil Ltd and is currently Deputy Chair of Environment Canterbury.

Hon. David Caygill
info@bec.org.nz

Tina Schirr

Executive Director

Tina is the Executive Director – Energy and Innovation at BusinessNZ. She leads and manages the BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) and is responsible for the development of Business New Zealand policy on all matters relating to energy, transport and innovation. Her work also includes the World Energy Council's Energy Trilemma Framework, Energy Issue Maps and Energy Innovation Framework as well as the content development and organisation of the Asia-Pacific Energy Leaders’ Summit (2016 and 2018) and involvement in the cross-sector BEC Energy Scenarios Projects.

Her fields of specialisation include the energy industry, energy technology, energy policy and marketing.

Prior to her role as Executive Director, she worked as the Senior Policy Advisor for Energy and Innovation at BEC. Tina also worked for enviaM in Germany, a subsidiary of RWE AG, where she was responsible for the purchasing and distribution of electricity and gas. From 2012-2013, she worked in marketing and distribution for STI Solar Technologie International GmbH, Germany. While there, she was responsible for rolling out new products across Europe.

Tina holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) Value Chain Management from the University of Technology, Chemnitz in Germany and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Management of Energy Utilities from the University of Applied Sciences, Zwickau in Germany, including a semester at the University of Borås in Sweden studying International Marketing and Strategic Marketing.

Tina Schirr
04 496 6280
021 832 611
tschirr@bec.org.nz

Senior Policy Advisor

Vacancy: Senior Policy Advisor

Senior Policy Advisor

Debbie Bougen

Executive Assistant, Sustainable Business Council & BusinessNZ Energy Council

Debbie joined BusinessNZ in July 2016 after 15 years working within the Education Sector.

Her role as Executive Assistant to Mike Burrell, Executive Director of the Sustainable Business Council and Tina Schirr, Executive Director of the BusinessNZ Energy Council, includes executive administrative support and diary management, as well as administration for the SBC Advisory Board.

She also assists with functions and events for the Sustainable Business Council and the BusinessNZ Energy Council teams.

Debbie Bougen
04 496 6288
021 182 3309
dbougen@businessnz.org.nz

WEC Working Group Members

The BusinessNZ Energy Council (the ‘BEC’) is a multi-sectoral group of New Zealand business, government and academic organisations taking on a leading role in creating a sustainable energy future for New Zealand. Since 1 January 2013, the BusinessNZ Energy Council brings together the memberships of BusinessNZ and the former Energy Federation of New Zealand. The BEC shares energy information, represents the views of its members, promotes dialogue and networking for its members, prepares and disseminates reports and organises seminars and conferences.  Its goal is to “support New Zealand’s economic well-being through the active promotion of the sustainable development and use of energy, both domestically and globally.”

WEC Working Group Members