Nigel came to Mercury from a trade background, which involved many years of hard work to develop his skillset further by completing a Diploma in Engineering along the way. Nigel started out as a Maintenance Technician at our Kawerau Geothermal field where he got to do all sorts of amazing things both in the station and around the steamfield. Working on the Steam Separation System, the Acid Dosing System, plus in and amongst the Turbine Hall and Gas Extraction Systems.

Fast forward a couple of years and he made a move to explore the rest of Mercury’s geothermal fleet with work done at Ngā Tamariki (NTM) plus time spent at Ngā Awa Purua (NAP) and Rotokawa to get some experience on Pentane Evacuations. Following this, Nigel headed across to Maraetai, one of Mercury’s stunning hydro stations, where he was part of a team working to get two of the units back online. This included works on both the G6 Governor and the G8 Headgate. After a brief stint back at Kawerau he landed his current role as a Process Safety Engineer based out of the Rotorua Office.

Overall, he says that "Moving and working between sites and getting exposure of people and place is good as you start to have a better appreciation for Mercury as a whole. Building connections is so important."

Nic moved to the hydro operations team at Mercury in mid-2022 after five years supporting the generation business with procurement, commercial and change initiatives. Over that time she was involved in a variety of different projects including turbine and generator procurement for the geothermal side of the business; and lead a transformation project which brought site maintenance away from external contractors into being part of the Mercury team. There’s been plenty of opportunities to learn – both on the job with taking on different projects and initiatives to be a part of, and with training such as Emerging Leaders and the recent generation-specific leadership course. 

Now as site lead for Ātiamuri and Whakamaru power stations, Nic also oversees a team of awesome Maintenance Technicians who help keep the units running by leading class 3 (full unit) outages and reacting and problem-solving faults. “One of the best parts of working for Mercury is being able to work with a range of people who have different perspectives. I’m always learning – there’s always something different happening and there’s always opportunities to grow and learn and get involved with things that challenge your way of thinking.”

With a career beginning with an apprentiship in Forestry and continuing with a variety of trade jobs there after, Sean has gone on to have a wide range of job opportunities while working for Mercury. He leveraged his trade skills and experience to get a foot in the door at Mercury, but was given plenty of opportunities and support to advance into a variety of leadership, management and coaching roles. Each step along the way has opened a door to a next new and exciting adventure.

The variety of roles Sean has covered over his career with Mercury include been a Shut Planner (and later Manager), a Maintenance Manager, a Reliability Manager, an Operational Excellence Manager before landing in his current role as a Strategic Project Manager. As Sean says, “I have worked with awesome people who have taken care to grow their people and the business. My experience at Mercury has been that, the time and effort I have invested in my career has always had great returns!”

Candice came to Mercury as a Project Geologist after completing a Master’s Degree in Geology (Volcanology). Collaborating with a large range of talented people across the geoscience, consenting, and operations space, and working on the drilling of new geothermal wells and even living on a drilling rig for a while.

An interest in GIS and all things 3D saw a position created specifically in the team which focused on building 3D earth models of all of Mercury’s geothermal reservoirs – a job that was hugely rewarding and supported by management, who understood the value of these models. Both on the job and overseas training built her skills to be the technical leader in this space.

As new geologists came onboard and took up the earth modelling mantle, a further shift was made to a GIS central role allowing Candice to pursue her curiosity and interests and increase the value of spatial data to other areas of the business. In this current role Candice works with people from all across Mercury, helping the team use their existing data and processes to optimise the power stations and fuel supply, and even assisting our partners with webmaps allowing them to pick the best sites to install EV chargers.

Ben joined Mercury in 2009 as a Project Geologist, initially his work focussed on geothermal reservoir management and drilling. Mercury supported his learning and training to help grow his knowledge of the electricity and renewable energy sector. He developed an interest in the wider business and commercial areas and began working on geothermal development projects and then transitioned into a Commercial Manager role within the Finance business unit. While in Finance Ben sought opportunities to learn and be involved in Mergers & Acquisitions including Smart Metering, Retail, Solar and Wind projects. Recently Ben spent two years working as the Financial Controller for the Customer business working with different teams and growing his leadership and management skills along the way. Ben now manages the Geothermal Technical Resources team.