A quarter century of connection: Kerry Watson’s 25 years with Waipā Networks

In 2000, Tauranga local Kerry Watson spotted a job ad for a company he’d never heard of, in a town he wasn’t sure how to find, even asking his wife, Fiona, to show him where it was on a map.

At the time, Kerry was working in Hamilton, three years into a career in insurance. Long hours, claims targets, little connection. He was ready for something different, something that put people first.

That something was Waipā Networks, a community-owned business where Kerry would discover and develop a passion for putting customers first, always.
A quarter of a century later, he still commutes from Tauranga to Te Awamutu most days of the week to do just that, serving a community that’s grown close to his heart.

“I joined back in 2000 as an account manager to work closely with electricity retailers,” recalls Kerry.
“My first assignment was to help deliver a one-off customer discount. It wasn’t glamorous, spreadsheets, cheques, reconciliations, but it gave me a first glimpse of what community ownership really means.”

More than 20 years later, Kerry is still managing the process that has now returned over $100 million to Waipā Networks customers.

“Every year, we coordinate with 20-plus electricity retailers across the country to make sure customers, no matter who they buy their power from, get their share. It’s a reminder that we’re still local, still giving back.”

Back when the customer discounts first started, Waipā Networks worked with just two electricity retailers. The industry was still adjusting to the 1998 Electricity Reform Act, which had split generation, retail, and distribution.

By the mid-2000s, as retail competition grew, Waipā Networks’ name had begun to fade from public view.

“If the power stayed on, people didn’t think of us,” Kerry says. “They didn’t realise who maintained the lines, kept the system safe, and invested back into the district. To be honest, that’s a challenge we’re still dealing with.”

Kerry led a push to reconnect the brand with its community, revamping the website, launching social media, and publishing monthly updates on safety, sponsorships, and local stories.

“It wasn’t about marketing,” he says. “It was about rebuilding relationships, showing we were part of this place, not some distant company.”

While Kerry may have remained in the same business for more than 25 years, his career path since then has been far from static, stepping up and into several roles over the years.

When the company restructured in 2006, Kerry led the newly formed Customer Services and Faults team, merging customer support and field response for the first time.

“It made sense,” he says. “The person answering the phone and the person fixing the fault were solving the same problem, keeping people connected.”

He remembers those years fondly:

“It was hands-on, late nights during storms, phones ringing off the hook. You could feel how much people relied on us, and how proud everyone was to get the lights back on. That hasn’t changed.”

Those experiences, seeing the pressure crews were under and knowing what it felt like when they were out there alone, shaped Kerry’s next chapter.

After a serious incident involving a lone worker, Kerry worked with a small Hamilton tech start-up called Smartrak to develop a real-time tracking solution that would automatically detect when a worker was non-responsive and send for help.

“They were literally working out of a garage,” he says. “But we sat around a whiteboard and figured out how to combine their vehicle tracking system with factory worker monitoring systems, providing a remote worker solution. If a worker was non-responsive, it sent an alert and location. It meant help could get there fast.”

“It came from a scary moment, but it made people safer,” Kerry admits quietly. “That’s what matters, and I’m proud of that.”

No stranger to being alone in a vehicle himself, Kerry still makes the daily trek over the Kaimai Ranges, often before sunrise. He knows every bend, every café stop, and says the drive gives him time to think.

“It’s where I plan my day, solve problems, pray sometimes,” he smiles. “By the time I get to the office, I’m ready.”

Today, Kerry still has a community focus, but through the lens of the industry’s regulatory space as Pricing and Compliance Manager.

Married to Fiona for 25 years, with three children, two at secondary school and one at university, Kerry spends his weekends at church, the beach, classic car shows, or playing his guitar. He’s also designed over 20 houses and built four.

“I like creating things that work. Maybe that’s why I’ve stayed this long,” he says. “Waipā’s always been about building things that last.”

From handwritten fault logs and landlines to real-time digital systems and regulatory dashboards, Kerry has watched both Waipā Networks and the wider industry transform beyond recognition.

He’s seen the organisation grow, weather storms, modernise systems, and care for its people, including him, after a health scare a few years ago.

“They looked after me through that,” he says. “That’s the kind of company this is, bigger now, but still feels like family.”

As Waipā Networks celebrates more than a century of powering communities, Kerry celebrates his own milestone, 25 years, a quarter of that journey, spent helping the business evolve without ever losing sight of what matters most: connecting customers, in every sense of the word.