Women of Meridian - Alison McNabb

An incredible team, an exciting role, and a job that contributes to a better New Zealand – Alison McNabb is living a career that continues to challenge, reward and excite.

After 15 years in the oil and gas industry, Canadian-born Alison joined Meridian in mid-2022 and is now a senior energy trader in Meridian’s Energy Markets Operations team - a role that cemented three generations of hydro involvement within her family.

Alison’s grandfather spent his whole career as maintainer of a hydro station in Canada, while her father started his electrical engineering career at the same plant.

“And now, here I am trading electricity generated from hydro here in New Zealand.”

The Energy Markets Operations team is like Meridian’s nerve centre. They oversee the generation control desk that ensures Meridian’s electricity generation matches what is required by the wholesale market, and the trading desk, which offers electricity into the national spot electricity market.

Recent automation has enabled the trading desk to be monitored on an ‘on-call’ basis overnight, however, the generation control desk is still staffed 24/7.

“I really love my team,” says Alison. “We work in a rostered shift pattern, but people also recognise that real life doesn’t always wait for days off to happen. We look after each other and try to make sure that people can manage all of the pressures life outside of the office brings, as well as covering the desks.”

Her primary role includes overseeing trading activities in the wholesale electricity market.

“Like any market it is all about supply meeting demand,” she says.

“The central role is played by the system operator, who is tasked with matching supply and demand in the cheapest, most efficient way for New Zealand.

“As a team, we look at a few different things and say, well, what can we offer? And what are we likely to generate?”

The intermittent nature of wind and other renewable generation can make those predictions challenging.

Factors such as lake levels, equipment outages, line outages and resource consents all play a part in what is possible - and when.

Having met her future Kiwi husband working at a summer camp in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, Alison completed the final paper of her first degree via correspondence from Wellington.

As a recent graduate living overseas with limited workplace experience, she found herself in a situation familiar to many: “I needed a job. Any job!”

That vital first opportunity materialised from a temping role as a receptionist at OMV NZ Ltd.

She impressed enough as a receptionist to land an EA role for the managing and finance directors and instantly found herself immersed in the high-level business of the company.

At the time, the company was developing the Maari Oil Field 80 kilometres off the coast of Taranaki.

“It was a neat project to be close to - big kit, big money, big risk and big reward. It's only now that I'm this far along in my career that I can look back at that role and realise how incredibly lucky it was to have started there.” she says.

After four years and a baby in the EA role, Alison moved into OMV’s commercial team. “I used to feel sheepish about that [EA role] when I first moved into the OMV commercial team. I used to think people discounted me because of it. But now I see that it was such an advantage.”

Several years in the commercial role and another baby later, “just as I was beginning to wonder what was next for my career, my boss strolled out of his office one day & asked if I’d like to do a law degree”.

He’d been digging through the archives of an old HR folder & found that Alison expressed an interest in law when she first started with OMV many years prior.

“And I thought, yeah, law could be next,” recalls Alison.

Combining her studies, work and motherhood required some fancy footwork racing between classes at Victoria University’s railway campus and her office in Wellington’s Majestic Centre. It was manic at times - “every minute mattered”. But, she got there and was admitted to the bar in 2024.

“One day at a time you close the gap between idea and reality,” she says. “So yeah, now I'm a lawyer too and have been very fortunate to spend some time each week with Meridian’s in house legal team.”

“Meridian is great in that respect, I think there are many examples of people being given opportunities to expand or change their career paths while staying with the company.”

Another highlight of her time at Meridian has been the chance to visit the company’s generation assets at their rugged, remote locations.

“One trip we were coming back on the boat from Manapōuri to Te Anau at seven in the morning. It was cold and raining, but it was snowing at the top of the mountains. It was a really stunning thing to see.

“We are very fortunate at Meridian to have those chances to get out and visit these amazing sites.”

Meridian is an equal opportunity employer with Advanced GenderTick accreditation. To learn more about working at Meridian, check out our careers homepage.