Nick Russ

Nick is a former General Manager and ELT member at the Commerce Commission, where he led the Commission’s economic regulation function across multiple sectors – from electricity, gas and fibre networks, telecommunications, and airports, to groceries, fuel, and retail payments.

Nick draws on his background as a regulator to advise boards and senior executives in established and newly regulated sectors on a wide range of governance, strategy, and regulatory matters.

He has a particular interest in helping organisations grapple with the interface between regulation and commercial realities, and advising on the implementation of new regulatory requirements, such as for water services.

Nick’s experience

• Leading first-time economic regulation for national infrastructure – At the Commerce Commission, Nick led the team that implemented first-generation economic regulation for major infrastructure monopolies, where there was limited precedent and high scrutiny. This included overseeing the first price quality regulation for Transpower through an Individual Price Quality Path and for distribution businesses through Default and Customised Price Quality Paths.
• Deep experience with disclosure-based and staged regulation – Core to Nick’s work at the Commission was using information disclosure and staged regulation to improve regulators’ understanding of service performance and drive better outcomes for consumers. Disclosure lifted data quality and strengthened asset-management capabilities in the sectors, helping the Commission to make informed decisions on when and how to escalate to tighter regulation as evidence and its understanding of performance matured.
• Insight into how regulators form judgements in new regimes – Beyond the technical frameworks, Nick has invaluable experience in how regulators behave when there’s no settled playbook: how they weigh evidence and exercise discretion, how they manage political and consumer pressures, and also how early decisions create lasting precedents.