Vena Crawley is a change agent by nature with a natural inclination towards redefining the future.
A Samoan childhood and adolescence spent in Auckland, Vena speaks five languages and holds multiple governance roles, including as a non-executive director at Summerset Group, an independent board member on Te Whatu Ora sub-committee for People, Culture & Development; he is Chair and advisory board member at Auckland University of Technology, and recently completed an extended term as a Future Director at The Warehouse Group.
Vena was recently the divisional CEO and Chief Customer Officer at Contact Energy leading its customer business on a transformation to become New Zealand’s ‘customer-obsessed human energy company’. With areas of responsibility ranging from strategy, pricing and data analytics to people, digital, technology, culture and brand, his strength involves developing strategies that not only support sustainable business outcomes today, but chart future business horizons for tomorrow.
A hybrid leader in both commercial delivery and creative leadership, his diverse background has given him a toolkit to navigate evolving challenges and stakeholder issues across a multitude of executive and governance platforms - his business strategies and leadership have delivered more than NZ$4 billion in profits in his last three roles.
Vena is a disruptive accelerant known for driving proven transformational change at pace that resonates with today’s businesses - chasing market leadership with customers at the heart, using data technology and digital, as his tools. He holds an MBA and BA from Steinbeis University in Germany and has studied at the Darden School of Business via Virginia State University, and has a passion for developing and coaching others.