Bill Highet

General Manager, WHISPER TECH Ltd

Bill Highet was New Ventures Manager for Southpower (now Orion) in 1993 when he was approached by Dr Don Clucas and Professor John Raine, from the University of Canterbury. Together they designed and created, Whisper Tech Limited, in which Orion remains a major shareholder.

Whisper Tech has 60 employees and is becoming internationally recognised for its innovative 'Personal Power Station' development - "WhisperGen". Bill was the founder Chairman of the company and continued with that role despite moving to Auckland to become General Network Manager for Enerco (now part of United Networks) and then moving to Wellington where he held senior management positions with Telecom Mobile.

Recently Bill resigned from the Board and returned to Christchurch to take on a full time role as General Manager - New Zealand, reporting to Whisper Tech's Managing Director, David Moriarty, who has moved to the United Kingdom.

Prior to working for Southpower, Bill held various positions in the electricity industry including Chief Engineer of the Waitaki Electric Power Board (now Network Waitaki) and Commercial Manager for Powermark (now Alstom).