Wellington, Dec 7 NZPA - TrustPower Ltd has named Vince Hawksworth, currently chief executive of Hydro Tasmania, as chief executive.

Mr Hawksworth will start in April next year. He is also a former general manager, retail of Genesis Energy.

TrustPower said Mr Hawksworth has experience of wind power developments and management of hydro-inflow risks. He has both a management and engineering background.

Chris O'Hara will be acting chief executive until Mr Hawksworth arrives.

The company signalled in May that chief executive Keith Tempest was planning to step down at the end of the year from the job he has held for the past eight years.

Mr Tempest, who has worked at TrustPower for 23 years in total, intended to continue his involvement in the wider business community in more of a governance role.

TrustPower is just over 50 percent-owned by infrastructure investor Infratil.

It has 36 small to medium hydro stations and the Tararua wind farm in this country, and a wind farm at Snowtown in South Australia.

Mr Hawksworth was born in the UK and spent 10 years working for the British Coal Corporation before moving to New Zealand in 1993 where he worked for the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand until joining Genesis Power Ltd in 1999, according to Hydro Tasmania.