Together with my wife Gretchen and three children, we own and operate a summerfruit orchard and packhouse in Clyde, Central Otago.

My contribution to the board will be from experience and knowledge gained from owning and operating a summerfruit business for the last seven years. My understanding of irrigation’s importance and necessity with six years’ experience as a Director and now Chair of our local irrigation’s company. Lastly, from my previous corporate career in finance where I spent ten and half years as a rural agribusiness manager in Otago servicing clients across most primary industries including horticulture, dairy, and sheep and beef.

The three main issues I see being faced by growers currently are economics, access to reliable irrigation and land use change.

• Financial sustainability is essential and the priority for all growers, recently high on-farm inflation coupled with softer domestic demand has seen margins reduce.

 • Access to reliable irrigation rights with longer renewal terms are more challenging with freshwater polices yet to be fully understood nationally and consistent regionally.

• Land use change, rural to residential (including highly productive land) must be managed in a manner that both protects our right to farm as much as it provides for people’s right to housing.

I am a current member of The Institute of Directors New Zealand and have completed the following courses through them:

• Governance Essentials

• Not-for-Profit Governance Essentials

In 2024 I was selected to attend “To the Core” leadership and governance development programme, supported by Farmlands, Silver Fern Farms and LIC.

I have a Bachelor of Commerce in Agriculture majoring in Valuation and Farm Management from Lincoln University.