Tom Skerman is a self-described “jack of all trades, master of none” who has relished the opportunity to view the primary sector from a number of different viewpoints.

At LandWISE 2021: Working Smarter, Tom will take the topic, Water Security: more than just dams.

In addition to farming business interests he has practised Law and worked as a commercial development manager for the Maori Trustee, Te Tumu Paeroa, identifying, analysing and executing commercial opportunities for owners of Maori freehold land.

Tom is an investor in a Waikato sheep and beef farming syndicate, a director and shareholder of farm financial software company Figured, an independent director of a foreign-owned NZ forestry and commercial property company and was previously the independent Chair of a pipfruit investment syndicate in the Esk Valley.

In 2016 Tom received a Nuffield Scholarship which, after several months of international travel focussed exclusively on the world of agriculture, culminated in his report “Agribusiness Governance – Finding the Green Zone.”

Tom joined Hawke’s Bay Regional Council in 2013 to work with the Ruataniwha Water Storage Project giving him a front-row seat to the environmental issues and tensions challenging the primary sector. In 2017 he was appointed to the executive team as Group Manager Strategic Planning, which includes responsibility for progressing Hawke’s Bay’s policy and regulatory framework for natural resource management, including all things freshwater.

Listen to a Summary Sound Clip here: