A new Board was elected at the Special General Meeting in September 2016. We welcome new members and thank those retired, some after very long service.
Hugh Ritchie and Scott Lawson retired at the 2016 meeting. Both have been actively involved since the beginning of LandWISE, chairing the Board and helping in many other ways. They remain keen to stay closely involved in advisory capacities.
We are similarly grateful to retiring Mike Flynn and Douglas Giles for their contributions. Mike has also been a solid supporter, long time Board member and with McCain Foods agriculture staff championed the strip-till and minimum tillage work that occupied the first years of LandWISE. Douglas is well known in the Manawatu for his innovative approaches to cropping region.
2016-2017 Board members
- Mark Burgess, The University of Auckland, Auckland
- Andrew Dawson, Callaghan Innovation, Wellington
- Stuart Dykes, Haden & Custance, Hastings
- John Evans, Tregynon Farm, Canterbury
- Paul Munro, Peracto NZ, Auckland
- Brendan Powell, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council
- Mark Redshaw, Ballance AgriNutrients, Hawke’s Bay
- Bruce Searle, Plant & Food Research, Hawke’s Bay
- John van der Linden, Villa Maria Estates, Hawke’s Bay
- Simon Wilcox, A. S. Wilcox, Pukekohe
New Board Members
John Evans is a long time LandWISE supporter and a cropping farmer from Rakaia near Ashburton. He grows process vegetables, cereals and specialist seed crops and has some grazing. He has a strong technical and computing bent and wide experience with precision agriculture technologies.
Stuart Dykes is GM of Hayden and Custance, a local robotics company. Stuart has wide experience in mechanical engineering and food science including the viticulture sector. He chaired the VOLBI group that put forward the Hawke’s Bay AgTech Regional Research Institute proposal and says the role LandWISE can play connecting research, technology and farmers /growers is enormously valuable.
John van der Linden is Vineyards Systems Manager at Villa Maria Estate with an overview of viticultural practice and special projects. He was one of the active supporters of the regional research institute proposal and believes LandWISE has a key role supporting new technologies and systems in viticulture and other horticultural activities.
Andrew Dawson is GM of Research at Callaghan Innovation. A strong LandWISE supporter over recent years, he has a very strong knowledge of sensing technologies and commercialisation of technology. He sees LandWISE as a key link between practising farmers and the technology community
Mark Burgess is Director, Institute for Innovation in Biotechnology at the University of Auckland. He was previously with Auckland UniServices linking research and industry and has identified LandWISE as a unique organisation in the agri-tech space.
The Future
This year the Board began reviewing our direction, a process to be completed and presented at the May 2017 AGM. Any thoughts? What is important to you?
Talk to a Board Member or Dan – help shape our future