Our Team
Nick Pyke
ChairNick is a Founder and Director of Ag Innovate Ltd and Leftfield Innovation Ltd. AgInnovate focusses on supporting innovation through high quality applied research and deliver benefits to New Zealand food producers and the agricultural industries. Leftfield Innovation is a social enterprise which uses market insights to develop diversified sustainable land uses delivering food for consumers. Nick has governance experience with agricultural businesses, farms, industry good organisations and a sports organisation and is currently Chair of AGMARDT, a director of Cropmark Seeds, Pāmu and FoodHQ. He was CEO of FAR (Foundation for Arable Research) from its inception for over 20 years.He has held positions on a number of national advisory groups and is the recipient of a number of awards recognising his contribution to agriculture.
Elaine Cook
TrusteeElaine has a wealth of experience. Farming runs deep from growing up on the land to progressing through the dairy sector to farm ownership. She has farmed in the Waikato and Southland.Her well qualified governance experience has always been with organisations that provide a benefit to a wider community. These have included DairyNZ, Sector Partnership R & D programmes, NZ Young Farmers, Southland Demonstration Farm and the establishment group for the Southern Dairy Hub.Elaine has worked across multiple areas including Agri-business, Sector Advisory Groups, Research, Regulatory Sector, Information Management, Education, People & Culture, and Health & Safety – Elaine’s approach to successful business is grounded in supporting people to realise their full potential.
Miriana Stephens
TrusteeMiriana is a director for Wakatū Incorporation (Wakatū), its subsidiaries and various committees.Miriana is currently leading AuOra™ which is an associated business of Wakatū that invests in a portfolio of nutrition and ingredient applications which are sourced from the natural biomatter of Aotearoa, New Zealand that provide solutions for digestive, brain, inflammatory and metabolic health challenges.Miriana is also trustee on Te Āwhina Marae in Motueka and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua. She is a member of Nuku ki te Puku™ (a national Māori Food and Beverage cluster), the MPI Primary Sector Council, an assessor on the MBIE Endeavour Fund Impact Panel, an alumni of Te Hono (NZ agribusiness leaders) and the programme director for the Te Tauihu Intergenerational Strategy which is a new way of approaching regional development
Ben Tosswill
TrusteeBen is the owner/operator of a 1300ha sheep and beef farm in Central Hawkes Bay. The business also includes a luxury glamp site, production forestry, and QEII protected native forest. A keen advocate of adopting technology on farm, Ben was an early adopter of cloud-based technology to drive efficiency. Prior to farming Ben worked as a rural bank manager before travelling throughout Africa, South America, and Europe. He lived in London for 3 years, where he worked as an analyst in corporate and investment banking. This experience, including working through the Global Financial Crisis, gave him insight into global finance, investment, and ignited a keen interest in future investment trends and technology.With a drive for continuous improvement, Ben has seen first-hand the positive impact that up-skilling and supporting innovation can have on a family, business, community, and wider industry.Ben is also the Chair of the Beef+Lamb NZ Eastern North Island Farmer Council and is a member of the Beef+Lamb NZ Farmer Council National Executive.
Phil Weir
Associate TrusteePhil is the owner/operator of a family sheep and beef farm in the Waikato. The business is developing horticulture and has areas of QEII protected native forest. As an agribusiness consultant with AgFirst Waikato, Phil works with a range of farmers and has completed projects looking at land use diversification and its barriers. Phil has travelled throughout Europe and North America playing rugby and then completing a Master of Marine Management at Dalhousie University (Canada), looking at the development opportunities for offshore wind farms and aquaculture. Prior to a return to New Zealand, Phil worked in the Australian mining industry as an Environmental Scientist. When the call to return home came, and prior to farming, Phil worked at Crown Research Institute AgResearch in intellectual property management and stakeholder relationship management roles, with time spent on the KiwiNet Investment Committee. With a keen interest in personal development, Phil completed the Kellogg Rural Leadership programme in 2016 followed by a Nuffield Scholarship in 2020, during which he investigated the role of New Zealand’s industry good bodies their structure and how they may best operate for the future. Phil is a Beef + Lamb NZ farmer-elected director for the Northern North Island and has previously been chair of the Beef + Lamb NZ Mid Northern North Island Farmer Council.
Lee-Ann Marsh
General ManagerLee-Ann is the General Manager of AGMARDT based in Auckland. A global marketer, Lee-Ann brings a powerful consumer lens to the food and fibres sector. Prior to joining us as General Manager in 2021, Lee-Ann was Global Market Innovation Manager at Beef + Lamb New Zealand. Previously she worked for Fonterra and Nestlé in consumer insights roles having moved to New Zealand in 2010 off the back of an international career working with blue chip clients across fast moving consumer packaged goods, healthcare, and technology. Lee-Ann is passionate about the global role New Zealand can play in healthy and sustainable food and fibres production and in supporting the sector to move beyond meeting market needs to actively anticipating them.
Annabel McAleer
Grants Funding AssessorAnnabel McAleer is the Grants Funding Assessor at AGMARDT. She is responsible for supporting grant applicants to align their proposals with AGMARDT's impact goals, and helping the Trustees effectively allocate funding to projects that promote innovative thinking and grow capability and collaboration. Annabel brings experience driving impact, fostering collaboration, and addressing information needs within the food and fibre sector from her most recent role with the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge. Annabel was part of the Rural Professionals Fund assessment team that distributed $3 million in funding, evaluating over 150 funding proposals. She led the monitoring of impact from Our Land and Water projects and undertook professional training in impact planning and evaluation. Annabel is with AGMARDT part-time, and is also a freelance science communication consultant with Shared Science.
Us
As ‘Future Shapers’ – we want to ignite a better future for the food & fibres sector.
Programmes
AGMARDT strategically invest in initiatives to encourage innovative thinking, research capability and collaboration.
Portal
Interested in applying for one of our grants? You can do it online today.
Stories
With more than 1700 grants awarded to date, we’ve got some great stories to share with you.