Nick Pyke

Nick 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. Previous roles including being CEO of FAR (Foundation for Arable Research) from its inception for over 20 years. Prior to this he was a scientist with MAF, DSIR, Agriculture Canada and HortResearch working mostly on horticultural crops. 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.

Richard Green

Richard is involved in governance and management roles in several businesses, including retirement villages, dairy farming, beekeeping and honey marketing. He also serves as an independent director on seven large-scale farming businesses across arable, dairy, deer, and sheep and beef. Richard’s previous roles include general manager of international for PGW Seeds as well as sales and marketing director for AGRICOM. Prior to his 11 years in the seed industry, he spent eight years as an agricultural consultant working predominately in Otago.

Justine Gilliland

Justine is Chief Executive of Venture Taranaki and a board member of Economic Development NZ. Before joining Venture Taranaki, Justine was Deputy Director-General Sector Partnerships and Programmes at the Ministry for Primary Industries, where she led multi-million dollar investment and R&D programmes, Māori partnerships, regional development, and the establishment of Te Uru Rakau-Forestry New Zealand and the One Billion Trees programme. Prior to this, Justine ran the Ministry for Primary Industries’ research and development and other external grants and funds. Before joining MPI, Justine led the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission of Inquiry, and has held a range of senior management positions across communications, strategy and policy. Justine has also been admitted as barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand

Miriana Stephens

Miriana 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

Trish Rankin

Trish is a keen agvocate, combining her love of farming and as a project lead of Taranaki community catchment groups to help shape a flourishing farming future for NZ. With over 20 years in education roles alongside farming, she spends her time improving her knowledge and capability so she can help others grow, innovate, inspire and thrive too. With recent Post Grad study completed in Business, Innovation and Circular Economy, alongside attending the International Agribusiness Seminar from Harvard Business School, Trish can see that NZ is the Possible - where her four children can be proud to say their family works hard for our NZ agricultural sector. With AGMARDT, Trish looks forward to seeing tomorrow's problems being solved by new and intuitive thinking.

Lee-Ann Marsh

Lee-Ann is the General Manager of AGMARDT based in Auckland. A global marketer, Lee-Ann brings a powerful consumer lens 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 (B+LNZ). Previously she worked for Fonterra and Nestlé 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 New Zealand’s global leadership role setting standards for healthy and sustainable food and fibre production, and moving beyond meeting market needs to actively anticipating them to positively impact people and the planet.

Kerryl Brazendale

Fiona Hatzilamprou