Richard Scholefield (R & K Scholefield)

For 17 years Richard was the General Manager of Whangara Farms, comprising 9,500ha north of Gisborne and the first farm outside the EU to become a McDonald’s flagship farm. 

In that time, Richard was involved in a beef-cow sustainability programme with McDonald’s, Silver Fern Farms and Beef + Lamb NZ, as well as the Proof of Concept trial from which the NZ Roundtable was formed.

Richard is also a Beef and Lamb NZ Farmer Councillor.

NZRSB - BOARD

Kate Griffiths (Alpine Pastures) - NZRSB Secretary

Kate is originally from North Wales, where her family farmed sheep, beef cattle and dairy, she completed a BA History and Conservation and decided to continue with farming, moving to New Zealand 18 years ago.

Kate is the Compliance Manager for Alpine Pastures. She works with her partner Hayden McCambridge running the Canterbury arm of the operation, consisting of 400 ha of irrigated land, 200 ha of dry land, an additional 600 ha during the winter months and a Dairy Farm.

They finish 100% Grass-Fed Anti-biotic Free Beef and Lamb, supplying A2 milk to Synlait, members of the Lead with Pride programme, taking part in the NZFAP-plus pilot programme last year, and are working with ANZCO, to obtain Toitu carbon zero certification for their lamb racks.

Steve Dickie (ANZCO Foods) - NZRSB Treasurer

Steve is Head of Foodservice for ANZCO Foods and Key Account Manager for McDonald’s.

Steve originally trained and worked as a chef in New Zealand, England, Sweden and the USA before moving into FMCG and retail. He also worked in the dairy industry for 18 months before joining ANZCO in 2016.

Alex McGrath (AgResearch)

As a Food & Fibre Account Manager at AgResearch, Alex is responsible for relationships with members of Aotearoa’s Food & Fibre sector.

Her role involves developing research engagements with her stakeholders and to support the scientists at AgResearch to deliver impact from science to the industry and community.

Alex grew up on dairy farms on the West Coast of the South Island and worked with international customers at ANZCO Foods prior to moving to AgResearch.

She is excited to be a part of supporting New Zealand Beef to be recognised as an excellent source of sustainable nutrition for the world.  

Hayden Swann (Whangara Farms)

Hayden is the Principal of Makaraka School in Gisborne and is of Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Rongowhakaata and Ngai Tai descent. 

He is passionate about pastoral farming and has directorships on farms in the North Island East Coast of over 150,000 stock units. Hayden is a shareholder and Deputy Chair of Whangara Farms and cares deeply about the future of beef as an important strategic intergenerational feature of sustainable land use. Hayden believes beef plays an important part in farming systems, revenue and market diversification.

His governance roles span a wide variety of Industries and sum over $1B in assets.

Directorship roles include GHL (Gisborne Holdings Limited, Gisborne District Council CCTO). Director of Ngati Porou Forest Limited; Ngati Porou Land Trust and Turanga Ngahere LP. Governance roles include Chairing the Mangaotane Farm Trust; Deputy Chair of Pakarae Incorporation - Whangara Farms Partnership; Deputy Chair Whangara Farms Board; Chairman of the Poverty Bay Rugby Union; Executive of the Poverty Bay A & P Assn; Federation of Maori Authorities Executive Member - Tairawhiti Representative; Pou Herenga Advisory to the Climate Change Commission and Trustee of Eastern and Central Community Trust and Tairawhiti Whenua Charitable Trust. He holds a Bachelor of Education, Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Practice, Post Graduate Diploma in Administration and Leadership and am a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors.

Meredith King (McDonald's)

Meredith King is the Sustainable Sourcing Manager for McDonalds ANZ with a focus on agriculture.

She began her career with Cargill Australia and as it became clear that the impact of global warming was going to be disastrous for agriculture, she turned her focus to sustainable agriculture farming practices.

Merri is excited about the opportunities working with the NZRSB Group presents for the industry in New Zealand, particularly as McDonalds moves towards being carbon neutral by 2030. You may also find Merri hiking one of the many trails across Australia and New Zealand.

Chris Allen (CJ & AM Allen)

Chris is a Mid Canterbury (Ashburton) based sheep and beef farmer

He was a Federated Farmers National Board Member 2014-2022 and 11 years on the National Council. His policy responsibilities included – Water Quality, Biodiversity, Local Government (Environment), National Pest Management and Waste Management.

Arnja Dale (SPCA)

Dr Arnja Dale is the Chief Scientific Officer at SPCA NZ and leads their humane farming certification programme, their animal welfare science team and their national education programme.

Arnja has been on the NZRSB for a year and also sits on NAWAC and several other Committees and Boards. She is dedicated to meaningful, incremental, evidence-based animal welfare improvements.

Nicholas Jolly (Beef + Lamb New Zealand)

Originally from a sheep and beef farm in Central Otago, Nick works for Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the levy body representing New Zealand sheep and beef farmers.

As a Senior Trade Policy Advisor (Environment), Nick works on protecting current market access and unlocking new opportunities for New Zealand’s sheep and beef exports. He is passionate about trade and has recently completed a Master of International Trade at Victoria University of Wellington.

Nick also works on international environmental matters such as climate change and biodiversity and leads Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s engagement with a range of international sheep and beef organisations, including the NZ Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. He is uniquely positioned to link industry activities worldwide and is determined to grow opportunities across the supply chain for sustainable beef in New Zealand.

Jess Blair (Collaborative Management Consultancy)

Jess is the managing director of Collaborative Management Consultancy Ltd, where she provides auditing/consultancy expertise throughout the primary industry. Currently, Jess is working with some great customers in this space, some which have a direct impact on NZ beef production.

Jess grew up spending lots of time with her grandfather on his sheep and beef farm; that’s where her love and passion for farming stemmed from a young age. She then went to study a Bachelor of Agriscience from Massey University; whilst at university, she worked in the racing industry, both here and in Australia. Throughout her working career post university, she’s continued to do further study, whilst working heavily in the auditing space, predominately with dairy, pigs & chickens, leading teams as a project manager. She has also worked in client relationship management roles, specific to animal welfare across multiple species.

Jess’s strength is in her ability to build relationships with people to help generate change, whilst looking on how processes can be streamlined for better use at a practical level. She enjoys being able to contribute to NZRSB in a positive way.

Blake Holgate (Rabobank)

As the Head of Sustainable Business Development, Blake helps the bank’s ensure its clients are in the strongest position themselves to best manage increasing environmental, societal and market risk as well as seizing opportunities created by a scarcity of resources and a growing global population. This includes contributing towards Rabobank policy submissions to government on regulation affecting the sector, producing reports and podcasts for our clients which examine issues linked to sustainable farming and developing new products and services aimed at helping clients businesses be more commercially and environmentally sustainable.

Hailing from a South Otago sheep and beef farming family, Blake has an LLB, BA (Political Studies) and MBA from Otago University and practised as an environmental/public lawyer before joining Rabobank in 2013. As well as covering various sustainability roles with the bank, Blake has also worked in Rabobank’s global market research team as the NZ Animal Proteins analyst.  

Blake is a strong believer in the value that can be created, and provided to all stakeholders through the beef supply chain by working together to achieve shared goals and ambitious – and sees the NZRSB as an ideal channel by which to create the environment for just such a collaborative approach.

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