Agritech Connect Tour Online

Simon is Callaghan Innovation's Group Manager AgriFood and leads the commercialisation workstream for the Agritech IndustryTransformation Plan (ITP). His teams work with AgriFood and agricultural innovators, from startups to established corporates; along with industry stakeholders, growers, and farmers.

Andrew is consulting to Callaghan Innovation, currently leading a project focused on private sector commercialisation for Agritech businesses. Andrew has extensive stakeholder and customer engagement experience, particularly around delivering customer-centred value-add solutions. He has worked with a number of commercial healthcare organisations in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Brendan is Chief Executive of AgriTech New Zealand, which is an independent membership organisation connecting innovators, investors, regulators, researchers and practitioners. He has been involved in technical, commercial and leadership aspects of product innovation at a senior executive level for several international businesses. He has worked in several industries including bio-medical, telecoms, marine/consumer electronics and agritech. He has led product development teams in NZ, Australia, the UK, Europe and the US. He likes to open doors, connect businesses with the right people, and provide them with context and insights to identify opportunities they might not have considered themselves. Over the last 15 years of work in the agritech sector, Brendan has developed a strong affinity with the primary sector: its people and its purpose. He is particularly interested in the role of technology in protecting, unlocking and amplifying value from primary produce.

Tim is passionate about the fusion of Agri and tech, having lead the development of new and disruptive products and services for some of New Zealand’s largest corporations across viticulture, horticulture, dairy and dry stock. Tim is currently involved in businesses focused on a rural IoT network, digital crop estimation and biotech, as well as manging some of the AgriTechNZ projects.

Kenneth Irons, in a pro bono capacity, is chairman of AgriTechNZ, the MBIE-appointed New Zealand representative on the ISO Strategic Action Group on Smart Farming, and a board member of the Data-Driven Agrifoods Futures Alliance in Western Europe. He also chairs AgriTechNZ’s Industry Reference Group on Data Standards and Interoperability. Before AgriTechNZ was formed and subsequently merged with the Precision Ag Association of New Zealand (PAANZ) he was a board member there, where he focused on data standards since 2016. In his commercial capacity, he was until recently full-time Managing Director of Precision Technology Group Ltd, incorporating Precision Farming Ltd that provides a farm management information system to farmers, and Precision Tracking Ltd that provides a job and ag data management platform to agricultural contractors. So he can allocate more time to industry matters and other interests, he is now, along with his son Ben and Sir Bill English, a shareholder and on the board as an executive director.

Michelle is currently the Agritech Industry Transformation International Partnerships Lead, part of the all-of government taskforce. Based in Singapore, she spearheads initiatives to scale meaningful connections between international and NZ organisations. She also raises the profile of NZ capabilities on the global stage, through various opportunities and innovation ecosystems. Prior to this ITP role, she led NZTE’s global MNC (multinational corporations) partnerships pilot to explore alternative growth models for NZ companies from 2019 to 2021. At the moment she is also actively supporting TiE Singapore, a tech industry body that enables growth of innovative startups. Michelle’s background is in stakeholder engagement, marcoms and behaviour-change interventions. She has more than one and a half decade of experience in global MNCs, with government agencies and not-for-profit organisations.

Nicky has been involved in launching two new businesses into new global markets, and understands how hard it is to scale businesses and technologies both in New Zealand and around the world, amongst day-to-day demands. Her global experience has taken her around the world working on trade, supply partnerships, and sales deals, understanding the complexity of importing and regulatory hurdles, and with established R&D partnerships with large multinationals in markets across Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North America. Her goal in working in the agritech sector at Callaghan Innovation is to leverage her knowledge and networks, and help New Zealand companies to commercialise and scale globally. Her goal in working in the agritech sector at Callaghan Innovation is to leverage her knowledge and networks, and help New Zealand companies to commercialise and scale globally. What she values most is building trusted relationships with business and the people she works amongst. Nicky has a passion to grow a globally-recognised agritech sector for New Zealand that is solving real problems for the world, while delivering more high value jobs for New Zealand.

Shane works as a Business Innovation Advisor specialising in Agritech with Callaghan Innovation. He has worked extensively in tech product development for export throughout his career. He specialises in agritech, export, commercialisation, product management and global product launches. He has worked as an electronic and embedded systems development engineer before becoming a Product Manager and R&D Manager. He has experience in industries including agritech, GPS, data storage and semiconductors in NZ and Europe. Shane is passionate about helping New Zealand agritech companies succeed and grow.

From my earliest days of helping on the family farm to founding a technology business focused on enabling financial and environmental sustainability for farmers, I am passionate about making a difference in the agricultural sector. Now I can take this further, working with global agritech business CropX and bringing focus on the role of women in the sector, through Fields of Change. The broad experience I have gained over my career enables me to bring together knowledge and expertise from business, technology, science and social science to develop solutions today for tomorrow's challenges.