Growing our future leaders in the primary industries

Posted 5 years 127 days ago ago by

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AGMARDT) would like to announce and congratulate Hiraina Tangiora and Nick Hammond, recipients of the Emerging Primary Industries Leaders Scholarship for 2019.

Hiraina is external relations coordinator for Zespri and Nick is chief operating officer for Spring Sheep Milk Co.

The scholarship will cover the tuition, airfare, and accommodation costs to attend the Te Hono Stanford Bootcamp, a week-long, intensive programme held at Stanford University in California. The Bootcamp brings together primary sector chief executives and leaders committed to innovation and transformation in New Zealand’s primary sector.

The Emerging Primary Industries Leaders Scholarship is now in its third year, and supported by MPI, AGMARDT, and Te Hono.

This year the Te Hono Stanford Bootcamp participants had the opportunity to nominate young emerging leaders within their own organisations to accompany them. Criteria included strong leadership skills, a passion for creating value for New Zealand’s primary sector, and they had to be early in their careers.

The selection panel comprised of MPI and AGMARDT staff, who were impressed with the calibre of the applications.

Fiona Duncan, director food, skills & science policy at MPI says "The applications we received were very high quality, which made selecting the scholarship winners tough. It was great to see how many great young emerging leaders we have in the sector."

Richard Green, AGMARDT Trustee, says “Both Hiraina and Nick are passionate about making a positive difference in the primary industries. This is a unique opportunity for them and the wider industry to harness that passion to help shape the future direction of New Zealand’s primary industries.”

Following the Te Hono Stanford Bootcamp, both Hiraina and Nick will continue to be mentored and supported by their nominators to find opportunities to apply the knowledge they learn at the bootcamp.

Find out more about Te Hono

Biographies

Hiraina Tangiora, External Relations Coordinator at Zespri

Hiraina is currently completing her Masters of Business Studies at Massey University. Hiraina began her career at Zespri through the graduate programme in 2016. She was the President of Lincoln University’s Māori Students Association and is a selected ‘Culture Champion’ who helps shape and implement Zespri’s agenda for company culture change. Currently Hiraina is a member of the Future Leader Committee, the ExportNZ BOP Executive Committee and the Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower Upskilling Committee.

Nick Hammond, Chief Operating Officer at Spring Sheep Milk Co.

Nick is a chartered accountant and has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Law. Nick has held a range of leadership roles in the finance, business and not for profit sectors. In his current role he oversees all of Spring Sheep’s New Zealand operations and the leadership of ‘Sheep – Horizon 3’, an innovation programme with the Ministry for Primary Industries aimed at building a high value and sustainable New Zealand sheep dairy industry. Nick is a member of a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s governance board focused on boosting exports of sheep milk-based products, speaks at multiple New Zealand and international conferences and regularly contributes to media stories about the sheep milking industry.