Department of Management and Marketing

Session Chair – Rod Oram

Rod Oram is an adjunct professor at Unitec and has had more than 30 years’ experience as an international financial journalist. He has worked for various publications in Europe and North America, including the Financial Times of London. Rod and his family emigrated from the UK to New Zealand in 1997. He is currently a columnist for the Sunday Star-Times and Good Magazine; a regular broadcaster on radio and television; and a frequent public speaker. And Penguin published in 2007 his book on the New Zealand economy, Reinventing Paradise. Rod was recently named as the Landcorp Agricultural Communicator of the Year, 2009.

The 2025 Challenge October 8^th Session

Hon David Caygill:

Hon David Caygill is a former Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament (MP). He graduated B.A., LL.B (Hons) from the University of Canterbury. He served three terms on the Christchurch City Council and as an MP for 18 years. During the Lange and Palmer governments he was Minister of Trade and Industry (1984-88), Minister of Health (1987-88), and Minister of Finance (1989-90). Following his retirement from politics he returned to his former profession as a lawyer, becoming a partner in Buddle Findlay, specialising in public law. In December 2003, David was appointed Deputy Chair of the Commerce Commission.

His governance experience includes chairing the Grid Security Committee, the Electricity Governance Establishment Group, and the ACC. In 2000 he chaired the Ministerial Inquiry into the Electricity Industry. He also chairs the Education New Zealand Trust and the Advisory Committee on Official Statistics. As Chair of the Electricity Commission, David has also been appointed as an Associate Member of the Commerce Commission, and a Board Member of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. David lives in Christchurch.

Rick Boven

Rick leads the New Zealand Institute. He has been a strategic management consultant for the past 25 years and was the founding partner of the Boston Consulting Group in New Zealand. In recent years Rick has been a professional director as well as a consultant and his directorships include ASB Bank, Wellington Drive Technologies (chair) and Go Virtual Medical Limited. Rick has worked with leading companies in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A in a wide range of industries including Financial Services, Industrial Distribution, Energy, Telecommunications and On-Line, Transport, Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Information Technology. He has a Ph.D. in Environment Management from the University of Auckland, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Australian Graduate School of Management, as well as a Master of Arts (Psychology) degree from Victoria University of Wellington. Rick was an Honorary Fellow at Victoria University Graduate School of Management in Wellington for two years, and has publications in Social Welfare, the Sociology of Education, Strategic Management, Business Ethics and Mathematical Psychology. He is an accredited member of the Institute of Directors and of the Sustainable Energy Forum.

The Dairy Sector’s Strategic Response Oct 15^th Session

Tim Mackle

Dr Mackle was appointed CEO of DairyNZ in November 2007, and had been CEO of Dexcel since August 2005. Previously, he was general manager of Anchor Ethanol.

Coming from a farming family in the South Island, Dr Mackle has a PhD in animal, food and nutritional sciences from Cornell University, New York, and spent several years as a milk characteristics and nutrition scientist at the Dairying Research Corporation in Hamilton.

He moved to a position with the New Zealand Dairy Board as commercial strategist before taking up corporate and then general management/sales roles within Fonterra. Dr Mackle is directly responsible for the combined functions of investment and delivery within DairyNZ.

More background on Dairy New Zealand on their website.

Dr John Penno
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Synlait – which is a Canterbury milk production company, producing more than 70 million litres of milk a year.

• Agricultural science degree and PhD in animal science
• Consulting Officer for Dairy Board
• Research scientist and science program leader at Dairying Research Corporation (Dexcel)
• General Manager Dexcel Extension
• Founding partner of Synlait Group of companies

John is a founding shareholder of Synlait Ltd and has been directly responsible for leading strategy development, business development and financial management.

John has extensive experience and is highly respected in the dairy industry and agribusiness.  He is the past Director of Dairy Insight, current Chairman of the Dairying and Environment Leadership Group and is an executive member of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand.  John’s involvement in the local business community sees him active with irrigation plans for the development of sustainable farming operations in Canterbury.

John is a sought after international speaker and recognised author of over 80 research publications.

In May 2009 John received an emerging leaders award from the Sir Peter Blake Trust and was the inaugural winner of the Federated Farmers Agribusiness Person of the Year Award in July 2009.

More on Synlait

The Tourism Sector’s Strategic Response Oct ^22nd Session

George Hickton

George was appointed Chief Executive of Tourism New Zealand in March 1999.