Sustainability Advisory Panel

(Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Rārua)

Rachel is a prominent business leader and a strong advocate for the Māori economy and sustainability in the food and beverage sector.

Her commitment to kaitiakitanga has been evident throughout her career, from founder of sustainable seafood company Yellow Brick Road, to her time as chief executive officer of Māori-owned food and beverage company Kono, and now in her current role as co-founder of business design and brand strategy firm Oho.

Rachel presently chairs Moana NZ and the Wellington Regional Stadium Trust (Sky Stadium). She is a director for Sealord, ANZCO Foods, and The Warehouse Group where she chairs the Environmental, Social Sustainability Committee.  She is a member of the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council (ABAC), chaired the Council through Aotearoa, New Zealand’s 2021 year of hosting APEC, and this year will lead the Regional Economic Integration Working Group.

Rachel is invested in equity and opportunities for women through sport, and is co-owner of professional women’s basketball team the Tokomanawa Queens, and chair of the Queens Foundation.

Together with his wife Pauline, Adrian manages Dennley Farms Ltd, a 196-hectare fully integrated dairy and dairy beef finishing farm in Tirau.

In recognition of their commitment to environmental stewardship, Adrian and Pauline received the prestigious 2019 Gordon Stephenson Trophy at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards. They were also named the 2019 National Ambassadors for sustainable farming and growing, following their previous success as Farm Business Award winners at the Fonterra Westpac Dairy Excellence Awards.

Adrian holds a Certificate of Specialization in Strategy, with a focus on Sustainable Business Strategy from Harvard Business School. Additionally, he has completed programs in Change Management from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Governance Development from Fonterra and has undertaken an Advanced Directors course at the Institute of Directors NZ.

Adrian also serves as the Chairman of Rahinga Dairies in Dacre, Southland, and is an appointed Director of Silver Fern Farms Co-op.

Lou Sanson’s 40-year career has had a strong environmental focus with extensive leadership experience in the natural resources sector. Trained as an Environmental Forester he has achieved a distinguished career leading and transforming two of New Zealand’s most iconic organisations, Antarctica New Zealand, and the Department of Conservation.

Lou’s work with philanthropy and commercial partners (Air NZ, Fonterra, Meridian, Genesis, Fulton Hogan) has achieved win-win ESG Leadership outcomes for Aotearoa New Zealand and commercial entities where our natural resources sit at the heart of our economy. He has comprehensive experience in integration of environmental and social impacts into business. Lou brings with him an extensive track record in environmental and tourism sectoral leadership.

Lou has a Bachelor of Forestry Science (Hons) and was top graduate at University of Canterbury. He has completed a number of executive development programmes at Harvard University, Stanford University, Australia – New Zealand School of Government and New Zealand Institute of Strategic Leadership. In the 2015 New Years’ Honours list he was awarded the New Zealand Antarctic Polar Medal (APM) for services to Antarctic science and diplomacy.

David is a professor at Stanford University, where his research group focuses on generating and using unique datasets to study rural areas throughout the world.

His early research focused on climate change risks and adaptations in cropping systems, and he served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report as lead author for the food chapter and core writing team member for the Summary for Policymakers. Current interests include developing low-cost ways to measure progress on sustainable development goals and evaluating the impacts of practices and technologies being promoted as effective for climate mitigation and adaptation.

David’s work has been recognized with various awards, including the Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (2010), a Macarthur Fellowship (2013), the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences (2022) and election to the National Academy of Sciences (2023). He holds a PhD in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University and a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University.

Tina Porou, of Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Kahungunu, and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri descent, is a prominent Māori environmental planner and advocate for the well-being of te Taiao and the rangatiratanga of hapū and iwi. She founded Poipoia, a kaupapa Māori company dedicated to providing environmental services to iwi, hapū, and both the public and private sectors.

With over two decades of experience in natural resource management, Tina has been a staunch protector of freshwater, working in the policy space for hapū and Māori economic authorities to ensure that sustainable economic development does not override environmental and cultural well-being. She currently holds governance positions on the Lake Taupo Forest Trust, Ngāti Porou Forests, Pahi i Taua Incorporation, and demonstrates her values through these roles. She is a strong supporter of the hierarchy of obligations in Te Mana o te Wai and seeks to embed these values in any organisation she works with.

In recognition of her services to Māori and the environment, Tina was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016 and received the Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award in 2015 and was a semi-finalists for the Environmental New Zealander of the year in 2023.

Patricia Stroup is an executive with extensive international experience in upstream supply chains, with specific expertise in the intersection of cost, sustainability and supply risk management as well as a unique background in food and agriculture.

Recognized as a dynamic and charismatic leader, Patricia is currently pursuing her doctorate in Organizational Leadership at the University of San Diego in the United States where she is also a lecturer. In addition, she works as an executive advisor focused on agriculture and food entities and their leadership teams. Prior to her current endeavors, she was Chief Procurement Officer and Senior Vice-President of Nestlé SA, the world’s largest food and beverage company, and was also Chief Executive Officer of Nestrade, Nestlé’s global commodity trading and procurement entity.

Patricia has a long history in business and food production, stemming from her early career running her own Jersey dairy farm in the United States. She later worked in government relations, sustainability, communications, business development, and supply chain for dairy cooperatives and manufacturing companies before moving into an international business career nearly 20 years ago with Nestlé, living and working in North America, Asia and Europe. In addition to her business experience, Patricia holds a Bachelors degree in Communications with a cognate in Dairy Science from Virginia Tech as well as an MBA in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University.