Park Board
Andrew West | Bill Gallagher |
| Michael Spaans |
Michael Spaans - Chairman
Michael Spaans is a dairy farmer from Te Aroha milking 500 cows. He also has interests in dairy farms in the South Island NZ, Chile and the USA.
IWL Governance roles include:
Tustee - Katolyst
Director - Dairy SolutioNZ (NZ) Ltd
Director - Beef SolutioNZ (NZ) Ltd
Michael also acts as a Director on a number of other companies in New Zealand's Agricultural sector. He was on the Fonterra Shareholders' Council since formation in 2001 until 2008 and was part of Fonterra's Governance Development Programme
Andrew West
Dr Andrew West is Head of Strategy for Seales Ltd and was previously Chief Executive of AgResearch, New Zealand’s principal research organisation supporting the country’s dairy, meat and wool industries.
Prior to this he was Executive Chairman of the Tertiary Education Commission, the New Zealand Government’s funding & regulatory agent for every aspect of post-school education. In that role he oversaw the Commission’s establishment and its introduction of a radically new system for investing in university research, the Performance-Based Research Fund. Dr West has also been Chief Executive of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the agency that sets educational standards and assesses all secondary school students’ academic performance, and Chief Executive of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Ltd, New Zealand’s principal research organisation in earth and planetary sciences.
In the 1990s Dr West led much of the New Zealand Government’s science reforms, designing and then overseeing the creation of both its Ministry and its Foundation for Science, and also its Crown Research Institutes. Dr West has a PhD in ecology and was for many years a research scientist, having published a range of scientific papers. Dr West has commercial interests in ICT and genetics companies.
Bill Gallagher
Bill Gallagher is a natural leader, whose communication skills and business influence are nationally and internationally recognised. He is a motivator and empowerer of people and represents his Company and its philosophies throughout the world. He travels the world on a regular basis – holding seminars, training sessions and fieldays on many topics which include the containment of animals and security of property and people, agri-business, tariff removals and export issues. He has a firm disdain of what he calls “control techniques” of hierarchical management and favours the coach approach.
His major skill is the ability to communicate across language and social barriers and his emphasis is on ethics and integrity in his professional and personal dealings. Bill has created a work environment that encourages personal empowerment and independent thinking. A true entrepreneur, he has a sense of urgency and “controlled risk taking” which is supported and managed by the positive team he works with.
He was awarded the MBE in 1987, the Queen’s Medal (Commonwealth) in 1990. He was also the 1996 winner of the prestigious Excellence in Communication Leadership award, the first time since its beginning in 1961 that the award had gone outside North America. In 1998 Bill was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in The Queen’s New Year Honours List, 2002 he was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and an Honorary Fellow of Waikato Institute of Technology. In 2003 he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and 2004 was inducted into the National Business Review Business Hall of Fame.
