News
22 years of outstanding leadership
Date: August 1, 2022
After 22 years of outstanding leadership, Murray Pedley is stepping down as CEO at QCONZ. Chris Leach, our former Director for People and Training has stepped into the role as CEO, with Josh Wheeler, Director for Farms and IT, taking up a new position as COO. We will not be losing Murray’s expertise and passion as he has accepted a new position within the company as GM for New Business.
The QCONZ team are excited to build on Murray’s foundation of service excellence, and to deliver our refreshed strategy; growing QCONZ both in scale and scope; reducing our carbon footprint and providing increased support for the communities we work in across New Zealand.
Other news
In late October Chris Leach led an MPI dairy development training programme for farmers and extension officers in Pak Chong, Thailand. Pak Chong is the central region of Thailand, approximately a 2 ½ hour drive north of Bangkok, and is at the centre of the developing Thai Dairy Industry.
We were thrilled to be a major sponsor of the New Zealand Association of Resource Management (NZARM) conference held in Christchurch in October.
We flew the QCONZ flag again this year at the annual Red Meat Sector Conference, jointly hosted by the Meat Industry Association and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd.
As of 1 October, the QCONZ team will be delivering audits for the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP). We have been working hard behind the scenes to get systems and processes in place, and from August farmers can expect to start hearing from us regarding audit bookings.
QCONZ proudly sponsored the Milk Quality Conference in Hamilton on the 4th and 5th July. Attended by 125, this was a great opportunity for engagement and collaboration between industry and service providers in the Dairy sector.
In June, the QCONZ team gathered in Hamilton for our biennial staff conference. We had a great time bringing our team together from all corners of New Zealand to celebrate, connect, and have fun! Day one of the conference kicked off with a business update and group sessions where each business unit shared recent work
QCONZ was proud to be a sponsor of the recent Central Plateau and BOP Dairy Industry Awards, where we celebrated the successes of local farmers and connected with future industry leaders.
The Team at QCONZ is very proud, and excited, to announce that we’ve been chosen by New Zealand Farm Assurance Incorporated (NZFAI) and their Members to deliver audits and associated services for their programmes from 1 October 2023.
QCONZ has joined forces with DairyNZ to help deliver their ‘on-farm survey of workforce productivity.’ Our team will visit approximately 150 farms nationwide conducting a 60–90-minute survey with farm owners and managers by March 2023.
A big thumbs up to the organisers of the 2022 ITENZ conference which provided a great networking and learning opportunity for Tertiary Providers. This conference themes of courage, collaboration, capability, and creativity reflected the changing times and the new opportunities for the education sector.