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Mike Smith and his dog Molly on the avocado orchard at Te Puna
Calibre of new leaders assures industry’s future Horticulture New Zealand’s future is in good hands thanks to talented young people taking up leadership roles, says retiring Horticulture New Zealand board director Mike Smith. By Elaine Fisher “The calibre of people coming through the HortNZ Future Directors programme and the HortNZ Leadership Training programme is very heartening,” says Mike who has stepped down after six years as a director. “Succession planning is so important and bringing in people as associate directors or through the Future Directors programme is very valuable as it gives prospective directors a taste of what HortNZ is all about. “As an example, new directors Kate Trufitt and Brydon Nisbet have been elected after being future directors, and recently Jamie Mountier has been appointed a future director to the board.” Mike can take some of the credit for encouraging new blood in leadership roles. Before being elected to the 28
The ORCHARDIST : AUGUST 2021
board he was invited to be part of a working group to review the structure and constitution of HortNZ, including the length of time members could stay on its board. “The outcome was that a director could not serve more than three terms of three years each without standing down. That has worked well in bringing in new directors, and helped to open up opportunities for more diversity on the board by encouraging people to stand for an empty seat rather than against an incumbent.” Under those rules Mike could have stood for another term. Instead, he decided it was time to retire, and the calibre of those coming through was part of the reason. Putting himself forward for election to the board in 2015 was part of Mike’s philosophy of giving back.
