(L to R) Brent Mealings (Chief Financial Officer), Roz Urbahn (Chief People Officer), David Chin (Chief Executive), Mark Julian (GM Operations & Service), Emma Blott (GM Commercial), Richard Spelman (Chief Scientist), Dhaya Sivakumar (Chief Information Officer)
David joined LIC in 2006 and has held several leadership roles over that time including GM Operations and Service and Chief Transformation Officer. David is a passionate advocate for herd improvement and the New Zealand dairy industry.
Education
Leadership and management courses at Stanford University, Melbourne University’s Mt Eliza Business School and NZ Institute of Directors.
Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Hons), University of Otago.
Bachelor of Arts (First Class Hons), University of Otago.
About David
Before arriving at LIC, David was Brand and Communications Manager at Kiwibank and Deputy Director/Business Manager at City Gallery Wellington. He’s also worked in various marketing and consulting roles at New Zealand Post.
Brent is responsible for our business performance, finance, risk management, secretariat, legal, transformation office and strategic procurement teams.
Education
Master of Business Administration (University of Canterbury)
Diploma of Business Studies – Accounting (Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology)
Chartered Accountant New Zealand & Australia
About Brent
Brent joined LIC in August 2023 coming from Metro Performance Glass where he had been CFO since 2020. Prior to this, Brent had a 17-year career at Fonterra Co-operative Group where he held a number of senior finance leadership positions. Brent has also held roles with KPMG (BearingPoint) and experience in FMCG and mining sectors. His commercial experience includes strategy and execution, customer, automation technology, treasury, capital markets and operations.
Dhaya is responsible for the technology function at LIC including technology architecture, strategy, software development and operations.
Education
Bachelor of Business Studies, Massey University.
About Dhaya
Dhaya joined LIC in December 2022. Prior to this, Dhaya held a number of CIO/COO positions in a variety of different business environments including AMP Financial Services, Paymark and 2degrees Mobile.
Dhaya has significant experience in high growth start-up businesses and large corporate technology and operations transformations. Dhaya is a passionate techo at heart and strives to build a strong software culture at LIC to support our farmers’ digital future.
Emma is responsible for the Commercial Group which includes LIC’s active investment and divestment portfolio, the commercialisation of new ventures as well as the identification and execution of new partnership and collaboration opportunities and running LIC’s growing international business.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Biochemistry from University of Oxford
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Biochemistry from University of York
Post-Graduate qualifications in Finance from University of Auckland
About Emma
Emma came to LIC in July 2020 and held the position of Strategy and New Business Consultant. Prior to this, Emma held various senior management roles with Fonterra over 14 years, with experience across strategy, business development, marketing, innovation, change management, R&D and commercial disciplines. Emma’s more recent roles included Group GM Mergers & Acquisitions, GM On-farm Science & Technology, Innovation & Technical Director and Director of Complementary Nutrition. Prior to Fonterra, Emma worked in investment banking and medical research in the UK.
Mark is responsible for our farms and the delivery of essential herd improvement services to farmers including artificial breeding, herd testing, diagnostics, animal health tests and our FarmWise consultancy.
Education
Post Graduate Certificate in Science (Massey University)
Bachelor of Applied Science in Agriculture (Massey University)
Strategy and Organization at Stanford University
About Mark
Mark joined LIC in September 2022. Prior to his appointment Mark was the GM Dairy Operations with Pāmu, a role he held since 2014. From 2010 – 2014, Mark held the roles of Business Analyst, Farm Business Manager and Senior Business Manager at Pāmu. Mark has also worked for DairyNZ and Manuka (Chile).
Richard leads our research and development team and is responsible for the direction and scope of our R&D programmes to ensure we continue to add more value to our farmers and the dairy industry.
Education
PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Masters of Agricultural Science (Hons), Massey University.
Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons), Massey University.
About Richard
Richard joined us in 1991 as a livestock selection analyst before undertaking further study. He returned in 1998 after completing his studies at Massey and Wageningen Universities.
In 2015, Richard won a Prime Minister’s Business Scholarship. He used this to attend the prestigious THNK School of Creative Leadership in Vancouver.
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Roz leads our People and Performance Group which builds and sustains a high performing and engaged workforce.
Roz also currently leads our NZ Markets team in an acting capacity whilst we recruit a new GM. NZ Markets covers the Customer Experience Centre, Territory Sales, Marketing and Communication, National Accounts, Customer Training and Reproduction Solutions. The team also works closely with our farmer shareholders.
Education
Diploma for Graduates in Marketing, University of Otago.
Bachelor of Arts in English, University of Otago.
Accredited Professional Member of HRINZ.
About Roz
Prior to Roz joining us in August 2017, she worked at Fletcher Building for two years in a variety of senior human resource leadership roles. She has held human resource positions at blue chip organisations such as Vodafone, Foxtel, Frucor Beverages, Hudson Global Resources, and Lion.
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Geoff manages a team of 170 staff spanning product management for the diagnostics, software and genetics portfolios, account/territory management, national accounts, customer experience/services, communications, brand, sales capability development and sales operations.
Education
Master of Science (Hons) in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Canterbury.
About Geoff
Geoff joined the LIC team as GM NZ Markets on the 30th of September 2024 in his third tenure with the Company. Geoff returned to LIC after having spent three years as Research Director at Ruminant Biotech, and prior to that, New Market Development Manager at Analytica.
Prior to departing LIC in 2020 Geoff gained a wealth of experience across the LIC business serving as Diagnostics Manager from 2007 to 2014, after which he headed up the Biological Systems business unit as General Manager for three years, then moving into the Chief Executive Officer role for our Automation business for a further three years. Geoff originally joined LIC in 2001 as Technical and Laboratory Operations Manager followed by a period as Senior Product Development Manager at Zygem. Geoff’s early career focussed on research, laboratory and sales mandates.
