Dr Gordon Wardell Ph.D.
Dr. Gordon Wardell, is the Director of Pollination Operations for Wonderful Orchards (largest almond pollinator in the USA) and President of the South Valley Bee Club of California. Gordon has been a professional apiculturist for over 30 years, working with bees on three continents. Previously he was the extension apiculturist for the State of Maryland and he owns and directs S.A.F.E. Research and Development, a company dedicated to developing products for the bee industry. Gordon’s accomplishments include MegaBee, years of research in the area of mite control, honey bee health, fire ant monitoring, small hive beetle, Africanized Honey Bees, commercial pollination and many other topics. In addition, he has authored numerous scientific publications on honey bees.
Dr Medhat Nasr Ph.D.
Dr. Medhat Nasr, is the Alberta Provincial Apiculturist in the Crop Research and Extension Division, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His responsibilities include regulatory, research, and extension. His research program is focused on honey bee health management including breeding, pest surveillance, biosecurity and integrated pest management. He earned his doctoral degree at University of California, Davis, California, University of Guelph, Lead of Ontario Beekeepers –Tech Transfer Program, and Assistant Extension Professor at Rutgers University, NJ, USA.
Dr Peter Brooks Ph.D.
Dr Peter Brooks was awarded his PhD in Chemistry from the University of New South Wales in 1989. He then taught in the Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Adelaide for two years. From 1991 to 2000, Dr Brooks lectured chemistry at La Trobe University, Bendigo. He has been with the University of the Sunshine Coast since 2001 and lectures in analytical and organic chemistries. Dr Brooks has extensive research experience in analytical, environmental and organic chemistry. He has held research positions, supervised Honours and PhD candidates and attracted grants on projects involving chemotaxonomic studies, environmental monitoring and bio-actives in honey.
Dr Karyne Rogers
Dr Karyne Rogers is a research scientist at GNS Science in Lower Hutt. She specialises in honey authenticity testing, particularly for C4 sugars of export manuka honey, and characterising monofloral honey using various chemical and physical techniques. Karyne has been active in the industry for more than 10 years, and has authored numerous papers on New Zealand honey and problems associated with manuka honey testing. She currently works with industry and overseas research agencies using novel authentication techniques such as NMR and stable isotopes.
Dr Linda Newstrom-Lloyd, Trees for Beez NZ
Dr. Linda Newstrom-Lloyd is a specialist in pollination ecology and flower biology conducting research on bee health and nutrition since 2009. She works for the Trees for Bees NZ programme funded by the MPI-Sustainable Farming Fund 2010 to 2016. The research aims to discover multi-purpose bee plants with plentiful protein-rich pollen. Since 2011, farmers, beekeepers and the Trees for Bees NZ Team (Angus MacPherson and Marco Gonzalez) have planted over 15,000 plants on 15 demonstration farms to test bee feed plantations to support pollination services and honey harvesting including mānuka. Plant lists and planting guides are regularly updated on www.treesforbeesnz.org. Linda is co-chair of the Oceania Pollinator Initiative and contributes to allied projects to conserve and protect bees: The NZ Colony Loss Survey with Pike Brown, the Naati Beez Sustainable Maori Beekeeping Initiative with Wiremu Kaa, Ian Raine and XunLi, and the Landcare Research Floral Resource Spatial Modelling with Anne-Gaelle Ausseil.
Suzanne has worked at the Ministry for Primary Industries for 10 years and is leading MPI’s Manuka Honey Science Programme. Her responsibilities include the provision of specialist technical advice in the area of diagnostics for both biosecurity and food related matters including research projects. She obtained her PhD in environmental molecular microbiology in 2003 from RMIT University, Australia. Since then, she has worked in academic and government positions in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Suzanne has expertise in the development and validation of laboratory tests that can be applied across numerous sectors including animal, human, plant and environmental health as well as food safety and authenticity.
Dr John McLean Ph.D.
Dr John McLean is Professor Emeritus from the University of British Columbia Department of Forest Sciences where he was the Forest Entomologist. After retiring to New Zealand he has worked for the last 6 years with Barry Foster in Gisborne where they have evaluated various aspects of honey bee health and nutrition. Current interests include the applications of honeybee pheromones especially those associated with lipids within the hive. Current studies have included assessing the impact of the giant willow aphid on the autumn production of willow honeydew honey.
Seo Hyun (Sally) Kim
Sally Kim is a PhD candidate at the University of Otago. She first started working with bees during her research year as an MSc student in 2014. Her main interests are Varroa sensitive hygiene behaviour as well as deformed wing virus and the effects that this virus has on olfactory processing in the honeybee.
Michelle Taylor, PFR
Michelle Taylor is a honey bee scientist at Plant & Food Research who conducts research in many bee related areas, including pollination. Her primary interest is honey bee health, from which she is currently conducting PhD research on the impact of gut bacteria on honey bee well-being. Michelle has played a primary role researching varroa control methods using synthetic, organic and bee breeding programmes, leading to the development of an education programme for industry to control varroa without significant colony loss; thereby limiting the expected disruption to both the beekeeping industry and those reliant on bees for pollination. To assist the New Zealand Government with the South Island varroa incursion, she played a significant role in the development of a Technical Response Plan, an Operational Plan to eradicate varroa from the Nelson Region, and a plan for the pollination of crops affected by the varroa response. Michelle is passionate about her research and enjoys disseminating practical ways for industry to utilise the results.
Dr Kieren Arthur, PFR
Dr Kieren Arthur is a Māori Business Support Associate at Plant & Food Research. Kieren uses her science background to help translate research into commercial opportunities for Māori. Her role involves connecting Māori entities with science expertise to help unlock new partnerships designed to grow Māori businesses in the horticulture, wine, seafood and food industries, including honey. Kieren particularly enjoys fostering relationships that increase the understanding of science by Māori and understanding of Māori by Plant & Food Research.
Dr David Pattemore, PFR
Dr David Pattemore leads the Pollination & Apiculture team at Plant & Food Research. The team’s research covers a broad spectrum, including apiculture, honey bee behaviour, bumble bees, native bee and fly pollinators, and floral biology. David’s research interests are in optimising crop pollination, the interaction between pollinator behaviour and floral biology, the use of bumble bees for pollination and novel methods for studying insect behaviour. He leads an MBIE-funded programme to develop alternative strategies for crop pollination, and Plant & Food Research’s honey and hive sector programme, which addresses priority research issues in apiculture and honey production.
Dr Claire Hall, PFR
Dr Claire Hall is a Business Development Manager at Plant & Food Research, with a focus on developing new relationships and the development and commercialisation of new technologies. Claire has a strong interest in the needs of the hive and honey industry, as well as other pollination-dependent industries. As Plant & Food Research’s Sector Champion for hive and pollination research and development, Claire works closely with scientists and industry to map out the priority research questions and determine where Plant & Food Research can best add value. Her role ensures research is fit-for-purpose and delivers to industry needs.
Dr Mark Goodwin, PFR
Dr Mark Goodwin is a honey bee and pollination scientist at Plant & Food Research. His research interests include honey bee behaviour, pathology, and biosecurity, as well as insect and artificial pollination for a range of crops. His current research projects include the effect of cages built over kiwifruit crops on honey bee health, pollination of new kiwifruit cultivars, characterising Mānuka honey, the ongoing collapse of colonies in the North Island, and the control of varroa. Mark is the author of the books Control of Varroa (co-authored with Michelle Taylor), Elimination of American Foulbrood Disease without the use of Drugs, Kiwifruit Pollination Manual, Pollination of Crops in Australia and New Zealand, and a New Zealand History of Toxic Honey.
Dr Pike Brown
Dr. Pike Brown is Senior Economist and Capability Leader of the Economics and Land Use Modelling group at Landcare Research. He is an expert in innovative survey design, enumeration, and inferential analysis using econometric methods. He has developed and directed dozens of large-scale surveys, including the Survey of Rural Decision Makers and the New Zealand Colony Loss and Survival (NZ COLOSS) survey. Pike has published more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Brice Horner, BSc
Brice is an Apiculture tutor currently based in Mosgiel. He started running Bee courses about ten years ago as an adjunct to his commercial operation. He is currently running courses in Otago and Southland. In addition to his tutoring work, Brice has been actively involved for a number of years, in the development of training, for the American Foulbrood Management Agency. He regularly travels throughout New Zealand as part of the Agency’s Training Team, to organise or deliver training. Brice was part of the team that recently updated the AFB training package to its new format. He is perhaps best known however, for the “AFB App”, which he developed in response to a request from the Agency, to improve Beekeeper AFB recognition skills.
Phil Lester is a professor of entomology and ecology at Victoria University of Wellington. He works on the population dynamics and ecology of social insects. Invasive ants and social wasps in the Pacific region are a particular focus, as well as the role of pathogens in social insect population dynamics.
Lou Gallagher is a senior advisor with the Animal Imports group, currently on secondment to the Animal and Marine Biosecurity Response Group. Lou is also a lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of Otago, School of Medicine. She is a part-time beekeeper and keen cyclist. Her work experience is in epidemiology, risk assessment, toxicology and bioremediation in the USA, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand.
Barry Foster is a member of the executive of Apiculture New Zealand plus Chairman of the Apiculture New Zealand Research Focus Group and the Technical Focus Group which is involved with pesticides and their affects on honeybees. Barry is immediate past President of the National Beekeepers Association now Apiculture New Zealand. He has some forty years experience as a commercial beekeeper plus eleven years on the NBA executive and nine years one the board of the AFB Pest Management Plan. His passion is to see the Apiculture Industry develop a sustainable and well funding research program for industry good research. His interests also combine with those of Dr John McLean on honeybee pheromones, and nutrition. Barry is chairman of the research group involved with combatting the Giant Willow Aphid.
Professor Peter Dearden (University of Otago) has worked on insects his whole career, and on bees for the last 12 years. His interest lies in the biology, development and genetics of bees. He is the Director of Genetics Otago and a director of Betta Bees Research.
Dr Anne-Gaelle Ausseil
Dr Anne-Gaelle Ausseil is a research scientist at Landcare Research in Palmerston North. Her research interest is in using spatial information and remote sensing to aid environmental decision-making. Her research projects include mapping of ecosystem services, erosion modelling, assessing climate change impacts and implications, and more recently, developing a spatial framework to represent variability of nectar and pollen flows. This framework has been used to derive the landscape-scale capacity to support bee hives throughout the year in a case study area.
Ricki is a commercial beekeeper, having kept bees for over forty years and now successfully produces a variety of honeys in the Buller region of the South Island. He has been President of the National Beekeepers Association for the past three years and been a member of the Apicultural Industry Governance board working as part of the team to progress industry unity and the development of Apiculture New Zealand.
Dr Chris Pook
Dr. Chris Pook graduated from Exeter University in 2010 with a PhD in marine ecotoxicology. He is employed as a Senior Research Technician at Auckland University of Technology School of Applied Sciences, running their analytical laboratory. He is an independent researcher with projects covering a diverse range of topics including novel biofuels, the chemical ecology of squid ink, aposematism in New Zealand giant springtails and the ecotoxicology of neonicotinoid pesticides.
Hartnell & Associates Ltd, ApiNZ Joint Executive Council
John has a long history of involvement in the Apiculture industry, spanning beekeeping, domestic & export parking, international sales and market development. He has been heavily involved in industry administration, bio-security and food safety, compliance and regulation and is a representative on a number of industry good councils and associations. He is topic is Land Use Contracts and Apiary Site Agreements.
Malcolm is a Director of Catalyst Ltd and has been consulting to agribusinesses in New Zealand for 15 years. Previously Malcolm worked for ZESPRI International as Development Manager where he was involved in the planning and implementation of a range of significant projects. Malcolm has specialist expertise in the horticulture and has a good understanding of a range of other agribusiness sectors. Catalyst Ltd has acted as the project manager for the BPSC research programme on PA’s for a number of years.
Dr Angus J. McPherson
Angus is a forestry consultant and farm planting advisor with over 30 years’ experience in forestry. He has worked on farm planting projects throughout New Zealand, covering production forestry, land stabilisation and riparian zones, farm shade and shelter, amenity planting, mānuka plantations and bee feed. With the Trees for Bees Team, he has developed design templates and practical advice for those wanting to supply their farms and apiary sites with plentiful high-performance pollen and nectar sources to boost bee health.
The goal of Trees for Bees is to discover a series of plants that will cover the critical flowering times in spring and autumn and also provide the highest protein to boost bee health, and to incorporate them into effective on-farm and apiary planting designs. Since 2010, over fifteen demonstration farms have been set up with bee plantations in the North and South Islands. This year, the Trees for Bees Program will be reporting on the principles and guidelines it has developed for bee feed planting. These results will also be included in workshops on flowering calendars and how to plant Trees for Bees. See www.treesforbeesnz.org.
Iain McLeod, BNZ National Manager of International Trade
Iain has worked in the finance and banking industry for over 40 years, specialising in International, Working Capital and Trade early in his career. In his current role, as National Manager of International Trade, he works with Corporate customers from Auckland to Invercargill.
This is an advisory role specialising in all aspects of International risk management and structured Trade Finance. Iain has an outstanding knowledge across all aspects of Trade and uses this knowledge to challenge the norms and provide bespoke solutions. Given the complex nature of International Trade, Iain’s role includes educating and raising awareness of risk management and he clearly articulates complex concepts.
Scott is the Deputy Director-General, Regulation & Assurance at the Ministry for Primary Industries. He is responsible for all of the Ministry’s regulatory activities and functions, spanning across the food safety, biosecurity and primary production systems (including fisheries management and animal welfare). Immediately prior to taking up his current role in August 2012, Scott oversaw the Ministry’s strategy, planning, and (organisational) performance. Between July and November 2013, Scott was Acting Director-General of MPI.
Scott has also worked in the private sector in both New Zealand and Australia, as well as with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including a 4-year stint in Geneva where he mainly worked on World Trade Organisation (WTO) issues, including China’s accession to the WTO. He has extensive experience in regulatory and international trade matters and has served as an arbitrator on a number of WTO disputes.
Stephanie Sopow, M.Sc.F
Stephanie is a forest entomologist and part of the Forest Protection team at Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute) in Rotorua. She leads Scion’s plant health diagnostic services and is curator of the National Forest Insect Collection. Stephanie’s interests include plant/insect interactions and enhancing New Zealand biosecurity via improved diagnostics, surveillance, and responses to incursions of new species. Stephanie’s interests have recently broadened to include bees as a result of the recent arrival of the giant willow aphid to New Zealand. This invasive species is causing a series of impacts not only on host trees, but also on bees and beekeepers as a result of bees and other insects harvesting the aphid honeydew.
Hon Jo Goodhew, Minister for Food Safety
Jo Goodhew represents the Rangitata electorate, a rural region in the South Island of New Zealand. She has held this seat since 2005. In the New Zealand Parliament Mrs Goodhew has previously served as Minister of Women’s Affairs, Minister for Senior Citizens, Associate Minister of Health and Junior Government Whip.
Mrs Goodhew has held the food safety portfolio since the start of the current parliamentary term in October 2014. She is focussed on strengthening New Zealand’s food safety system to ensure New Zealand continues to be a trusted supplier of safe and suitable food. As part of this work she is overseeing a range of legislation that focuses on improved traceability, security measures, and food incident responses. Mrs Goodhew is also aware of the increased consumer desire for detailed nutritional and food safety information and is encouraging voluntary initiatives such as the Health Star Rating labelling system.
Mrs Goodhew was born and schooled within South Canterbury where she grew up on a local farm. She qualified as a registered nurse and has practised throughout New Zealand and in London in both hospitals and in general practice. She is married with three daughters, now young adults.