My first introduction to Rotary was in 1960 with an RYE (young men in the workforce) exchange to Norway - a working passage there and a long drive home. I joined Matamata Rotary in 1988 – when our daughter was on a Rotary Student Exchange.
I have a pastoral farming and land development background including meat and wool production in the King Country and Waikato, as well as a later involvement in dairying. I have also had farming interests in Hawkes Bay, Canterbury and Australia, as well as 32 years in both management and governance of large scale charitable corporate farming. Latterly I have been involved in commercial and residential property development. I have an ongoing leadership role in my local (Tirau) Community Church.
I have enjoyed my time in Rotary very much, meeting and becoming firm friends with many like-minded folk who I would not have met otherwise. I am a past president and Paul Harris Award recipient. A Rotary programme of particular interest is ROMAC (Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children).