The board of Summerfruit NZ has very reluctantly accepted the resignation of our Chief Executive Marie Dawkins.Marie has been involved with Summerfruit NZ for 23 years in one form or another and has been our Chief Executive since 2013.
She has been at the forefront of many changes in that time, including the early adoption of our IFP programme SummerGreen, the opening of Korean market for cherries, fumigation free access to Japan and biosecurity developments in the horticulture sector.
Marie has also been instrumental in securing significant grant funding throughout her time with the industry. Leveraging growers levies to get maximum benefit is one of her strengths.
This lead to her involvement in the development of our Sensational Summerfruit initiative. This project has been put to one side while we work through our commodity levy order renewal and independent industry review.
Marie has generously timed her departure so she can continue to lead us through the levy renewal process and ensure the independent industry review gets off to a good start.
In many respects Summerfruit NZ is now at a turning point, where the outcome of the independent industry review will help set the future course for our organisation and determine how much control our industry wants to take of the opportunities available to us.
Her successor has big shoes to fill. They will need to match Marie’s commitment and passion for our industry and have the willingness to lead us in whatever direction the review suggests we should take.
The board is starting the search for a new Chief Executive and is investigating the possibility of appointing an interim CEO. We encourage all our members to share this with your networks.