Siobhan O'Malley
FOUNDER
Siobhan O’Malley and her husband Christopher have been sharemilkers all over the South Island, and hop growers and beef farmers in the Motueka Valley. In 2017, while living in Mid-Canterbury, they were crowned NZ Share Farmers of the Year at the NZ Dairy Industry Awards. Siobhan has several private business interests outside of the Ag sector and runs social media platform - Pukeko Pastures. She is currently sharemilking near Hokitika.
Wayne Langford
FOUNDER & GENERAL MANAGER
Wayne Langford and his wife Tyler are dairy farmers from Golden Bay, milking 250 cows once-a-day. Wayne sits as the National Dairy Chair for Federated Farmers, Golden Bay Feds President, Primary ITO Stakeholders Council, Rural Service Centre Vice Chairman, and Te Whare Mahana Board Member. He is also known as the YOLOFarmer, a social media platform with a following of over 125,000 people.
JULIA JONES
BOARD CHAIR
Julia Jones is passionate about inspiring confidence and new thinking; she believes adaptation will ensure long term human, planet and economic wellness for our rural and urban communities. Her 6 years with KPMG fuelled her understanding of global trends and the opportunity they brought to NZ and this led to her new role as the Head of Analytics with NZX.
She has experienced a series of highlights over her career, which include completing the Harvard Agri Seminar in China 2010, Te Hono boot camp at Stanford University 2017 and graduating the AWDT Escalator Program 2012.
Greg McSkimming
BOARD MEMBER
As Silver Fern Farm's Agribusiness and Strategic Solutions Manager, Greg has a huge passion for the success of agriculture. He’s also fully aware of the challenges and opportunities in front of us as an industry. Anything he can do to improve SFF's awesome products, and create value sustainably for our farmers and industry, is what drives him.
At SFF, Greg, their executive and board saw the vision Wayne and Siobhan had in setting up Meat the Need. They didn’t hesitate in bringing the help needed to create a supply chain of red meat from farms to families in need. It doesn’t sit right with Greg that although our farmers produce a lot, there are families in NZ that can’t put nutritious red meat on the table. He feels privileged to be a part of the team and to be able to bring value wherever he can to this cause.
CHEYENNE WILSON
BOARD MEMBER
Cheyenne was raised on sheep and beef properties in the heart of Southland and has been working in the dairy industry for the past 7 years. She is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Commerce in Agriculture majoring in Accounting at Lincoln University.
She intends to work with rangatahi and enlighten them to the many opportunities in the primary sector and ensure they are supported and successful. As an Agri-Women’s Development Trust Next Level Graduate she thrives supporting industry organisations and initiatives.
JESSIE CHAN
BOARD MEMBER
Jessie Chan lives in Mid Canterbury with her two sons Adam (6) and Noah (1) where she is managing director of Riverstone Farming, a dairy business milking 850 cows.
Jessie has an Honours degree in Animal Science and has worked in a range of rural professional roles over a fifteen year period. She is currently the Chair Elect of RuralCo Ltd, on the Board of Ngai Tahu Farming Ltd, Alpine Energy Ltd and the Bio-protection Research Centre.
Jessie is a member of the Institute of Directors and New Zealand Asian Leaders.
Nicki Mackay
BOARD MEMBER
Whilst Nicki was born and raised in Dunedin, she has spent more than 28 years working and living in and around rural communities. She’s always been in the financial services sector, most recently as the Head of Claims & Digital Assessing for FMG. Her collaborative leadership style, operational expertise, and ability to influence others have seen her become a central figure in leading large operational teams, business change and building people capability across the FMG’s national footprint.
Nicki loves to bring a fresh perspective and challenge the status quo to ensure our rural sector continues to lead innovation tomorrow as well as it does today. As an Agri-women’s Development Trust Escalator Graduate in 2016, she thrives on getting involved and supporting organisations across the Agri-sector.
Shaheen Junge
BOARD MEMBER
Shaheen was born in Auckland and has spent the last 7 years working at Fonterra in various people focused roles. Her passion to support communities has led her to a new role leading Community & Social Investment for the Co-op. Shaheen has a conjoint degree and has worked in various roles & industries across Australia & NZ. Her leadership style is collaborative with a bent to making things happen!
Sarah Gagliardi
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Sarah was born and bred in Christchurch and now lives in sunny Nelson. Although she doesn't come from a farming household, growing up she earned the majority of her pocket money working in shearing sheds on cousins' farms. Sarah has a master’s degree in the health sciences and has spent the last decade in education and healthcare roles. One of her career highlights has been working in schools across Africa, India and Nepal, facilitating teachers' professional development and curriculum design. Outside of work, Sarah is a Refugee Support Volunteer for the Red Cross and loves all things sport, especially kayaking and swimming.
Sandra Alfeld
PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
Sandra grew up on a sheep & beef farm in Northland. She now resides in North Canterbury with her husband and two children, where she is Managing Director of Glenhope Station. Their farming operation includes beef cattle, deer, manuka honey, eco-tourism and a carbon farm. Prior to her time at Glenhope Station, Sandra studied at AUT completing a bachelor’s degree in sport and recreation and a postgraduate certificate in business, majoring in marketing.
Sandra went on to develop her career in Perth, specialising in sponsorship, commercial sales and corporate relations management for several large corporate entities. Sandra has always been a health and wellness advocate and through her partnerships work with MTN, she looks forward to helping more Kiwi families put high quality protein on their tables.
Sustainable Business Awards Finalist
Meat the Need is a 2020 Sustainable Business Awards Finalist! The Awards are designed to showcase and highlight the fantastic contribution we are making towards sustainability in New Zealand.
High fives all round!
NZ Food Heroes 2020 Finalist
Meat The Need is a finalist in the NZ Food Hero as part of the 2020 New Zealand Food Awards. To all our farmers donating to the programme, thank you for all your hard work helping Kiwis during lockdown!