New Guardians Appointed
David Carter, Simon Limmer & Izzy Fenwick appointed as Guardians of The Aotearoa Circle.
Co-Chairs Vicky Robertson and Volker Kuntzsch are delighted to announce that David Carter, Executive Chair of BECA and Simon Limmer, Chief Executive of Silver Fern Farms will join The Aotearoa Circle as Guardians. Our nomination process, run over November saw an impressive list of candidates for the board to consider. The Board also voted to create a new Emerging Director role, and Izzy Fenwick was chosen as the inaugural candidate. The new Board will join Jane Taylor, Laurissa Cooney, Carolyn Tremain, and Stephen England-Hall.
David Carter
Group Executive Chair, Beca
Having joined Beca in 1987, David is currently Group Executive Chair. Over this time, he has played a key role in driving Beca’s long-term strategic direction with a focus on professional excellence and sustainability amongst others.
Throughout his career at Beca, he has filled a wide range of technical, management and executive roles, including Chief Technical Officer, Asia Regional Director, Australia Managing Director, Group Director Health and Safety, and Managing Director of Corporate Operations.
Outside of Beca, he has held a number of governance positions, including Chair of the Hutt Valley Water Services Ltd Board, Chair of the Wood Beca Board, a member of The University of Auckland’s Civil and Environmental Advisory Board, a member of Leadership Development Corporation and past President of the Auckland University Engineers Association. He was also a founding board member of the Sustainable Business Council and sat on the Advisory Board of NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research). He is a trustee of The University of Auckland Foundation.
Passions outside of work include sailing and skiing. With three young children, his weekend are suitably full.
Toitū te marae a Tane-Mahuta, Toitū te marae a Tangaroa, Toitū te tangata.
Simon Limmer
Chief Executive, Silver Fern Farms Ltd
Simon was appointed Chief Executive of Silver Fern Farms in March 2018. He is responsible for leading the company, the delivery of strategy and financial performance, and engaging with customers, staff, farmer suppliers, and shareholders.
Silver Fern Farms is well-positioned to champion New Zealand’s natural grass-fed red meat at a time when there is a consumer trend to natural whole foods. Silver Fern Farms has an exceptional brand, is well capitalised, and has a talented and passionate group of people, working hard to execute our strategy.
Formerly with Zespri, Simon held a range of general management positions during his 10 years within the organisation, including: Chief Operating Officer, GM China and GM Global Supply. Prior to Zespri he worked for French multi-national Veolia for 16 years, which operates globally in the fields of waste, water and energy services.
Simon comes with deep commercial experience in the food, manufacturing and service sectors both here in New Zealand and in several of the key international markets in which we operate.
Izzy Fenwick
Emerging Director
Izzy Fenwick spent the last year as the Engagement Director for The Aotearoa Circle, creating more opportunities for our partners to engage with the workstreams and align their mahi with our Kaupapa. During that time, Izzy was also on the Leadership Group for the Low Carbon Energy Roadmap and part of the secretariat for the Mana Kai Roadmap. Izzy was also recently awarded a fellowship with the Next Foundation enabling her to continue focussing on creating more intergenerational opportunities for Aotearoa.
With a background in psychology, design-thinking and corporate communications, Izzy’s skills and interests sit at the intersection of human behaviour and corporate performance. Raised by one of New Zealand’s leading environmentalists and businessmen, and co-founder of The Aotearoa Circle, the late Sir Rob Fenwick, Izzy has been surrounded by thought leaders in this domain for years.