From Setbacks to Success: Key Lessons for Thriving Cooperatives in Aotearoa New Zealand
From Setbacks to Success: Key Lessons for Thriving Cooperatives in Aotearoa New Zealand
Drawing on lessons learnt from the successes and failures of cooperatives internationally and in New Zealand, the discussion will focus on key factors that will help ensure a positive future for cooperative businesses as they face the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Date
1 April 2025
Location
Pātiki Room, Waimarie Building, Lincoln University
Time
- 4.00pm: Guests arrive for registration and networking
- 4.30pm: CoE and Co-operative Business New Zealand Introduction
- 4.40pm: Introductory Presentations by Panellists
- 5.10pm: Panel and Audience Discussion
- 6.00pm: Speaking Concludes and Refreshments and Networking
- 6.30pm: Event Finishes
Parking: Free
About the Speakers
Murray Fulton is a professor emeritus in the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and a Fellow in Co-operatives and Public Policy at the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan. His research interests include agricultural co-operatives, agricultural and rural policy, and public sector and co-operative governance, with a particular interest in the changes occurring in agriculture and the response of organizations—including agricultural co-operatives—to these changes. His current research is focused on the political economy of public policy formation. Professor Fulton is currently the inaugural Lincoln University Ross Fellow.
Sarah How is co-founder and GM of Landify, a platform for established farmers, younger farmers and investors from throughout New Zealand to explore lease, equity and farm ownership pathway arrangements. Sarah is from a proud, mixed arable farming family in Mid Canterbury. She has worked on-farm, in advisory roles, and in research and development. Joining forces with her good mate from uni, Tara, she wants to build something that matters to the community and the next generation of farmers. A collector of degrees and plenty of wild ideas, Sarah lives in Geraldine with her husband and family.
Jane Montgomery is a shareholder-elected director at Ravensdown, one of New Zealand’s top 10 cooperatives by revenue. She owns a farm in North Canterbury where she manages a horticultural operation. She also is involved with projects on her husband’s sheep and beef farm, including managing a value-add programme with the farm’s wool. Jane has been a commercial intellectual property lawyer and has had numerous governance roles including an associate director with AgResearch, and trustee of the J R McKenzie Trust where she was also chair of the audit and risk committee.
Mike O’Connor is managing director of O’Connor Partners, a firm of consulting financial analysts based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. O’Connor Partners consult extensively to New Zealand co-operatives, particularly around capital and governance structures. Mike has been described by the CEO of one of New Zealand’s largest agribusiness co-ops as ‘one of the country’s foremost economists as it relates to the cooperative as a performance vehicle and as a capital structure for the pursuit of common goals for investors’. He periodically lectures on the economics of co-operatives at post-graduate level at the University of Canterbury.
