HortPlus has today announced key appointments to its senior leadership team as the New Zealand agri-tech company positions itself for growth and international expansion.
Director Mike Barley has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, Cody Ellingham has been named Chief Strategy Officer and Bailey Jewell has taken up the position of Chief Technology Officer.
The three bring decades of experience in the technology and horticulture industries and have a deep understanding of HortPlus, its customers and the global agri-tech landscape.
“I’m delighted with the expertise we’ve assembled, not just across our leadership team, but across the entire business,” Barley says.
“The coming year holds significant opportunities for international growth, expansion of our weather station network and groundbreaking new integrations between our flagship MetWatch weather and disease portal and other leading technologies and services.”
Last year HortPlus expanded its services to Fresh Berry Company by enhancing the well-known New Zealand berry producer’s industry-leading Berry Harvest Planning Tool, developed by HortPlus to make harvest planning and forecasting easier.
This follows recent collaborations with other major corporates, including Constellation Brands which harnesses HortPlus data to support crop protection decisions that improve sustainability, reduce crop losses and boost profitability.
“It’s a buzz to be providing services to household names that are growing the crops that so many people in New Zealand, and internationally, know well.
“As the twin waves of AI and data-driven technology continue to converge and more people embrace the value of data for sound horticultural and business decision making, I’m confident the tools we provide will only get more popular, and more powerful.”
Established in Hawke’s Bay more than 25 years ago, HortPlus now has offices in Hawke’s Bay and Wellington, with customers in horticulture regions globally as far away as Italy.
It manages a network of more than 1,000 weather stations across Australia and New Zealand and offers a wide array of consultancy and environmental data services. That includes its well-known online platform, MetWatch, used by thousands of growers in a wide variety of different horticultural sectors, as well as researchers and science bodies such as Bioeconomy Science Institute and Foundation for Arable Research, among others.
