HortPlus has announced key appointments to its senior leadership team with the New Zealand agri-tech company saying it is positioning 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 company says 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.
Barley says he’s delighted with the expertise the company has assembled, not just across its leadership team, but across the entire business.
Mike Barley.
“The coming year holds significant opportunities for international growth, expansion of our weather station network and new integrations between our flagship MetWatch weather and disease portal and other leading technologies and services,” he says.
The company says in a statement that last year it expanded its services to Fresh Berry Company by enhancing the New Zealand berry producer’s ‘Berry Harvest Planning Tool’, developed by HortPlus to make harvest planning and forecasting easier.
Cody Ellingham.
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.
Barley says that 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”.
Bailey Jewell.
Established in Hawke’s Bay more than 25 years ago, HortPlus has offices in Hawke’s Bay and Wellington, with customers in horticulture regions globally as far away as Italy.
The company says it manages a network of more than 1,000 weather stations across Australia and New Zealand and offers an array of consultancy and environmental data services. That includes its 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.
All images courtesy of HortPlus.
