Dr Juliet Ansell
CEO, Bragato Research Institute
Juliet recently joined BRI as their new CEO and is excited to bring her science and innovation experience to grow the future of the wine industry. Juliet trained at Kings College London and has a PhD from Oxford University. She has lived and worked as a scientist in the UK, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Australia before taking up a role at Plant & Food Research in New Zealand. She was seconded to Zespri in 2014 as Innovation Leader, initially working on human health and nutrition, before taking up the role of Head of Core and Resilience Innovation.
Hans Loder
Viticulturist, Penley Estate (AU)
Nuffield scholar and viticulturist Hans Loder from Penley Estate in Coonawarra, South Australia, will discuss how farmers will one day use wearable technology to see data feeds, including AI-generated management recommendations, on their land and in real-time.
Jason Cook
Group Winemaker, Indevin
Indevin Group winemaker Jason Cook will discuss their Smart Winery and cloud capabilities that have revolutionised the management of harvest in recent years, including through a democratised platform that enables winery and viticulture crews to see logistics in real-time on mobile devices.
Dr Wayne Patrick
Associate Dean of Science - Research, Victoria University of Wellington
A Professor of Biochemistry, Wayne Patrick and his team address fundamental questions about how enzymes have evolved, in order to engineer new ones with improved properties. Enzymes are the most precise tools in a winemaker’s toolkit. The revolution in AI and machine learning has reached enzyme design so now is the time to ask: what would we like enzymes to do for us?
Dr Ellie Bradley
Postdoctoral Researcher - Applied Epigenomics, Bragato Research Institute
Part of Bragato Research Institute’s Grapevine Improvement team, Ellie will present some of BRI’s most cutting-edge research about how we could use RNA to fight plant pathogens and viruses, by turning specific genes ‘on or off’ using a technique that would not be considered genetic modification.
Dr Hayley Ridgway
Science Group Leader, Plant & Food Research
Hayley leads Plant & Food Research's Plant Protection Systems Group of 25 scientists. Her areas of speciality are the plant microbiome and she has a focus on its relationship with grapevine trunk diseases (GTD). Over the last 26 years, she has published more than 150 research papers with a third of these focussed on the interactions between grapevines and microorganisms.
Mark Piper
CEO, Plant & Food Research
Mark joined Plant and Food Research in May 2023 after 30 years in the Dairy Industry where he held roles across manufacturing, IT, and Supply Chain as well as 3 years in and then a further 5 years in Chicago where Mark was Regional Director for North America overseeing around $1.8b of activity across multiple countries and customers.
Mark returned to NZ in 2016 and in 2017 moved to Palmerston North to lead Fonterra’s innovation, strategy and category marketing. Mark is also Chair of Food HQ, director of Science NZ, director of the Riddet Institute, an adjunct professor in Food Technology at Massey University, and the Chair of Netball Manawatu.
Dr Alistair Scarfe
Co-Founder and Chief Engineer, Robotics Plus
Alistair has 16 years of experience advancing and commercialising agricultural technologies, blending an entrepreneurial drive with engineering science. Raised in a high-production, science-driven dairy farming environment, Alistair is deeply motivated to innovate practical applications that make a real impact for customers in agriculture. He has led commercial developments across autonomous vehicles, fruit packing/picking robotics, log scanning and crop surveillance systems. He holds a position as an Independent Advisory Panel member for MPI's SFF Futures fund.
Roadmap to Net Zero 2050
New Zealand Winegrowers will launch the industry’s Roadmap to Net Zero 2050. The roadmap sets out key objectives for climate change mitigation and will provide guidance to both vineyards and wineries on future actions needed to reach our industry goal. The roadmap is the result of a partnership with EECA and thinkstep ANZ. The project has included consultation within our industry to inform science-based targets over the next 25 years. Collective action will be the key theme in driving positive change.
Emma Jenkins MW
Research & Innovation Forum MC
Having completed a BSc (Hons) in Anatomy and Structural Biology, Emma decided a more sociable career was in order and instead pursued her passion for wine. Emma has worked in fine wine retail, holds a diploma in winemaking and viticulture, and in 2011 became New Zealand's ninth Master of Wine. Emma is a freelance wine writer for several trade and general publications and provides consultancy services to a range of industry and corporate entities. In addition, Emma is Research Paper Coordinator for the MW education program, teaches the odd WSET course and judges at local and international competitions.