Passing the Baton

Coast & Country News – April 2023 click here

Kiwi Pollen of Te Puke has appointed Monica Roach as its Chief Executive Officer.  Monica is taking over from her parents Jill Hamlyn and Graeme Crawshaw after their 34 years with New Zealand’s first commercial kiwifruit pollen company.  While Jill and Graeme remain an integral part of the business, Monica is stepping up from her last two-and-a-half-year role as GM at Kiwi Pollen.

Having grown up on an organic SunGold orchard, Monica has been inspired by her parents’ ability to raise a family, run businesses, and contribute to the wider kiwifruit industry through governance roles in the Export Institute, BioGro, and COKA.   

Eight years’ experience as an in-house lawyer in Wellington and London has given her experiences across a range of industries and organisations.  Monica has recently been selected as one of four in Zespri’s Industry Governance Development Programme for 2023.  ‘I aim to gain a deeper understanding of the kiwifruit industry and the challenges ahead, and subsequently contribute to new initiatives’, says Monica, ‘and I am excited to see where new thinking and a fresh approach will lead the pollination business, while maintaining our core ethos of creating value and profits for kiwifruit growers’.