DEEP CREEK FRUITS - Key Persons
Independent director Debbie Oakley brings to the board an extensive background as an orchardist combined with financial experience in family and equity horticulture partnerships and expertise gained from nearly 40 years in retail and rural banking.
Debbie has been involved in New Zealand's kiwifruit industry since the late 1990s through being a grower and through membership on grower representative groups. Her governance roles include past chair of Seeka Growers Ltd, an entity which manages grower funds, representation on NZ Kiwifruit Growers Forum including on its executive team, and a member of the Kiwifruit Industry Advisory Council.
She has some 37 years' banking experience in retail management and rural manager positions across a wide range of sectors including dairy, dry stock, and horticulture. These career choices have provided an in-depth understanding of the rural sector that she finds most rewarding. That career included a tenure as regional leader and facilitator for Rural Support Trust, assisting the rural community and farmers experiencing hardship.
Debbie has a passion for applying her skillset to organisations operating in challenging environments, including fiscal and cultural pressures. Since 2021, she has been an executive member of the statutory organization, NZ Fish and Game Council, being a voice around the council table to make a difference and ensure a successful and durable business.
Her banking experience includes positions as branch manager and rural manager at leading New Zealand banks.
Debbie's financial literacy and understanding of a wide range of business structures in the horticulture and agriculture space is a strength.
On the Deep Creek Fruits' board, she assists to strategically balance the risk and reward of proactively managing orchards to ensure financial viability and deliver quality outcomes for stakeholders.
Debbie has a Graduate Diploma in Rural Studies from Massey University and has completed various governance development courses including the Zespri Industry Governance Development Programme.
She was appointed in January 2024 and is based at Te Puke.
Deep Creek Fruits is developing a New Zealand cherry business which is reliant on good leadership and orchard management in order to be successful and provide a sound return to our shareholders. The NZ cherry industry has a great product, and we need to work together to ensure marketing opportunities and fruit quality expectations are consistently exceeded.
Chief executive officer Jo Pearson is a future-focussed professional with more than 20 years' experience in New Zealand's wine and FMCG industries.
Appointed in January 2024, Jo brings her innate understanding of the challenges and nuances of producing a premium product for an export market to the Deep Creek Fruits board. Her expertise spans the value chain - from the orchard to sales and marketing - a unique opportunity to combine her commercial and operational capabilities.
Her key capabilities include strategy facilitation and development, commercial nous across multiple functions, stakeholder engagement and communication, and leadership and collaboration. Skills and knowledge in horticultural and business sustainability are an evolving passion.
We are passionate about producing a beautiful, fresh premium New Zealand product that harks back to our connection with the land. We all have the same goal and motivation to share a little piece of New Zealand with the world.
Chair Maurice Noone's extensive corporate governance experience across multiple entities, sectors and industries in New Zealand and internationally has shaped his approach to his leadership role at Deep Creek Fruits NZ LP.
Maurice first became involved as an advisor to the board in July 2023, and joined as a director in November 2023 and was elected chairman in December 2023. He combines financial and commercial insights with practical nous to strategically focus on realising the vision developed by Deep Creek Fruits at the outset - that is to grow a horticulture business of scale capable of consistently delivering positive outcomes for all in the stakeholder group.
Maurice has focused on developing his governance career, primarily focusing on private companies, since retiring from PwC in 2017 after 37 years including 23 as a partner. He was also a member of the PwC executive from 2000 to 2017.
Present directorship roles include chairman at Barr Burgess & Stewart Limited; Bell Group Limited; Heartland Group Limited; McVicar Building Supplies Limited; NZ Hops Limited and Port Hills Leisure Limited. He is also a director at Rubisco Limited and Taylor Pass Honey Co Limited.
His experience spans a range of sectors including rural, finance and property. His competencies include corporate restructuring and insolvency, mergers and acquisitions and financial reporting. He has proven negotiation and problem-solving skills and a track record in the development and implementation of successful strategies.
During his career he has worked alongside multiple outstanding operators from the accounting and business world in various parts of the world - collaborations which have all assisted in forming his thinking and developing his knowledge base.
He is passionate about making a difference and creating vibrant, sustainable organisations that add value to the communities in which they operate, and the stakeholders associated with them.
Maurice has a Bachelor of Commerce, is a member of the Institute of Directors and is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He is based out of Christchurch and travels extensively.
Our mission is to develop a sustainable business that delivers great returns and outcomes to all in the stakeholder group including investors, employees and suppliers.
Richard Perry is an experienced director with a reputation for leading teams that deliver excellence in financial management and operational services.
Richard has extensive governance and directorship experience developed across public, private and not-for-profit sectors, ranging from start-ups to mature companies. His wide-ranging experience is in the agriculture, technology, property, innovation and finance sectors nationally and internationally.
He has more than 25 years' senior-level financial experience including current roles as advisor of New Zealand Exchange-listed Allied Farmers Limited, chief financial officer at agritech company BioLumic, financial consultant at Rocket Lab and is a member of the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board.
Richard's previous roles include chair of Allied Farmers, chief financial officer at New Zealand's largest agricultural enterprise, Landcorp Farming Limited, and chief financial officer at Callaghan Innovation.
A Fellow Chartered Accountant and Certified Treasury Professional, he has worked as technical advisor to the International Monetary Fund and held various positions including financial controller at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
A career highlight is that during Richard's tenure at Landcorp, shareholder value grew over $800 million while paying significant dividends.
A results-driven individual, Richard has a special interest in working with start-ups. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (first class honors) from the University of Otago. He joined the board as director in October 2020 and is past chairman. He is based in Auckland.
Deep Creek Fruits has the opportunity to transform land used to produce commodities into land which produces high-value products and adds social and economic benefits to New Zealand and all involved."
Job Titles:
- Development and Operations Manager
- Founders of Hortinvest Limited
Ross Kirk is at the forefront of horticulture production in New Zealand with more than 40 years' experience in sourcing, developing and managing land, establishing and managing orchards and project-managing packhouse construction and operating packhouses.
Ross and horticulturalist wife Sharon Kirk - also founders of Hortinvest Limited in 2016 - began what is now the Deep Creek Fruits project in 2018 when they ordered the first trees after negotiating with landowners seeking to diversify their land use. The official establishment of the company followed in 2020. Over the first four years of its development, Ross and Sharon instigated and managed several significant capital raise campaigns which garnered a large shareholder group.
A born and bred orchardist, his depth of knowledge along the orchard development supply chain includes plant husbandry to packhouse fit-out. Ross is renowned for investigating and introducing leading-edge technologies, systems and techniques - or designing his own to be purpose-built - for the orchard developments he has been involved in during his extensive career. Driving this is Ross's quest to create efficiencies and be ahead of the curve in New Zealand cherry production.
Ross is an experienced packhouse operator, having managed construction and operation of his own in Gisborne and two of the most recent cherry packhouses built in Central Otago since 2014.
As well as overseeing two significant plantings at Lindis Peaks and Mt Pisa orchards in 2019 and 2020, Ross designed a planting machine, which was built to his specifications and implemented in 2020. The machine enables up to 6,000 trees a day to be planted, nearly double that achieved previously.
Working alongside Sharon and Ross are a team of orchard and administration personnel.
Ross attended Massey University to study for a Diploma of Horticulture.
As the Chinese proverb goes, ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.'"
Job Titles:
- Director and International Sales and Marketing
- Founders of Hortinvest Limited
The world is turning to New Zealand to produce quality, safe and sustainably produced food. Central Otago in particular has the ideal soil and climate to grow the world's best cherries - it's an exciting time to be in horticulture."
A founding director, inaugural CEO (2020-2024) and shareholder, Sharon is a leading New Zealand fresh produce marketing and export professional with more than 30 years' experience in exporting and marketing New Zealand cherries, among other fruit.
Sharon and orchardist husband Ross Kirk - also founders of Hortinvest Limited in 2016 - began what is now the Deep Creek Fruits project in late 2018 when they ordered the first trees after negotiating with landowners seeking to diversify their land use. The official establishment followed in 2020. Over the first four years of its development, Sharon and Ross instigated and managed several significant capital raise campaigns which garnered a large shareholder group. Together they grew the business to the point where international sales and marketing, which is Sharon's primary passion, now has her full attention.
Sharon's boundless energy and commitment for developing New Zealand's cherry industry has seen her develop an extensive network of global markets as a rising middle class in Asia drives an insatiable appetite for luxury New Zealand food products while other exciting markets emerge in Europe and the United States.
She develops the export compliance systems necessary to send high volumes of cherries to the world and oversees the development of effective branding and packaging to appeal to target markets.
Sharon's background as a horticulturalist is a rare commodity among fresh produce marketing executives, providing her with an authentic and informed perspective into crop specifics to communicate to customers throughout the growing season.
Sharon's career includes 13 years with export marketer Turners and Growers and 18 years running her export business, Southern Kowhai Exports. She has also contracted to multiple leading New Zealand fresh produce companies, to develop their export and marketing functions, including applying her expert understanding of global clients' needs to oversee the design and production of effective packaging and marketing materials.
Sharon has a Bachelor's degree in Horticultural Science and Marketing from Massey University and a Diploma in Management from the Institute of Management and has attended various leadership, management and directorial courses. She was appointed in March 2020 and is based in Wanaka.
Premium New Zealand cherries tick all the boxes for the gift-giving Lunar New Year market. They're big, red, luxurious and delicious and leverage off New Zealand's reputation for producing the world's best.