Big playerbacks its own for key roles
One of New Zealand’s leading crop protection suppliers has lived up to a reputation of fostering its own talent with not one but two senior internal promotions recently.
Nicole Morris and Glen Surgenor.
Glen Surgenor, who up until now has been marketing manager at Corteva Agriscience, has taken over as general manager, and technical specialist Nicole Morris has stepped up into his former role. Both say the company is well-known for advancing its people, and this commitment to ongoing professional development plays a key role in building and retaining a strong team.
In Surgenor’s case, what started as a summer student job at the then Dow AgroSciences Waireka Research Farm in Taranaki has become an entire career to date, even though he originally had no plans of joining the primary sector.
“Ag was not on my radar! I saw myself headed more for a corporate environment when I was at university. Getting that role at Waireka for three summers sparked my passion for the industry, and I was lucky enough the company had an opening that allowed me to stay in it permanently. I couldn’t see myself in any other industry now.”
It’s a long way from completing a commerce degree at Otago University and joining customer services in 2002 to leading the national business 23 years later. But the company has provided no shortage of professional opportunities during that time, both here and in Australia.
And Surgenor is excited about what lies ahead as he takes over from former Corteva general manager Richard Brenton-Rule.
“Richard’s been a fantastic leader in our business, particularly in guiding us through the merger that created Corteva. We worked very closely together, and now I’m really looking forward to picking up that commercial responsibility at a point where Corteva has some amazing new technology coming through in biologicals and crop protection. We have a whole new portfolio to establish and position in the biologicals category, and a suite of new crop protection products on the way; it’s an exciting time to be in the industry.”
Meantime Nicole Morris, who first joined Corteva as technical specialist in 2021, says her new role as marketing manager shows there’s always flexibility in the primary sector to cross over from science-based to commercial positions.
“I think it’s a real strength for Corteva, the way the company transitions technical people into commercial roles. It’s a bit of a pivot for me, but it’s also a great opportunity to broaden my skill set, develop my leadership skills and take on more responsibility at a country level. I am still passionate about R&D and technical extension, as this underpins the success of our industry. This knowledge base will be valuable for the pipeline and product management portion of my new role.”
Morris came to the company with over 10 years’ experience in the seed industry, bringing with her a strong skillset in agronomy, research and science communication as well as the experience of growing upon a sheep and beef farmin South Otago.
She has worked with multiple crops across the forage, maize and seed production sectors sobrings sound agronomic knowledge to Corteva. She holds a Bachelor ofAgriculture and a Masters in Agriculture Science (Pasture Agronomy) from Lincoln University; is a former Kellogg Rural Leadership scholar and last year received the Emerging Leader award from Animal and Plant Health NZ.
She is also Secretary of the Agronomy Society of NZ.