Palmerston North

Brendan Clare
Director
Palmerston North
Brendan has had 10 years’ experience in the agribusiness banking industry with the last 5 years managing a corporate agribusiness portfolio of clients in the wider Manawatu area. He has dealt with clients ranging from contract and share milkers through to large scale agribusiness clients across a wide range of primary industries
Brendan also farms in partnership a family owned irrigated sheep and beef property. He enjoys working with clients to help them understand and strengthen their business, to achieve their goals and a better banking outcome.

Charlotte Grogan
Client Director
Palmerston North
Charlotte was born and bred in Taranaki on a dairy farm just out of Okato. After graduating from Massey University she took on a role with an agribusiness bank. This lead to her working as a rural manager in Taranaki, and more recently another role the agri sector in Manawatu, before joining the NZAB team. As a Rural Manager she accumulated a wealth of experience, working with many families and enterprises, to successfully grow their rural business. Charlotte enjoys working with clients to help them understand and achieve their goals and be able to clearly articulate them to their banks in order to better their business.
Outside of work Charlotte and her husband Tom lease a sheep and beef farm just out of Palmerston North.

Mike Parr
Associate Client Director
Palmerston North
Mike has six years’ experience in the banking industry, working for two of the major banks. He is a Registered Property Valuer with seven years’ valuation experience before moving into the banking industry.
Mike grew up on a dairy farm in the Waikato and his strong credit and financial analysis skills adds great value to our customers.

Rachel Burton
Associate Director
Palmerston North
Rachel has joined us after an varied career in business banking with two main NZ Banks. Her role is to assist the Palmerston North Client Directors with their farming customers – focusing on analysis, strategy and business presentation, client management and regular management reporting.
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Christchurch

Nathan Henry
Director
Christchurch
Nathan has had 18 years’ experience in the agribusiness banking sector, including overseeing large corporate agribusiness debt exposures for the past 9 years. Previous roles include senior leadership and account management.
He has been involved in the placement of bank equity and subordinated debt into farming businesses, which enabled clients to take on significant growth and intensification projects. Nathan has an ongoing involvement in a farming business in mid-Canterbury and enjoys dealing with all relationships across the agribusiness sector and negotiating great funding outcomes for farmers.

Scott Wishart
Managing Director
Christchurch
Scott has had 12 years’ experience in the agribusiness banking industry, including senior relationship and agribusiness sector leadership roles. He was a recipient of several bank awards for customer service and business growth.
His recent experience includes leading the business development and strategy segments of a major agribusiness bank, which enjoyed significant market share growth, as well as development of the tools and processes that culminated in an investment in industry leading farm software.
Scott has a unique understanding of both farmer and internal bank and regulatory requirements, and uses this experience to ensure finance applications are prepared in a way that gets the best outcome for both farmer and bank.

Nick Bell
Client Director
Canterbury
Prior to NZAB, Nick had been working in the banking industry focusing primarily on businesses involved in the Primary Sector. After 6 years honing his relationship and analytical skills, working with some of New Zealand’s largest Corporate Agribusinesses, Nick has joined the NZAB team primed to enhance banking outcomes between a client and their financier.
Nick grew up in Nelson with a family interest on a dry stock farm in Canterbury. His strong interpersonal skills are complimented with a deep understanding of the agribusiness sector and its interactions with the banking market. Nick is driven by the challenge of working with clients to deliver a clear and comprehensive strategy that ensures complete alignment and understanding between all stakeholders involved in the business.

Cameron Black
Associate Client Director
Christchurch
Cameron comes from an agribusiness banking background and has worked in relationship management roles as well as in the agri corporate space. Originally from a farming background in Southland, he has an appreciation of the importance of developing and applying practical debt funding solutions that are achievable for farmers.
Cameron is also highly involved with Young Farmers through various leadership roles and was a runner-up in the 2018 Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final.

Cam Blain
Client Director
Christchurch
Cam has over 23yrs experience in the agribusiness banking industry, managing an extensive range of clients over that time from smaller scale operations in the Southern Hawkes Bay to growing and managing one of the largest Corporate Agri portfolios in the country over the last 7 years with clients spread throughout the South Island across a number of primary sectors.
Cam was born and raised on a mixed cropping farm in Central Canterbury and has an ongoing involvement in a farming business in Mid Canterbury along with a small block near West Melton where wife Lucy, their 3 lads, and he reside.
His strong relationship skills combined with an extensive understanding of farming systems, banking and regulatory policies puts him in a very strong position to build enduring client relationships whilst offering sound and practical advice to ensure the right outcomes are achieved.
Timaru

Andrew Laming
Director
Timaru
Andrew has worked in the agribusiness banking industry for 17 years for two major banks. A leading senior banker and recipient of a number of bank awards, he has a wide range of banking skills in both agribusiness finance and credit analysis.
His previous specialist roles include equity partnership formation, governance leadership, and he has become a sought-after expert in debt and interest rate structuring. Andrew has experience in both large and mid-size agribusinesses, and sits on a number of NZ’s largest farming business advisory boards. He also has significant experience with hybrid debt and equity structuring.

Tom Laming
Client Director
Timaru
Tom has 16 years’ experience in the agri-banking sector, with the last 6 years focused on leading corporate agri relationships throughout the South Island. Previous roles saw Tom based in Otago, the Waikato and Canterbury, across a number of different sectors.
Tom greatly enjoys the process of understanding the dynamics of agri-businesses across all sectors and presenting clear and deliberate strategies to stakeholders. Working with large and complex farming businesses, he has developed a breadth of experience covering growth and restructure, credit analysis and debt structuring, sourcing of capital and driving excellent banking outcomes.

Josie Russell
Associate Client Director
Timaru
Josie joined the NZAB team in June 2018 after working at ANZ Bank for three years, including being part of the team leading corporate agri relationships in the South Island. Originally from a stone fruit orchard in the Hawkes Bay, Josie has gained significant practical and strategic experience working for diversified corporate farming businesses, predominantly in the horticultural sector. She’s also spent time overseas managing various aspects of complex supply chains.
Josie’s diverse skill-set ranges from the practical running of large scale farming operations, to analytical and strategic experience gained in the banking sector.

Brooke Cromie
Associate Client Director
Canterbury
Brooke was raised on a hill country sheep and beef farm in central North Island, attended Lincoln University, following this, moved to South Canterbury.
Her experience in the agricultural industry is varied, from practical work on dairy, poultry and sheep and beef properties, to coordinating livestock into meat works and different roles within the rural accounting sector.
Brooke’s role with NZAB is to assist the Timaru Client Directors with their customers, focusing on client analytics and reporting.

Chris Laming
Client Director
Canterbury
Chris is a passionate agribusiness professional with strong analytical skills and a growth mindset. Chris has over 11 years of experience in the agribusiness financial industry with relationship management roles for two major agribusiness banks, including acquisition focuses.
Chris is particularly interested in how banks work and the different cycles they operate in, and how that influences customer policy. Chris has a strong desire to help customers articulate their business strengths to a financial provider but is also interested in understanding and analysing businesses with a view for improvement in financial performance.
In addition to a small farm, Chris and his wife Lucy also own and manage a small FMCG business which gives him a unique perspective on small business drivers and its challenges.
Invercargill

Michael McKenzie
Client Director
Southland
A born and bred in Southlander, Michael was raised on a deer farm in Central Southland. He has over thirteen years’ experience in the Rural Banking industry, holding various Client Management and Leadership roles. Most recently he was regional manager for the Southland Area for a large agribusiness bank. Michael is passionate about the Rural industry and working with farmers to achieve their goals and ambitions.
He has a young family and is heavily involved in local rugby, coaching at a senior level.
Michael is responsible for leading the NZAB brand across Southland and Otago, focusing on empowering farmers to have the confidence to control the financial and banking outcomes.
