Carl Eden
Carl Eden is a father of three and husband who’s passionate about water and improving animal health and welfare. Carl qualified as a veterinarian in 1999 and completed his Master of Business Administration in 2016. He is currently the ANZ Regional Manager of the IDEXX Water, Livestock, Poultry and Dairy Business at IDEXX. Based out of Hamilton, Carl manages a team of likeminded individuals that celebrate diversity and inclusion across our communities in their pursuit of enabling efficient and safe production of food and water for all.

Outside of work, Carl can usually be found outside, in, on or more likely under the water. His love of the outdoors, diving and helping others has led him to many corners of the world. Currently he is focused on exploring New Zealand and meeting the great many folks that contribute to our unique and fortunate way of life.

Mat has held a number of farmer-facing and programme development roles over the 9 years that he has been employed at Fonterra.

His current role is GM On Farm Excellence – Environment and he is responsible for the development and delivery of the on-farm component of their sustainability strategy. This includes the development of the farmer-facing tools and services that fit within their Co-operative Difference framework and enable their field teams to support farmers to meet co-op and on-farm aspirations. Most recently this has included the development and delivery of Farm Environment Reports (which includes bespoke Nitrogen and GHG profiles) to all Fonterra farmers; and their Farm Environment Plan service that is delivered via a team of Sustainable Dairying Advisors. Mat is also responsible for representing Fonterra farmers through policy and advocacy processes at both national and regional level.

Mat grew up on a farm in the Waikato and is currently based out of the Fonterra Christchurch office. 

Neil Brown
Neil is a born and bred Ashburton family man, having been married to Judy for 27 years and raised three children here. He has lived and worked on farms throughout the district and have business interests in our town.

Before being elected Mayor in October 2019, he served three years as Deputy Mayor and 12 years as a Councillor for the Ashburton District Council.

Council has a diverse range of activities going on and are working through a number of issues at any one time. Each issue is unique in their own way to the Ashburton District and he is keen to see progress continue for the betterment of the district.

In saying that it is not his vision, it is the community’s vision. Neil’s role is to lead and drive the community vision to make our district a great place to live, work, play and visit.
Neil has a special interest in freshwater as he owns two dairy farms and two crop and dairy grazing blocks. This subject not only affects our community but my own businesses.

Chris Allen
Chris worked for Air New Zealand for 15 years and qualified as a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. Since 1994 Chris and his wife Anne-Marie have been farming a 360 hectare irrigated, sheep, beef and cropping property in Mid Canterbury.

The farm is fully spray irrigated with some stored on farm water and now runs five centre pivots, one lateral /pivot. two Rotorainer irrigators.

Technology is used to deliver precision agriculture , including using real time telemetry on irrigation to monitor water flow , quality and Soil moisture. Direct involvement with Farming issues. Elected Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury Provincial President for three years from 2011.

2014 to now appointed to the Ashburton Water Management Zone Committee as a community member. 2014 to now , Elected to Federated Farmers National Board with responsibility for RMA, Water & Environment pest and waste. 2014: Appointed to the governance group of Good Management Practices project.

Federated Farmers representative on Land and Water Forum. 2017 Recipient of the Silverfern farms plate to pasture National award title.

Chris was Federated Farmers trustee that set up and completed the Draft NPS Bio diversity and report on associated complimentary and supporting measures for Minister of Environment.

Alison Worth
Alison Worth is the environment lead at FarmIQ. Being based in the Waikato and influenced by local policy and sensitive catchments has enabled her to support and guide farmers all over New Zealand to make sense of,  and get started on their FEP journey in a way that provides ownership and reward. Alison is fluent in farm, policy and science languages, helpfully translating between them to provide balanced and informed advice tailored to each farm business she works with. 

Shona Sluys
Shona Sluys has twelve years’ experience working within the agriculture industry. Shona has formerly worked as a policy advisor for Federated Farmers NZ, as a farm certification specialist for Synlait, and as a research and development project manager with Beef & Lamb NZ. Most recently she has been a coordinator for the Mycoplasma bovis programme with Assure Quality.

Shona has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Master of Science (Geography). Shona is based in Christchurch and commenced employment with the Trust on 20 July 2020.