Donna Cram

Donna, as a fourth-generation dairy farmer from Taranaki, is heavily involved in her community, as the Taranaki Catchment Communities Inc Chair and Founder, part of the DairyNZ Dairy Environment Leaders, and a DairyNZ Climate Change ambassador, a member of Taranaki Federated Farmer Exec, a Trustee for Dairy Trust Taranaki and Councillor at Taranaki Regional Council.

She is a lifelong learner, with a passion for connecting people, bringing new people through the industry, a focus on the environment and how we can continue to produce amazing food in a sustainable way. She leads by example and her farm was one of three finalists in the Fonterra Responsible Dairy Award in 2021. She is passionate about financial sustainability having trained as an accountant.

Donna takes a grassroots, farm, local, regional and international view of what she does and you can see that translate into the influencing she does at regional and central government level.  

She is very values led and leads by example, supporting others to become leaders too and being highly inclusive. She is an inspiration, seeing the big picture and mobilising others to help reach that vision.  

– Judges Panel