Cultivating growth for our customers and our team

Chris is the founder of Southern Cross Horticulture. Having planted his first kiwifruit orchard in 1977, Chris then founded and established a post-harvest fruit packing and cool storage facility in 1983 (which grew to be in the industry’s top 5% by volume). Chris has a broad background in rural land, real estate, post harvest processing, and orchard development. Chris is also a director of the company, bringing with him wisdom gained through 40 years of experience in the kiwifruit industry.

Andrew is a Director of Southern Cross Horticulture group. Having returned from academia in 2010, he quickly discovered that business was a much more exciting challenge than economics. Andrew’s time is divided across working with the business leaders, spending time with customers, and identifying opportunities to help achieve our mission of creating and managing the world’s best orchards. In 2024 Andrew was elected to the Zespri Board, and is looking forward to being more involved in the industry.

Having been immersed in the industry from a young age, Russell joined Southern Cross Horticulture upon returning from overseas. He has extensive experience across the nursery, construction, establishment and cropping divisions. Russell is a Director of the company, bringing a measured and practical approach to helping us create and manage the world’s best orchards.

Josh has taken over as the role of CEO from April 2023, following running the construction business unit for the preceding two years where he headed up the construction business unit managing the infrastructure and construction phases across all of our developments creating high-quality orchards built to last a lifetime.Josh comes from a background in the primary industries having worked in the dairy, cropping and horticulture sectors both hands on and as a rural professional.Josh is passionate about empowering and challenging people to live their best life, he is also passionate about continuous improvement of systems and processes to delight customers.Josh is married with three children and their family enjoys walking, mountain biking and all things water sports.

Phil has been involved with orchard development, construction and operations for over twenty years, three of these years spent in Japan developing G3 orchards. Phil is the General Manager of operations at SCH and is dedicated to leading our operations team in creating and managing world class kiwifruit orchards. He has a passion for excellence in everything he does and strives to help people reach their full potential.Previously a mechanic by trade and also an experienced dairy farmer, Phil enjoys mountain biking, water-skiing and spending time with his wife Siobhan, five children and ten grandchildren.

With a focus on commercial operations including; customer relationships, marketing, business risk and enhancement Klemen’s Commercial Manager role sees him supporting customers and the team across all facets of the business. Klemen has been working for Southern Cross Horticulture since 2014. He has worked across several different divisions including orchard management, nursery and orchard construction and has gained invaluable building and construction management experience, helping us to realise cost-efficiencies, time savings, and control over quality. Outside of work Klemen enjoys spending time with his family, his hobbies are numismatics and chess.

Matt joined Southern Cross Horticulture at the beginning of 2019 having spent the prior 8 years working as an Orchard Manager. He joined Southern Cross Horticulture as the Establishment Operations Manager spending two years in this role before transitioning to his current role of Innovation Manager. In his Innovation role, Matt’s excited about supporting the SCH business units to create and manage the world’s best kiwifruit orchards. This will involve identifying and implementing new technologies and innovations that push the boundaries which will help achieve a bigger first crop faster and set our orchards up for high performance in the long term. Outside of work you will find Matt enjoying the outdoors and spending time with his family.

Tom heads up our Contracting Unit which provides the contracting requirements to our Cropping and Establishment Teams. The Contracting Units aim is to provide a market leading service where quality and dependability are never compromised. Tom comes from a business background, having run his own manufacturing and importing business for the last 16 years. In his spare time, he enjoys fishing, hiking and spending time with his family.

Phil grew up in Hawkes Bay and developed an interest in horticulture while working on pip fruit orchards during his school holidays. His interest in both the horticulture and agriculture sectors then led him to Lincoln University to study a bachelor of commerce, majoring in agriculture. Prior to joining Southern Cross Horticulture in 2021, Phil worked in rural banking and finance in New Zealand and abroad for 18 years. This experience compliments his role as Horticulture Business Manager, providing financial discipline to achieve world class results. In recent years he has developed a personal interest in kiwifruit, with a governance role in orchards based in Gisborne, Paengaroa and Edgecumbe. His time outside of work is spent on the sea or lake with his wife and three children.

Having worked in Horticulture from a young age, Christine brings over 20 years of plant propagation experience to her role of Nursery Business Manager. Most of this time spent in tissue culture, Christine has also worked with seed production, and has been involved in running a breeding program for both lilies and Mānuka. Christine loves growing and is always seeking new methods of how to enhance the horticulture industry through innovation and sustainability. She has been with SCH for four years and is passionate about teaching and developing others in their roles. Outside of work Christine enjoys walking her dog and spending time with family and friends.

Bio coming shortly

Ben joined the SCH team in June 2021 as a Financial Accountant and now heads up the Investment Business Unit. As lead for Invest, Ben is responsible for financial management of SCH's partnerships and seeking new investment opportunities. He enjoys the complexity and problem solving aspect of the role.Prior to working at Southern Cross Horticulture, Ben worked in public sector finance both in New Zealand and abroad, where he became a Chartered Accountant.Outside of work Ben enjoys fishing, travelling and spending time with friends.

Bio coming shortly