Hamish Davidson – General Manager
Hamish is Canterbury born, raised in the Manawatu and has an affinity with agriculture that led to a distinguished dairying career all over Aotearoa. He has been involved in the education sector for many years and brings a wealth of primary industry knowledge and leadership to the Land Based Training team.
Hamish lives in Whanganui with his wife and teenage sons. As a family they enjoy generally being active in the outdoors, making the most of our beautiful country!
Tom Kelleher – Operations Manager
Tom has 20 years’ experience in the tertiary education space, working for both PTE’s and ITP’s. He is incredibly passionate about providing quality education, to support our learners to achieve their educational and career goals. His most recent role was a Tertiary Education Manager for a Lower North Island PTE. Tom is based in Lower Hutt and is married with 3 young children.
John McNaughton – Operations Lead (Northland)
Born and raised in Tauranga, John spent 28 years in the Dairy industry in Waikato before moving to Northland in 2017. Taking an opportunity to work with Taratahi in the mid 2010’s, John became involved in the training of students in the Agriculture space.
An interest in Horticulture led to working with an Avocado orchard in the Whangarei area where he developed the orchards irrigation, pest control, and pollination practises to ensure high rates of production.
John joined Land Based Training in 2021 where he has been instrumental in improving the outcomes for students in Northland who are keen on developing both their practical skills and theoretical knowledge in the primary industry.
John spends his spare time managing his lifestyle block with a mixture of livestock and fruit trees specifically Avocados and Macadamias, and has recently taken up Beekeeping. It is only a matter of time before John’s honey roasted macadamia nuts become world famous..
Derek Priest – Head of School (Agriculture)
Derek joined Land based Training at its inception in 1996. After working for MAF, Derek headed up the Waitotara Valley as a shepherd general and farm owner on the Parapara hills where he focused his passion for livestock farming to future farmers.
Derek currently tutors level 3, 4 and 5 programmes at the Otiwhiti Land Based Training Agricultural Facility, inland from Hunterville. He has also been involved with agricultural training in both the Sichuan Province in China and Botswana.
Time out for him is on a 4 ha block at Fordell Whanganui where he enjoys trying new farming ideas and farming a handful of sheep and cattle.