The Management Agency

The Management Agency Board Members

Mark Dingle

Mark Dingle

Chairman

Mark is the Principal Consultant of Evaluate! He has completed a variety of public sector project and programme management roles in the social housing, transport, health, and education sectors, in New Zealand and internationally.  He has extensive experience implementing strategic change and investment programmes that rely on robust analyses and risk assessments, from which to make sound decisions.

Mark is a keen hobbyist Beekeeper and a member of the local Christchurch Beekeepers club.

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Val Graham

Deputy Chair

Val is a marketing consultant specializing in customer experience, customer measurement and data-driven strategy. Prior to that, she was in financial services marketing in the private sector, both in the UK and NZ, for over 20 years, and was a university lecturer in marketing for undergraduate degree and masters level. She has been on the Board of North Harbour Rugby Union since 2014 and a judge in the NZ Export Awards since 2015.

A keen hobbyist beekeeper, she is looking to promote sustainable and healthier honey bee populations.

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Gabriel Torres

Gabriel started beekeeping in 1994 upon leaving High School in Uruguay. Following 10 years of working in the beekeeping industry Gabriel and his wife Ana Laura decided to make a life in New Zealand. Since arriving, Gabriel has worked for several beekeeping operations focusing on hive growth, pollination, honey production and queen rearing. Gabriel now has his own business.

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Jason Ward

Jason is a member of a well-known beekeeping family in the Hawkes Bay and has been involved in keeping bees during his life.  Taking a break from beekeeping Jason embarked on a career in the health sector working in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Jason is currently the Chairperson of the Takapau Community Health Centre Trust and a Director on Health Hawkes Bay, Te Oranga Hawkes Bay.

Jane Röllin

Jane is an experienced strategic organisational resilience expert with a focus on building strong relationships and connections. She has over 25 years’ experience managing complex issues encouraging strategic thinking and planning, building capability, and spotting opportunities to ‘join the dots’ and make things simpler. Jane has a breadth of governance experience, and is currently the  Chair of the Board of RiskNZ.

Beekeeping came much later in life – Jane is currently an Auckland based hobby beekeeper, but in the process of setting up a hazelnut orchard in Taupō.

Trent Proffit

Trent is currently General Manager of one of the country’s largest Iwi owned commercial honey businesses. Having spent over a decade focused on operational management across Primary Industry, he made the transition to commercial beekeeping 6 years ago and hasn’t looked back.

Throughout this period, he has worked from the hive to market in a number of beekeeping businesses. Being based on the East Coast, he is passionate about the regions and the opportunity sustainable beekeeping provides.

Murray Elwood

Murray joined the AFB PMP Board in December 2023. Murray Elwood has been a commercial beekeeper for the past 32 years. Murray and Nicky (his wife) run a beekeeping partnership with 2,500 hives.

Murray has experience in many aspects of running a honey business, from hive management and bee health, to extracting, packing, processing, and exporting the partnership’s honey products. Murray is passionate about beekeeping and believes in our industry and the wonderful products that are produced in New Zealand.

Hayley Pragert

Hayley Pragert

Advisor to the Board

Hayley is an advisor, working for the Ministry for Primary Industries in bee biosecurity, and previously for the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

Hayley is currently involved in bee research and preparedness programmes, specifically, the Bee Pathogen Programme and the ApiWellbeing project.

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Niharika (Niha) Long

General Manager (National Compliance Manager)
American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan

Niha has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Marine Science. She has worked for the past 10 years in various roles in the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), most recently in the Response Group in Biosecurity New Zealand where she led and managed post-border biosecurity responses to complex pests and pathogens, in partnership with mana whenua, Industry and non-Industry partners.

Niha is passionate about driving a system and education change for eliminating AFB in New Zealand; through her understanding of complex biosecurity issues and her experience in surveillance, risk management, and engaging with the public and industry partners for the promotion of best biosecurity management practices.

Email: [email protected]

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Marco Gonzalez

National Operations Manager (Southern Region)
American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan

Marco is an AP1 responsible for managing the National AFB surveillance and inspection function including the supervision of AP2s.
Marco has a strong background of AFB management and biosecurity, working as an Apiary Officer with AsureQuality from 2006 to 2017, and more recently as a Compliance Manager at Midlands Apiaries Ltd.

Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 302
DDI: 03 926 3240
Mobile: 022 0169 669
Email: [email protected]

Dwayne

Dwayne Hill

National Operations Manager (Northern Region)
American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan

Dwayne started bee keeping in 1999 as a trainee and worked his way to an apiary management position.  He has run his own hives and worked with many beekeepers from varying backgrounds. He holds an AP1 and has a passion to keep the industry as a whole thriving at all levels.  He has managed AFB across different parts of the country and in varying apiary sizes with great elimination success.

Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 305
DDI: 06 928 4137
Mobile: 027 7660 145
Email: [email protected]

Janette Gwilliam

Training Coordinator
American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan

Janette has a strong administration background in banking and insurance.  She is responsible for coordinating the AFB Recognition Courses being held throughout New Zealand, processing the annual AFB levies as well as supporting Marco Gonzalez & Dwayne Hill.

Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 301
DDI: 04 909 0029
Email: [email protected]

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Tracey Gonzalez

Apiary Coordinator
American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan

Tracey is an Apiary Coordinator who joins us from AsureQuality having been an apiary registrar for nearly 5 years and was also involved in supporting the Honey Bee Exotic surveillance programme.  Tracey is a hobbyist beekeeper enjoying learning about beekeeping with her family.

Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 303
DDI: 03 974 2019
Email: [email protected]

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Leonie Elliott-Mason

Apiary Coordinator
American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan

Leonie Elliott-Mason is an Apiary Coordinator responsible for supporting management and liaising with our Beekeepers through-out New Zealand.  Leonie has 30 years experience working in the airline industry specialising in planning and coordination within operations/management teams.

Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 304
DDI: 03 930 8380
Email: [email protected]

AFB Quiz
Take the AFB 5 minute quiz

How well do you know what you need to know about AFB and beekeeping? Take our short quiz and find out.

AFB Videos
Videos

Our videos cover everything from your legal obligations to how to recognise AFB, collecting cell and bee samples and more.

AFB Symptoms
Symptoms

There’s a lot of good information here, telling you everything you need to know about recognising AFB: the visual symptoms, smell of AFB and more.

AFB Inspection and Diagnosis
Inspection and Diagnosis

Successfully eliminate AFB by telling the difference between symptoms of AFB and other brood diseases in the hive. We tell you the best methods for inspecting your hives.

AFB Law
The Law

New Zealand beekeepers have a number of legal obligations that must be met regarding AFB disease. Read the shortened list in summary, here.

AFB Elimination
Elimination

Most hives become infected because bees, honey or equipment have been put into a hive from another hive that is infected with AFB. Lower your chances of an  AFB infection by reading this section.

AFB Course Info
AFB Recognition Course Info

Find out when the next AFB Recognition and Competency Courses, or Refresher Courses are available. These are held throughout the year in various New Zealand locations across the South Island and North Island.

The AFB App

Follow the link below to open the App. Once open to save to your device you need to bookmark the URL on your phone so you can find it easily again. Please click here to open.

HiveHub