Fieldays gets first female president

Waikato farmer and businesswoman Jenni Vernon was elected unopposed at the Society’s annual general meeting recently. She’s the first female president/board chair in the organisation’s 55-year history.

Vernon served as the Society’s vice president for the past three years and has been a board member for 10 years.

The Society owns and operates Mystery Creek Event Centre and Fieldays, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural event.

Vernon says she feels privileged to take up the role of president for the Society. 

“This organisation has a proud history of delivering world class events, including Fieldays,” she says.

“In the past 55 years many before me have worked hard to create what we now see before us.

“Given a large part of my career has been involved in agriculture it seems natural for me to continue to contribute to the Society, supporting the growth in agriculture through our purpose of advancing the primary sector through innovation, education and globalisation.”

Vernon takes over the reins from outgoing president James Allen, who following the constitutional rules of the Society has completed his third and final year as president.

Vernon acknowledged the contribution that Allen made to both the Society and the wider agricultural sector.

Vernon farms a dry stock unit in partnership with her husband Gordon and son Simon, at Te Akatea, in northwest Waikato. Initially training as a teacher, she has spent more than four decades in farming and governance.

She was also the first female Nuffield Scholar and the first woman chair of Environment Waikato.  Vernon’s first encounters with Fieldays date back in her NZ Young Farmers days helping with car parking.