In the position for the past six months, Clarke replaces Dr John Barker who had been with NZW for 10 years.
It has been a well travelled road for Clarke to get where he is today. He began his legal career in New Zealand, then travelled to the United States, transferred to London, and came back to New Zealand where he worked for Meridian Energy. After that it was to Paris, where he was New Zealand’s Energy Advisor at the International Energy Agency. He also worked at the OECD, prior to returning to New Zealand in 2012 to work in the Corporate Advisory group of Russell McVeagh.
A chance to combine his passion for wine with his legal and advocacy background, meant the job at NZW was one he couldn’t resist.
“It was my wife who saw the job advertised and she said, ‘this looks like you.’ I am thrilled to find a job working in wine, I must admit.”
There has very little time to sit back and work his way into the role in the past six months. Instead Clarke has been thrown into the thick of things with the GI Act implementation, MPI’s user-pays consultation, and the proposal to change NZW’s governance.
“The NZ Winegrowers board has adopted a proposal for the restructuring of the organisation and we are going out to the members in May, as we want to involve all 1500 of them. We want to know how they want NZW to be governed and structured for the future. Do they want it to be a unified entity going forward or do they want to keep separate entities with separate representation? So this is an exciting time to be stepping into the industry.”
With years of experience in business law, corporate transactions and governance, Clarke should be in his element.
With plenty of time spent in international markets, Clarke believes New Zealand wine is well-served by its united front.
“It does seem we are unique around the world in having a single body to represent the full range of our members. That gives us both a really clear vision, and international credibility. One of my roles is to participate in the various multi-national bodies that influence the rules and standards that govern our international market access – we try to make sure any changes made protect the competitive interest of New Zealand wine. To be able to do that from a single body that represents the interests of both growers and winemakers is quite special.”
