Foodeast team building momentum
Foodeast-Haumako team on-boarded and ready to go.
The Foodeast-Haumako team is up and running, ready to bring the kaupapa of the food, beverage and agri-tech innovation centre to life.
Engagement Manager Rachel Campbell will focus on liaising with the food and beverage industries to support their innovation, while Services Manager Mel Lewis will manage the facility, including operations, administration and communications.
They will be working with Michael Bassett-Foss who has been with Foodeast-Haumako as interim chief executive since September 2022 and was confirmed in the permanent position in May.
“We are all very pleased to be getting on with the ultimate aim of the facility, now that the planning and construction phases have been completed.”
Foodeast-Haumako is an innovation centre focused on food, beverage and agri-tech products. It offers a mix of permanent tenancies, bookable spaces, and services supporting companies wanting to develop new and existing products for today’s markets.
Introducing the Foodeast team: Mel Lewis, Rachel Campbell & Michael Bassett Foss
The team has strong links into innovation networks across New Zealand including with universities and the New Zealand Food Innovation Network, programmes such as Sustainable is Attainable, and organisations specialising in things like extracting value from what has typically been thought of as food waste (think apple skins, grape skins and sediment, and ‘imperfect’ produce).
Foodeast-Haumako board chair Dr Nicky Solomon said the board is delighted with the staff appointments, and that with the building complete both board and the team are working at pace to bring the facility to life.
“The primary sector is the powerhouse of our region; driving employment and GDP. We have been charged with taking the industry to the next level in every way we can, and we are very much looking forward to making real progress on that. Foodeast-Haumako is well-placed to make a contribution to the Government’s goal of doubling the value of exports from Aotearoa within 10 years.”
The team:
Chief Executive - Michael Bassett Foss
Michael Bassett-Foss has a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in Physics. He has extensive senior executive and governance experience across the international corporate, small business, government and not-for-profit sectors, built on a thorough grounding in founding start-ups, economic development and account management across a broad range of industries in New Zealand, Australia and South America, including IT, telecommunications, the primary sector and general industry.
Engagement Manager - Rachel Campbell
Rachel Campbell is a qualified nutritionist with more than 20 years’ experience in stakeholder management, marketing and business development in the food, beverage and health industries in New Zealand and globally. Her experience includes developing marketing strategies and communications materials, programme and stakeholder management, event planning, product development and commercialisation, scientific literature reviews, advising on food labelling, export regulations and compliance.
Services Manager - Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis’s background is in banking, the small-to-medium enterprise space, and most recently leading a start-up. Her experience encompasses product development, onboarding new systems, contract negotiations, customer service and engagement, project management, relationship management, consumer and business analytics, traditional and digital marketing, day-to-day business management and strategic business planning.