NEW ZEALAND - A strategic leadership appointment has been announced by Zespri. The kiwifruit maven revealed that its current Chief Operating Officer Jason Te Brake will be stepping up as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Te Brake will succeed outgoing CEO Daniel Mathieson, who is leaving Zespri to join Driscoll’s, effective July 1.

“I am hugely passionate and energized about the opportunities for the industry and it’s a real honor and privilege to be able to lead Zespri,” Te Brake commented. “The kiwifruit industry has an outstanding track record of success, off the back of quality people, a world-class product, and strategy and a commitment to innovating and tackling challenges together. It is one of New Zealand’s great success stories and I am incredibly fortunate to be following in the footsteps of, and working alongside, some of the industry’s outstanding leaders.”

Te Brake was appointed COO in April 2023 and is responsible for managing Zespri’s end-to-end supply chain, from growers to markets globally. In this role, he led the industry’s response to the recent quality challenges and the planning and execution to deliver the industry’s largest-ever crop in 2024.

“My focus will be on leading the Zespri team to capture the significant demand opportunities in market, on strengthening our supply chain and operational performance to maximize value in market, and on ensuring we return as much of that value back to growers as possible,” Te Brake continued.

Chairman Nathan Flowerday commented on the leadership appointment in a press release.

“Jason is an outstanding executive with the strong commercial and stakeholder management experience we were looking for,” said Flowerday. “He has a clear strategic vision to help Zespri and the industry achieve its immense potential and the operational expertise to ensure we do so. He has done an outstanding job of leading our global supply chain and the New Zealand supply business as our Chief Operating Officer. He has also delivered exceptional results based off detailed planning and execution as the industry responded to the recent quality challenges and then reset to deliver a record crop this year.”

For more from the press release, click here.

Congratulations to these industry leaders on their new roles!