With the retirement of John Mather, we welcome a new member to the KVH team – Andrew McConnell.

Andrew joins us as National Operations & Compliance Officer, and brings with him a wealth of experience in biosecurity, pest management, and risk management.

He has worked in roles across the private sector, central, and local government, most recently as Senior Biosecurity Officer at Waikato Regional Council, where he ran large pest animal control and eradication projects.

Prior to that, while at the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), Andrew was a Quarantine Officer in Auckland. He worked across the cargo, airfreight, mail, and passenger pathways inspecting goods entering New Zealand for biosecurity risk. He also held the role of Movement Control Manager for Queensland Fruit Fly incursions, managing the movement of risk goods into and out of Controlled Areas.

Andrew is no stranger to the kiwifruit industry – he once worked at Aongatete Coolstores in production and technical roles, specifically running their KiwiGreen and Psa programmes.

Having recently returned to Mount Maunganui he’s now one week into his new role at KVH, which primarily focuses on collaborating with regional councils and landowners on the national wild kiwifruit control programme, managing the movement of risk material throughout the country, and managing compliance in relation to the National Pest Management Plan (NPMP) and new Pathway Management Plan.

To get in touch with Andrew (particularly if your previous KVH contact person was John Mather), you can email him at andrew.mcconnell@kvh.org.nz or phone him on 021 569 433.