David Beca
Director
David started his career in the beef and sheep industry, moving from general farm work to management, and then onto farm ownership with his wife Carlien, and equity partnerships with investors. He then moved into the dairy industry by converting some of the beef land into dairy farms, which subsequently led to him becoming a director of a cooperative dairy company. After this he became a principal in an agricultural consultancy business start-up that developed operations throughout Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Over this time David developed the Red Sky software and promoted its use across these three countries. Over the last 9 years he has held leadership positions in large corporate dairy, beef and cropping businesses with operations based in Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Chile, Romania, Poland and Russia. This included several years living in Uruguay as the CEO of NZ Farming Systems Uruguay (now Olam Uruguay). David has specialised in the areas of agribusiness management and production systems, including identifying and reporting on the primary drivers of productivity and profitability. He has co-authored a number of scientific papers in Australia and New Zealand, with these largely based on pasture production, farm production systems, and farm business profitability, as well as completing a range of significant projects and benchmarking studies in relation to dairy, beef and sheep production.
For a full outline on David’s background click here.
Leanne Gifford
New Zealand Manager
Leanne is a farm business analyst who is primarily involved in delivering specialist advice to farmers on opportunities to improve their level of profitability. She has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) from Lincoln University and has experience in agricultural education and accountancy. In addition she has owned and operated a sheep and beef property, and invested in dairy farms. Leanne has worked extensively with Red Sky over the past 14 years delivering reports to farmers via accountancy and consultancy businesses, and continues to do this on an ongoing basis. She has lived and worked in both New Zealand and Australia, undertaken extensive work in South Africa and has completed assignments in a number of other countries including the USA and Uruguay.
Gonzalo Tuñon
Associate/Agent, South America
Gonzalo is a consultant based in Corrientes (Argentina) with significant experience in Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador. He has a PhD in agricultural science from Massey University (New Zealand) and Teagasc (Ireland), and a veterinary degree from Universidad del Nordeste (Argentina). Gonzalo has worked with AACREA and LIC Argentina, as well as INIA (Uruguay) as leader of the technology transfer team. He also spent 2 years as Technical Manager of Uruguay’s largest dairy farming business (Olam Uruguay), followed by close to 2 years as Operations Manager of the 10 eastern dairy farms. Gonzalo has specialised in dairy production systems and pasture production, as well as having experience in developing and leading effective teams of people. He also has authored a number of refereed journal publications and has an extensive list of conference presentations and proceedings to his name.
Carlien Zuur
Office Manager
Carlien has more than 35 years experience in agriculture. This experience has included dairy, sheep and beef farm ownership of properties in New Zealand and Australia. Over the last 25 years she has maintained all office records for a number agricultural businesses.
Richard Beca
Shareholder
Richard is the principal of Beca & Co, a niche commercial property law firm. Richard has also undertaken a number of other property-related activities over the last 20 years including rural subdivisions, renovating an historic building and various property investments.
Scott Beca
Software Developer & IT Support
Scott is a software developer who completes upgrades to the Red Sky software, including an upgrade to VB.NET. He also provides IT support to Red Sky clients and the entire Red Sky team.
Rob Gibberd
Software Developer
Rob is a software development consultant and has over 25 years experience in this field. Projects undertaken include the Land Information Survey Project in Wellington and work for the Lotteries Commission. He has an engineering degree and grew up on sheep and dairy farms, giving him a practical background to farming software development.
Ricky Beca
Software Developer
Ricky is a software developer who undertakes contract development work in relation to Red Sky software upgrades.