The Team

David Beca

Director
Primary regions: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America

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.

Brian Garrett

Africa Manager
Primary regions: South Africa

Brian has more than 25 years of experience in agriculture, working across livestock production and farm management. He holds a BSc in Animal Science and has spent most of his career in the dairy industry, including 20 years consulting with farmers on herd performance and business improvement. His background combines practical farm experience with a strong interest in business management, giving him a clear understanding of how operational and financial decisions shape farm performance. Brian enjoys working directly with farmers and their teams, supporting them in building productive and well‑managed operations.

Alejandro Naranjo

South America Manager
Primary regions: Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay

Alejandro holds a degree in Agribusiness and an MBA, with over 15 years of experience in pasture-based dairy systems across the Andean highlands and tropical regions. He has worked as both a consultant and farm manager, specialising in grazing management and dairy farm performance. He currently serves as Manager of Ganaderías Vanguardia in Ecuador and leads multiple dairy operations as well as the company’s feed mill.

Bruce Speirs

Data Processor
Primary regions: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand

Bruce has considerable enthusiasm for data analysis, especially when it is supporting well-informed decisions. Growing up on a dairy farm has meant that he finds agricultural data particularly interesting. Bruce earned a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering and holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Now living on his family’s farm in KwaZulu-Natal, Bruce takes advantage of the remote setting to hone his analytical skills and raise a family in a beautiful environment.

Leanne Gifford

Data Processor
Region: New Zealand

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

Carlien Zuur

Office Manager
Region: All regions

Carlien has more than 40 years experience in agriculture. This experience has included dairy, sheep and beef farm ownership of properties in New Zealand and Australia. Over the last 30 years she has maintained all office records for a number agricultural businesses.

Scott Beca

Software Developer & IT Support
Region: All regions

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.

Rikki Beca-Cherrett

Software Developer & IT Support
Region: All regions

Rikki is a software developer who undertakes contract development work in relation to Red Sky software upgrades. They have a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) from La Trobe University, more than a decade of experience in a full range of software development from engineering through to TechOps, and have worked with both small companies and large enterprises alike. Across websites, databases, and serverless functions, Rikki enjoys working with tech, second to spending time with their family in rural Tasmania.