Speakers
KATIA NUSSBAUM
SAN POLINO MONTALCINO
Tuscany, Italy
In 1990, London-born Katia Nussbaum and her husband, Luigi, reclaimed a rustic farmhouse in southern Tuscany where they now produce their premium wine, San Polino Brunello di Montalcino.
A fervent believer in the power of regenerative viticulture, Katia uses her earlier training in social anthropology to critique our contemporary ways of seeing. Using her beloved vitiforestry project as a metaphor for the complexity of an interconnected universe, San Polino wines become pieces for performance art: unique expressions of territory in the context of time, nature and culture.
Her dream is to be a drop in an ocean of positive change.
RAJAT PARR
PHELAN FARMS
California, USA
Rajat Parr has cultivated a varied and distinguished career in wine. His first chapter was as a sommelier and wine director, beginning with his tutelage at San Francisco’s wine mecca Rubicon under the great sommelier Larry Stone and culminating years later as wine director for the Michael Mina group, where he was in charge of the wine programs in over 20 restaurants across the United States. During this time, he began to sow the seeds for his second chapter, as winemaker. Already a celebrated wine taster and explorer, Parr began to collaborate with other winemakers, notably the late Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, to create his own small brand of wines. This experience led him to deepen his engagement with wine production through his ongoing collaboration in the vineyard and winery with winemaker Sashi Moorman and their successful brands Domaine de la Côte, Sandhi and Evening Land.
In recent years, Parr has continued to trace this trajectory to its natural terminus, becoming a winegrower himself. In recent years, he founded Phelan Farms of Cambria, California to farm and make the wine from their vineyards, focusing on regenerative agriculture and natural winemaking.
DR MIKE JOY
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON
Paekakariki Beach, Aotearoa New Zealand
Mike Joy is an outspoken advocate for environmental protection in New Zealand. He has received a number of awards, including an Ecology in Action award from the NZ Ecological Society, an Old Blue award from Forest and Bird, Environmental New Zealander of the year according to North and South magazine (2009), Manawatu Evening Standard person of the year (2012), the Tertiary Education Union NZ Award of Excellence for academic freedom and contribution to public education (2013), the 2013 Charles Fleming Award for environmental work from the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Morgan Foundation inaugural River Voice Award (2015) and the inaugural NZ Universities Critic and Conscience award (2017).
JIM BOWSKILL
HUNTER'S WINES
Marlborough, Aotearoa New Zealand
After high school, Jim completed a bachelor’s degree in viticulture and oenology at Lincoln University, followed by the now-defunct Matador Estate graduate program, which sent him to Marlborough, South Australia and California over the course of two-and-a-bit years. After following vintages across hemispheres for a while, he got stuck in Marlborough, first at Odyssey Wines, then Jackson Estate, followed by Framingham Wines, and now at Hunter’s Wines since February 2025. He had a midlife crisis and did an MBA, finishing it in 2021.
DR ANDRÉ LEU, D.SC.
REGENERATION INTERNATIONAL
Daintree, Australia
Dr André Leu, D.Sc., has been the international director of Regeneration International since 2017. Regeneration International has 600 partners in 80 countries across every arable continent. It embraces various agricultural systems, including agroecology, organic farming, biodynamic agriculture, permaculture, ecological farming, holistic planned grazing, biological agriculture and agroforestry. From 2011 to 2017, André served as the President of IFOAM-Organics International, the only worldwide representative organisation for the organic sector.
André is an expert in nature-based ecological agricultural systems, having spent over 50 years as a regenerative organic farmer focused on agroecology. He has worked in and visited countries developing food and farming systems across Asia, the Pacific, Europe, North America, South America and Africa.
JOSEPH BRINKLEY
BONTERRA
Virginia, USA
With a degree in horticulture, another in economics, and over 20 years in the field, Joseph Brinkley specialises in soil health, farming efficiencies, compost, cover crops, biodynamic farming and viticulture. He is committed to regenerative organic agriculture as a path towards increased vitality and resilience on the farm, as well as a means to climate change mitigation through carbon reintegration. He is currently Senior Director of Regenerative Organic Farming at Bonterra Organic Estates.
DR MARY RETALLACK
RETALLACK VITICULTURE
Adelaide, South Australia
Mary is the managing director of Retallack Viticulture Pty Ltd and the founder/manager of the EcoVineyards program, which promotes practical ecological solutions for a broad range of production systems. Her pioneering work on native insectary plants and associated fauna has been showcased on the ABC’s Gardening Australia program.
As an experienced board director, agricultural scientist, agroecologist and third-generation viticulturist, Mary holds a wide range of skills and experience from practical, research, teaching and consultancy roles. She is recognised internationally as a Chartered Agriculturalist (CAg). She has gathered these skills over the past 30 years, along with a PhD in viticulture and plant protection and tertiary qualifications in conservation and park management, natural resource management, education, viticulture and arbitration.
JEREMY HYLAND
THE WREKIN VINEYARD
Marlborough, Aotearoa New Zealand
Jeremy’s first ten years in the wine industry were in his home town of Gisborne with Corbans Wines.
A move to Marlborough in time for the 2001 vintage led to 15 years consulting to various wine companies and growers, spread across six different winegrowing regions of New Zealand. This period also included a few years as national viticultural manager for Kim Crawford Wines. For the past eight years Jeremy has been in the role of vigneron at The Wrekin, an organic-certified and biodynamically farmed vineyard in the Southern Valleys of Marlborough.
SARA LOEFFEN
HILL LABS
Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand
After completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in zoology and ecology, Sara completed her PhD in animal physiology at the University of Queensland, Australia. Trading warm sunny climes for the cold of Edinburgh, Sara spent eight years with SAC Consulting Veterinary Services (a division of
SRUC), where she was the senior method development scientist in the molecular diagnostics lab, developing and validating molecular test methods for the detection of major livestock pathogens. Returning to the Southern Hemisphere, Sara joined Hill Labs in 2018. In her current role as senior technologist in molecular biology, Sara is extending her skills into environmental and food testing. She was instrumental in the development of the Covid testing service offered by Hill Labs throughout the pandemic. With a focus in environmental DNA, recent projects include detection of earthworms in soil using quantitative real time PCR and the introduction of both short- and long-read sequencing to the molecular lab repertoire. Sara is excited to be part of the next generation of innovation at Hill Labs.
MIKE SAUNDERS
VOYAGER ESTATE
Margaret River, Australia
Mike started his career as a winegrower in the cellar, completing vintages for Esk Valley Estate in Hawke’s Bay and Mount Pleasant in the Hunter Valley, Australia. He returned to New Zealand to run the iconic Esk Valley Terraces Vineyard for Villa Maria, then completed stints as company viticulturist for Neudorf in Nelson and Greystone Wines in North Canterbury. Mike has recently taken the opportunity to shift to Margaret River in Western Australia as head of viticulture for Voyager Estate and is looking
forward to the chance to grow iconic Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Until Mike left for Australia last year, he was the vice chair of Organic Winegrowers New Zealand.
SARAH MCFADDEN
KELMARNA COMMUNITY FARM
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa NZ
Sarah McFadden is the general manager at Kelmarna Community Farm, a 1.7-hectare organic urban farm in central Tāmaki Makaurau. With over a decade of leadership experience in urban farming and community projects, Sarah is passionate about creating systems that reconnect people with food, the land and each other. At Kelmarna, Sarah leads a team working to demonstrate a regenerative local food system that supports climate change mitigation, urban resilience and community wellbeing. The farm grows organic produce, composts local food scraps, raises animals regeneratively and runs a wide range of community programmes – from school visits and workshops to therapeutic gardening and volunteer opportunities. Sarah will speak on the power and potential of urban farms like Kelmarna to foster sustainable, healthy communities in Aotearoa, and the critical role they play in building a more resilient and regenerative future.
DR PETER ESPIE
AGSCIENCE LIMITED
Otago, Aotearoa NZ
Peter is a scientist specialising in soil-plant relationships. After a B. Ag. Science (First Class Honours) and postgraduate study at the University of British Columbia in soil ecology, he completed a PhD on alternative phosphate fertiliser and grassland production at Lincoln as a Hellaby Fellow and was a University of Canterbury Senior Scholar. He worked as a government scientist at the Forest Research Institute and AgResearch before becoming a research fellow at Otago University, director of the Queen Elizabeth II National Conservation Trust and a Stapledon Fellow at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in the UK. He is the managing director of a research company investigating biostimulants, biofertilisers and microbiome DNA. He lives with his wife on an organic lifestyle block in Otago.
BEN TRINICK
Tauranga, Aotearoa NZ
Ben hails from the tribe of Te Whānau-a-Apanui on the East Coast, where his family has lived on the same land for over 900 years. This deep connection to whenua (land) helped inspire his winemaking journey, which began over a decade ago. After gaining experience in New Zealand, Australia, California and France, he spent 2018-2023 as assistant winemaker at Ata Rangi. In 2023, Ben pursued a long-held dream of learning te reo Māori to reconnect with his whakapapa (lineage) through full-time Māori language study. Since then, he has worked with winemaking groups committed to meaningfully weaving te ao Māori into the wine world. Today, Ben continues to craft wine, deepen his reo Māori and follow his passions for music and food.
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DR CHARLES MERFIELD
BHU FUTURE FARMING CENTRE
Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa NZ
Dr Charles ‘Merf’ Merfield is an agroecologist specialising in non-chemical weed management, soil ecology, health and nutrient management and biocontrol. He has over 30 years’ experience as both a grower and scientist in organic and ecological production systems. He is head of the BHU Future Farming Centre, Aotearoa’s only specialist agroecological research, extension and consulting organisation. He is increasingly working with the conventional horticultural and arable sectors, helping them transition to more sustainable production systems, as well as continuing to support the organic sector.
More speaker announcements to come
