Giving back important for top dairy woman

Arriving in Canterbury, she got her first leadership role -- policy manager for Federated Farmers. She was asked to join and be a delegate, becoming sharemilkers’ chair in Canterbury and sharemilkers’ national vice-chair. That led to Fed’s dairy chair for mid Canterbury then joining the national dairy executive.

“From there – this is the wonderful thing about the industry – I got a lot of upskilling and leadership training.” She took part in Kellogg’s Rural Leadership Course, travelling to China to look at their primary industries. She also went through the Fonterra governance development programme.

“There are great opportunities in the ag sector to upskill yourself and those upskilling opportunities led to other positions such as becoming a director of the Ashburton Trading Society and Ruralco which is the brand face of ATS.”

She joined the Fonterra shareholders council recently. “It has been a journey; it always starts with a small seed and grows.”

She is open to where it takes her now. Her son Adam is four so Chan-Dorman is conscious of needing to spend precious moments with him; but in this day and age it is possible to do both, she says.

Hayden and the Dorrie community are very supportive. She will step down from Feds in June and continue with Ruralco and the ATS board.

She has spent eight years in Feds and “it is time to let someone else come up through the ranks”.

“We should grow ourselves and commit to serving in different positions but we must also be conscious that at some point we’ve got to step back to let others grow and come through.

“When I was in Wellington in a desk job I never imagined where I would be; I went from living in an apartment in Cuba St and walking to work on The Terrace to living in Dorie. I never imagined I would be living in Dorie and dairy farming with Hayden, but it has been a great part of the journey and there is still plenty to come.”

She hopes as Dairy Woman of the Year she will be able to help inspire other young leaders coming through and keep giving back and growing her knowledge. There is a great opportunity with the $20,000 scholarship prize to undertake a professional/business development programme.

“There is an old saying ‘the more you learn the more you realise how little you know’. I am always eager to learn more.”

Chan-Dorman is a member of the Institute of Directors and New Zealand Asian Leaders, and has been in DairyNZ, Environment Canterbury, the Land Use Futures Board, Land and Water Forum and Ballance AgriNutrients as a judge for its farm environment awards.