Thursday, 31 May 2018 15:39

Women in Wine: Tracy Benge

Written by 
Tracy Benge. Tracy Benge.

Back in 2014, Tracy Benge could not have imagined that she would be taking on the development management role for one of the biggest New Zealand Winegrower initiatives ever.

Today Benge is the Development Manager for the New Zealand Winegrowers’ Research Centre, to be based in Marlborough.

After all she only had a three-month contract to instigate the Sustainable Winegrowing WiSE programme. Now four years later, she is the person who is overseeing a benchmark development for the New Zealand wine industry. She is the face behind the country’s first national grape and wine research centre as part of the new government Regional Research Initiative.

For Benge it is the opportunity to utilise every one of her many skills including qualifications as a Chartered Accountant, a Business degree, a qualification in grape growing and winemaking from EIT, and Project Management certification to name a few. Her extensive business background in finance, operations and management has a heavy focus on process engineering and project management, and more recently, 10 years in the wine industry including sustainability.

It all began back at Victoria University in Wellington, where Benge completed a business degree. She then chose to carry on studying, gaining a chartered accountancy qualification.

With a scholarship from PricewaterhouseCoopers, she went on to work in audit and management consultancy for the next four years.

“I left the traditional accountancy background and worked more in the area of business management,” she says.

Like many young New Zealanders, Benge headed off shore for further experience, ending up in London for five years, where she worked in investment banking and also established her own consulting business.

“It was called E2E (End to End) Consulting. I specialised in re-engineering processes and controls, improving operational efficiency for businesses.

“I love this type of work, the whole end-to-end business process, how it can be improved and how businesses can be made more efficient with better controls and processes. When I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I worked in audit and on fraud investigations, which is all about tracing transactions back to source. I guess that is where I really developed that process style of thinking.”

While in London, Benge also worked for the largest bank in the world, JP Morgan, which is where she decided she would like to study project management. It was a wise choice, given just as she had completed her qualification, JP Morgan merged with Chase Manhattan.

“I put my hand up and said I would like to project manage the merger of the two investment companies, valued at £2bn. I got the job and my role was to merge the two operating platforms into one. It wasn’t always an easy environment, mergers never are, so in many ways it taught me important management skills. It also taught me a lot about putting together a business case, because I was constantly having to do that, to make decisions on what the merger model was going to look like, and deploying change management skills to get the right outcome.”

So how did she go from project managing one of the largest bank mergers in the world, to working for New Zealand Winegrowers? It was all thanks to a “light bulb” moment she says, which took place at New Zealand House in London.

“I have always been interested in wine and I went to a wine tasting they were holding there. Mark Inglis, who was the winemaker for Montana at the time, was running the tasting.”

Having lost both his legs below the knee to frostbite, after being stranded on Mt Aoraki back in the 80s, his story on having to change career, resonated with Benge.

“I thought this guy has been through all this adversity to get where he is today. It is an amazing story. But for me I was thinking, I don’t have to go through any adversity to change career, I can just do it. That was my light bulb moment. I decided there and then that I wanted to pursue a career in wine. So I went back to work and resigned. I’ve never looked back.”

Then it was back to New Zealand, where she enrolled in the two-year correspondent course in grape-growing and winemaking with EIT.

Motherhood intervened before she could gain work experience in the industry and from the time she finished her course, she was a stay at home mum for seven years. But her desire to be involved with wine hadn’t diminished any in those intervening years. Once she made the decision to go back to work, she began taking on contract jobs in Auckland.

“I wanted to gain experience in the industry from the ground up,” she says.

She took on work with Constellation, Toi Toi Wines and Coopers Creek. But checking out the NZW website was all the impetus that was needed to move on to her latest career path.

“I had decided that I wanted to work for NZW, so I had a look at the website to see what projects they had going. 

“That was the start of the PGP and I thought they might require a project manager.”

So she updated her CV and contacted Philip Gregan. Unfortunately for her the role had already been taken. But her skill set was obviously impressive, because they asked if she would be interested in another project, the implementation of WiSE (NZW’s Wine Industry Sustainability Engine). She went for the interview the next day and was offered the job on the spot.

That was the initial three-month contract. Since then Benge has been involved in a strategic review, the financial benchmarking programme with MPI, and the development of the SWNZ Continuous Improvement Project which was launched last July.

“I had literally just launched that, when this job came up. It is an amazing opportunity and I am really excited about it, mostly because for the first time I get to use every one of my skills in the industry I love, in the place I love. Moving to Marlborough was an easy decision. It is the chance of a lifetime.”

» Latest Print Issues Online

Editorial

Welcome to 2024!

Welcome to 2024!

OPINION: The New Year is now well underway and appears to have started promisingly on the weather front, with lots…

Agritech's relentless growth

Agritech's relentless growth

OPINION: Witnessing the relentless growth of agritech in New Zealand vineyards and wineries is somewhat "bittersweet" for Tahryn Mason, who…

Popular Reads

Ten years of Méthode Marlborough

New Zealand wine enthusiasts have a deepening understanding and growing appreciation of sparkling wine, says Mel Skinner, Chair of Méthode Marlborough…