REBECCA
KEOGHAN
Keoghan was elected
to the Westland Milk
Products board as a
director in 2015 and
is chair of the health & safety
committee and member of the
shareholder relations committee.
She has a Bachelor of Medical
Science, diplomas in leadership
and business management and a
certificate in company direction.
Keoghan is general manager of
the Landcorp Farming’s Pamu
Academy, and was named 2018
Rural Woman of Influence. She
has a wealth of experience at
both executive and governance
levels, and lends her time as
the team leader and judge for
the NZ industry award Dairy
Manager of the Year competition,
helping to celebrate the success
of farmers in New Zealand.
She has a passion for safety
leadership, with workplace
tragedies leading her towards
lifting workplace culture and
proving that safety leadership can
equal performance excellence
in any industry. Keoghan runs
a 300ha dairy farm in Westport
with husband Nathan and her
two children (the fifth generation
to own the farm) and was voted
the 2016 Dairy Woman of the
Year. Her background includes
working in medical science,
such as six years with medical
laboratories in New Zealand,
Australia and the UK. Keoghan
received an NZOM in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours for services
to business in 2017, particularly
agriculture. She is involved with
Ospri Northern South Island and
Plunket, plays trombone in the
Westport Brass Band and is a
professional percussionist with
Auckland and Blenheim A-grade
brass bands. “My passion and
drive for dairying is in all aspects
of my life,” Keoghan says. When
awarded the Dairy Woman of the
Year award, judge Alison Gibb
said Keoghan was an extremely
motivated, high performer with
positive drive and passion
who likes to take those around
her with her. “Rebecca is fully
involved in her local community
but knows exactly where she
wants to head in the leadership
space and is on her way. In
particular she acknowledges
that dairy is global and wants to
know more about that space.
Her particular passion is health
and safety and believes safety
leadership drives excellence.”
(PAMU ACADEMY/WESTLAND MILK PRODUCTS)
OBITUARY
AN ICON
PASSES
Former Waitakere mayor,
prominent local body
politician for Henderson
and winemaker Assid
Corban has died at the
age of 93. He was the
grandson of Lebanese
immigrant Assid Abraham
Corban who is credited
with kickstarting New
Zealand’s wine industry in
1908. Corbans is now one
of the country’s largest
and most successful
brands, and Corban had
in 2008 worked on plans
to turn part of the original
vineyard site – now owned
by Auckland City – into
a national wine museum.
He became a Henderson
Borough councillor in
1956, and later became
mayor, before being
elected as the first mayor
of Waitakere City in 1989.
In the 1988 Queen’s
Birthday Honours, Corban
was made an Officer of
the Order of the British
Empire, for services to
local government and the
community.
24 ANNUAL DIRECTORY 2019