Founded in 2013 by farmers from the Waikato and Canterbury, Bellevue Enterprises has grown into one of the world’s most experienced and successful cattle breeding organisations. Backed by the expertise of our partners ABS, our Recipient Service has set new standards in surrogacy, delivering more live calves and improved genetics at lower overall cost to the farmer.*

*Latest season’s results: fresh embryos implanted at Bellevue versus on-farm frozen embryo outcomes. Bellevue has a 17% better fresh embryo hold rate and 31% better frozen hold rate. Costs savings calculated from more live calves at Bellevue than on-farm, decreased value of additional empty cows on farm, additional travel and visit costs by vets.

Mark Heer

INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN

Mark has over 30 years’ experience in business across Rural and Corporate banking, manufacturing, and in wholesale and retail SMEs, including governance roles as a shareholding director and independent director. Most recently he was General Manager of Rural Banking for ASB, joining the BEL board in September 2019. Mark holds several governance positions in the rural sector, including advisory board chair roles across dairy, beef, kiwifruit, avocado and poultry farming, chair of the ASB MAGS Farm Advisory Group and trustee director for Dairy Women’s Network.

Harry Snell

INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR

Harry is a farm consultant and director of a number of farming companies. He serves as chair of Waikato-based JD and RD Wallace Ltd., and is involved in the ownership of several dairy farms in the Te Awamutu and North King Country regions. Harry was previously a director of Dairy Holdings Limited, its extensive South Island operations comprising 59 dairy farms producing 17 million kilograms of milk solids from 50,000 milking cows.

Bindi Ground

SHAREHOLDER AND DIRECTOR

Born and bred in Otorohanga, Bindi completed his degree in management studies at the University of Waikato. After an early career as a systems analyst and in database programming he took the opportunity to work for the family business, Waratah Farms, then an 800-sow piggery on 25 ha of land. Since 1992 he has been part of a team that developed the business, becoming a director. Alongside this and his Bellevue Enterprises directorship, Bindi is also the founding shareholder and director of Futurepost, a business that turns domestic and commercial plastic waste into premium fencing products.

Martin Ellis

SHAREHOLDER AND ALTERNATE DIRECTOR

Martin is a director of our breeding partners, Animal Breeding Services, and a shareholder and executive director of Waratah Farms. With a degree in management studies, Martin is also a qualified chartered accountant. His previous roles include finance director of Heat and Control Ltd., a multi-million dollar international manufacturer of large-scale food processing machinery. He was also CFO then CEO of Sleepyhead Manufacturing Group, a $300M annual turnover company with approximately 1,200 employees.

John Hepburn

SHAREHOLDER AND DIRECTOR

A Massey veterinary science graduate, John founded Animal Breeding Services over 20 years ago. Brought up on a Central Otago sheep and beef farm, he spent 15 years in general veterinary practice on the East Coast and eastern Bay of Plenty, including a 10-vet practice focused on dairy farms. Specialising in reproductive technologies since 1992, John is recognised as an authority in this and other specialised areas, pioneering techniques used across the dairy, beef, goat and pig-breeding industries. Spearheading ABS’s move into Europe, with the purchase of 50% of an existing UK business, John was also part of the group forming Bellevue Enterprises in 2012.

Paget Milsom

SHAREHOLDER AND DIRECTOR

Paget is a cardio-thoracic surgeon with over 40 years’ experience in the farming industry. He serves as a director for a number of NZ farming entities, and owns farmland in Canterbury and the Waikato. Paget has been involved in medical product development, from concept design and patent registration through to listing on international stock exchanges (NASDAQ and ASX). With a strong interest in genetics and animal breeding, Paget undertakes artificial breeding programmes on his farms. This has put his animals into the top 5% of herds for production performance in New Zealand, using only a pasture-based system with no in-shed feeding.

Richard Milsom

ED

Joining Bellevue in 2017 then moving to CEO then ED. He is currently a director of NZX Listed Allied Farmers. His industry experience covers investment management and agriculture and areas as diverse as tourism, agriculture/biotechnology and fine art auction houses, in roles ranging from strategy and finance to marketing. Richard holds a BCom in finance and economics from The University of Canterbury, with post-graduate qualifications from New York’s Columbia University and Harvard Business School in Boston. In 2017 he was recognised by the financial services industry with the INFINZ Emerging Leader award and Richard previously served on the board of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand.

Garth Anderson

FARMING OPERATIONS

Garth joined Bellevue in 2021, stepping into assist the farming operations team. Upon completing an Agri-Science degree at Massey university, he spent several years as a farm consultant before moving into the commercial sector. Garth’s vast experience across both technical and commercial aspects are of significant value to the Bellevue team and its progress going forward.

Gina Roberts

FARMING OPERATIONS

Gina started with Bellevue in 2019. Prior to this she completed an Agriculture Commerce degree through Lincoln University before working at an elite Angus breeding stud in Karapiro. Starting in an administration role with Bellevue she has now progressed to Operations. Alongside Garth, she oversees the management of our numerous farms.

Mike Richards

GENERAL MANAGER WARATAH PIGGERY

To come ….