Kiritapu Allan, Debbie Oakley, Colleen Neville and Ngaire Scott have been selected for the Industry Governance Development Programme, which is part-funded by Zespri and designed to give candidates a solid grounding in governance, strategy, and risk.
It's the second intake of the programme after it was established two years ago. Programme committee chairman John Cook said the four shone through in an impressive field of nine.
"Our intention was to have three in the programme but we ended up with four absolutely outstanding candidates and felt it was appropriate to put four people through," he said.
"Diversity is becoming more and more part of industry leadership as the industry matures and evolves and we've got strong diversity across these four as well, even though it's purely coincidental they're all female."
Colleen Neville is a chartered accountant and chief executive of Te Arawa Group Holdings Limited in Rotorua.
Whakatane-based Kiritapu Allan, who grew up on kiwifruit orchards around Paengaroa and Te Puna, has a commercial law background. She is on the executive of the Maori Kiwifruit Growers Forum and was one of the founding governors of the Te Kaha Landowners Group Limited Partnership.
Te Puke's Debbie Oakley is the vice-chairwoman on Seeka Growers Limited, a member of the New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Forum and its representative on the Industry Advisory Council, as well as being a director of two companies that own orchards.
Ngaire Scott is the chief financial officer of Trinity Lands Limited which harvests kiwifruit from more than 110 hectares, making it one of Zespri's largest suppliers.
Mr Cook said it wouldn't just be the kiwifruit marketing giant benefiting from the programme.
"This isn't a programme designed to specifically bring forward Zespri directors - it's an industry-wide programme. Our industry has many layers of governance required so this is an investment by Zespri on behalf of the whole industry."
