Our role as New Zealand Bee Health & Biosecurity

New Zealand beekeepers

We’re here for

With a dedicated team spread across Aotearoa, NZ Bee Health & Biosecurity is a not-for-profit organisation funded exclusively by beekeeper levies that supports NZ beekeepers in their fight against AFB.

Our team works closely with all New Zealand beekeepers to provide education for the effective management of AFB and securely collects data via HiveHub (our national apiary database) which is used to track and manage the disease nationwide.

We support NZ beekeepers to meet their legal obligations under the American Foulbrood National Pest Management Plan (AFB NPMP) and we are required to take action and prevent the spread of AFB. This protects beekeeping operations and neighbouring colonies from the financial impacts of AFB spread and safeguards the sector’s export markets.

Together, we can eliminate AFB from managed colonies and enter a future where effective AFB elimination is part of the standard operating procedures for every beekeeping operation. Our team, many of whom are beekeepers themselves, are proud to support the NZ beekeeping community in achieving this goal.

Enforcing

AFB NPMP

Beekeepers have several legal obligations that must be met under the Biosecurity (National American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan) Order 1998. The AFB NPMP grants powers to NZ Bee Health & Biosecurity to enforce compliance with these legal obligations, in the interest of all beekeeping operations and the health of the beekeeping sector.

DATA_CHECK

Learn more about how we do this  EAST

Our

team

Meet the dedicated team supporting New Zealand beekeepers in their fight against AFB.

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2025 Board members

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Chair
Mark Dingle

Deputy Chair
Val Graham 

  • Mark is the Principal Consultant of Evaluate! He has completed a variety of public sector project and programme management roles in the social housing, transport, health, and education sectors, in New Zealand and internationally.  He has extensive experience implementing strategic change and investment programmes that rely on robust analyses and risk assessments, from which to make sound decisions.

    Mark is a keen hobbyist Beekeeper and a member of the local Christchurch Beekeepers club.

  • Val is a marketing consultant specializing in customer experience, customer measurement and data-driven strategy. Prior to that, she was in financial services marketing in the private sector, both in the UK and NZ, for over 20 years, and was a university lecturer in marketing for undergraduate degree and masters level. She has been on the Board of North Harbour Rugby Union since 2014 and a judge in the NZ Export Awards since 2015.

    A keen hobbyist beekeeper, she is looking to promote sustainable and healthier honey bee populations.

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Lubomir Dudek

Jane Röllin

  • Lubo is an accomplished leader and manager with over two decades of national and international experience in apiculture, primarily at the commercial level.  He recently transitioned from his role as the General Manager of a large beekeeping company to focus on international sales, marketing, and business development.  Lubo brings his management and organisational skills to the Board, as well as strategic and innovative thinking blended with a longstanding passion for bees and apiculture.

  • Jane is an experienced strategic organisational resilience expert with a focus on building strong relationships and connections. She has over 25 years’ experience managing complex issues encouraging strategic thinking and planning, building capability, and spotting opportunities to ‘join the dots’ and make things simpler. Jane has a breadth of governance experience, and is currently the  Chair of the Board of RiskNZ.

    Beekeeping came much later in life – Jane is currently an Auckland based hobby beekeeper, but in the process of setting up a hazelnut orchard in Taupō.

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Trent Proffit

Murray Elwood

  • Trent is currently General Manager of one of the country’s largest Iwi owned commercial honey businesses. Having spent over a decade focused on operational management across Primary Industry, he made the transition to commercial beekeeping 6 years ago and hasn’t looked back.

    Throughout this period, he has worked from the hive to market in a number of beekeeping businesses. Being based on the East Coast, he is passionate about the regions and the opportunity sustainable beekeeping provides.

  • Murray joined the AFB PMP Board in December 2023. Murray Elwood has been a commercial beekeeper for the past 32 years. Murray and Nicky (his wife) run a beekeeping partnership with 2,500 hives.

    Murray has experience in many aspects of running a honey business, from hive management and bee health, to extracting, packing, processing, and exporting the partnership’s honey products. Murray is passionate about beekeeping and believes in our industry and the wonderful products that are produced in New Zealand.

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Advisor to Board
Hayley Pragert 

MPI Observer
John Sanson

  • Hayley is an advisor, working for the Ministry for Primary Industries in bee biosecurity, and previously for the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

    Hayley is currently involved in bee research and preparedness programmes, specifically, the Bee Pathogen Programme and the ApiWellbeing project.

  • Description text goes here

NZ Bee Health & Biosecurity Team

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  • Niha has worked for the past 10 years in various roles in the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), most recently in the Response Group in Biosecurity New Zealand where she led and managed post-border biosecurity responses to complex pests and pathogens, in partnership with mana whenua, Industry and non-Industry partners.

    Niha is passionate about driving a system and education change for eliminating AFB in New Zealand; through her understanding of complex biosecurity issues and collaborating with the sector.

    Email: niharika.long@nzbb.org.nz 

  • Marco is an AP1 responsible for managing the National AFB surveillance and inspection function including the supervision of AP2s.
    Marco has a strong background of AFB management and biosecurity, working as an Apiary Officer with AsureQuality from 2006 to 2017, and as a Compliance Manager at Midlands Apiaries Ltd.

    Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 302
    DDI: 03 926 3240
    Mobile: 022 0169 669
    Email: marco.gonzalez@nzbb.org.nz

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Northern Operations Manager
Dwayne Hill

Finance & AFB Training Coordinator
Janette Gwilliam 

  • Dwayne started bee keeping in 1999 as a trainee and worked his way to an apiary management position.  He has run his own hives and worked with many beekeepers from varying backgrounds. He holds an AP1 and has a passion to keep the industry as a whole thriving at all levels.  He has managed AFB across different parts of the country and in varying apiary sizes with great elimination success.

    Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 305
    DDI: 06 928 4137
    Mobile: 027 7660 145
    Email: dwayne.hill@nzbb.org.nz

  • Janette is responsible for the coordination of the AFB Recognition Courses held throughout the country, as well as processing the annual AFB levies and paying the monthly accounts. Janette works remotely from her home in Queenstown and loves trail running and climbing mountains.

    Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 301
    DDI: 04 909 0029
    Email: training@nzbb.org.nz

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Apiary Coordinator
Tracey Gonzalez  

Casual Apiary Coordinator
Leonie Elliot-Mason

  • Tracey is an Apiary Coordinator who has been in this role for many years and enjoys helping beekeepers achieve their compliance goals. Tracey wants beekeepers to reach out if they need help.  If she doesn’t know the answer, she will point you in the right direction. Tracey is a mother of 3 girls and enjoys going to the gym and spending time with her family.

    Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 303
    DDI: 03 974 2019
    Email: tracey.gonzalez@nzbb.org.nz

  • Leonie worked as an Apiary Coordinator full time for 4 years and now works in a casual capacity to help out at peak reporting times.

    Prior to joining the AFB team, Leonie spent 30 years working in the airline industry specializing in scheduling and rostering the pilot on ATR fleet for their training.  She has since returned to this specialist field, working from her home in Darfield for an Australian based company.  She enjoys the flexibility to be able to help out the Apiary Coordinators at times where their workload truly escalates to exceed their capacity (such as during ADRs, COI's).

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Apiary Coordinator
Paula Michelle Rich 

  • Paula joined the Management Agency in 2024 with an extensive background in legal and medical administration.  Paula has a strong interest in accurate data management and clear communication and endeavours to help beekeepers understand their responsibilities and the legal processes they need to follow to help keep AFB in check.  Outside work Paula loves to spend time in nature or relax with music or a good book. 

    Phone: 0800 232 767 ext 308
    DDI: 03 930 1162
    Email: paula.rich@nzbb.org.nz

Southern Operations Manager
Marco Gonzalez 

Chief Executive

Niharika (Niha) Long

+ 47 Dedicated AP2s across the North Island and South Island.

+ 17 AFB Recognition Course Trainers across the North Island and South Island.

Our

administration

Join

our team

    • Inspector (AP2) Contracts Available 

      • Do you have experience recognising American foulbrood (AFB) in the field?  

      • Do you have a history of compliance with National American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan (NPMP) rules?  

      • Have you held a DECA for at least 2 years?

      • Do you want to help fellow beekeepers to eliminate AFB?

      If you answered ‘yes’ to all three questions and you’d like to be part of the professional team that monitors compliance with NPMP rules and assists the Management Agency with enforcement actions in your region, this could be your opportunity to contribute to AFB elimination in New Zealand.

      The Management Agency is seeking to contract additional Inspectors (AP2s) available to work a minimum of 12 full days per year.

      We are recruiting nationwide however priority will be given to applications from:

      • Far North

      • Dargaville

      • South Taranaki

      • Waikato

      • Manawatu

      Successful applicants will be able to demonstrate both their knowledge and experience of AFB inspection and elimination, and their ability to work with beekeepers to improve their AFB control practices.

      Successful applicants will also be required to meet the Ministry for Primary Industries’ criteria for issuing Authorised Person warrants prior to appointment. This includes a criminal conviction check by the New Zealand Police.

      A copy of the role description can be found here.

      Application instructions can be found here.

      Frequently asked questions can be found here.

      Completed applications should be submitted to info@afb.org.nz