The youngest of 12 children, Conor English grew up on a farm in the small town of Dipton, Southland. He now takes on the world negotiating with key global players as chairman of Agribusiness New Zealand.
With his global perspective, he believes in being constructive and having a crack at the opportunities life gives you.
Background: Conor's career started as a farmer before he moved on to sell vacuum cleaners and manage a 24 hour service station. Since then, he has worked in Parliament for Senior Ministers and been CEO of both The Property Institute and Federated Farmers.
Previous experience: In 2014, the day before he turned 50, he left a secure high-profile job and started his own business from scratch - attempting to build farms and business in Russia, China, Kazakhstan and now Africa. He has launched his own fresh milk brand into China, exported fish, meat, dairy, cattle, embryos, fruit from New Zealand, Australia and South America. He has sold meat to Russia, worked to sell sheep from Kazakhstan to the Middle East, milk powder from Iran, and prescription drugs into Africa.
Conor was also campaign manager of his wife’s Wellington Mayoral campaign as an independent candidate and has been one of two independent advisors to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on monetary policy.
Current work: He is currently working on a partnering agreement with a New York based business with a global focus on smart cities, the internet of things and green technologies.
Conor has been a negotiator on the communique at the Rio + 20 Climate Change Conference, has spoken at 'side events' at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and given speeches in Dubai, Singapore, China, London and Australia. He has been a panellist on The Nation, done several media interviews and written many columns on topics from Donald Trump’s trade policy to Happiness.
Conor English is a top speaker with an inimitable wealth of real-life experience.