New Faces for the New Year in Westpac's Agribusiness Team

The Westpac Agribusiness team in the Wairarapa has this week strengthened its team with the appointment of two new team members in their Masterton based office.

Hamish Taylor has been appointed as Agribusiness Manager at Westpac and comes to Westpac with seven years of rural banking experience in the Wairarapa region.

A graduate of Lincoln University and farmer himself with a small family holding in Tinui, Hamish is looking forward to getting to know a new set of agri customers in the Wairarapa region.

Hamish explains “Being an active member of the local community is incredibly important to me. That’s why in addition to Westpac’s banking reputation, a key factor that drew me to the bank was the work I know they do as a supporter of community and rural industry initiatives”

Westpac currently sponsors the Wairarapa sheep and beef monitor farm programme, and have recently built on this with a major sponsorship of the new NZ Dairy Industry Awards. Westpac has also conducted highly successful Winter Farming seminars for the last three years and are active supporters and fundraisers for the Life Education Trust, the Life Flight Trust and the Cancer society’s ‘Relay for Life’.

The Westpac Agribusiness team works with a wide selection of customers in the region, from sheep & beef, dairy to viticulture and more. The larger team brings expanded expertise and the ability to look after increasing numbers of customers whilst ensuring a single named business point of contact for every Westpac Agribusiness customer.

Hamish continues “With Westpac, I will be focused on providing a quality banking service to farmers in the area. From day to day small business banking to more complex offerings such as equity partnerships. I’m really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting many new ones too.”

Also joining Hamish as a new member of the team is Angus Chrisp, a graduate of Massey University who after a full year in training on Westpac’s graduate programme has been successful in obtaining a permanent post with the Agribusiness team as a Manager.

Both Hamish and Angus will be joining the existing Wairarapa Agri team including Blair Stevens - Senior Agribusiness Manager, Leah Bowyer and Sharon Ryan, Analysts to the Managers.

Customers wanting to find out more about Westpac Agribusiness services should call 0800 177 155.

www.westpac.co.nz