Dr Patrick Aldwell has made a hugely positive impact on thousands of people from across the Food and Fibre sector. Passionate about life-long learning, he has also made the academic and strategic support of anyone who needed it, his life-long mission. On the Kellogg Programme alone, he did this for twenty five years.
Now he has officially retired from Kellogg (well probably, mostly).
Since retiring from Lincoln University as Dean of the Faculty of Commerce in 2012,
Dr Patrick Aldwell continued to focus on agribusiness programmes that build leadership capability in Food and Fibre.
These included the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, the Horticultural Leadership Programme, the Nuffield Scholarship and Future Food Network programmes.
Prior to returning to Lincoln University in 1998, Patrick was a scientist for 20 years at the then Forest Research Institute in the Trade, Marketing and Economics group. During this time he worked on New Zealand land use issues and internationally for the UN and World Bank on capacity-building for science infrastructure projects.
Patrick’s disciplines are in the fields of regional and industrial economics and strategic management. He has degrees from Massey University, Monash University, the University of Washington and a Dip. Agri from Lincoln University.
Patrick never tires of sharing his knowledge with students and sector leaders. He is sought out for academic support and strategic guidance, particularly when it comes to tackling the big challenges facing the primary industries and its rural communities.
Today Patrick’s academic interests lie in fields of technological change, rural issues, the interface between agricultural intensification and other ecosystems, and on building our sector’s leadership capability.
To this end, Patrick’s 25 years with the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, were marked by his support and encouragement of the rural leaders he taught.
One recent Māori Agri-business graduate of the Kellogg Programme said of Patrick, “He was instrumental in assisting me to basically learn how to write, how to write well, and to get my writing out there in the public space so that I could share what was on my heart and mind.” Comments such as this are typical and frequent.
He provided academic guidance and knowledge-rich support to rural leaders not just on the Kellogg Programme, but also the Horticulture Leadership Programme and many more. It is not just his dedicated academic support for students and scholars, but it is also to people in their ‘day jobs’ as well.
As Dean, Patrick’s long-time colleague, Associate Professor Charles Lamb, now Divisional Director at Lincoln University, said, “Dr Aldwell’s stand out quality was his genuine empathy for his staff”.
Images top and bottom – the graduation of the 50th Kellogg cohort. November 2023.
Shaping the critical and strategic thinking ability of hundreds on Kellogg.
Patrick’s involvement in the Sector runs so deep it can be hard to find a place he hasn’t had a significant positive impact on the primary industries’ people and their communities.
In late November last year, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme celebrated the graduation of its 50th cohort. Patrick was asked to speak to a large crowd of Scholars and industry leaders, not just as the Academic Director of the Programme, but as someone who had influenced the trajectory of over 800 of the Programme’s 1100+ alumni.
Patrick has often said that one of the biggest thrills he gets is hearing of the successes of those in rural New Zealand he has taught, encouraged or perhaps provided quiet counsel to when times were tough on-farm.
The length of time served, the passion, commitment, and the individuals influenced by Patrick’s involvement in key sector programmes, particularly around leader capability lift, means his impact on the primary industries has been exponential.
His fifty years of service to the Sector, positively influencing trade, science, academia and people, stands as tacit evidence of his dedication and passion for the primary industries.
In the last two decades Patrick has focused more specifically on addressing leader capability lift in the primary industries. Patrick understands the exponential impact stronger and ever-better leader ability can have in creating better outcomes for rural communities and their people.
As a simple and frequently occurring example, it is common to hear Patrick has spent hours working into the night, consulting with a farmer or grower who has been working all day on their operation. He takes a genuine interest in them as business owners, as team members, as students and as human beings. Whether on Zoom, over the phone, or in-person, Patrick never shies from helping the rural people and communities he is so passionate about.
From everyone at Rural Leaders, and the rural leaders you have supported and encouraged, enjoy your retirement Patrick.
