Our People

Andrew Sanders joined Ballance as a Nutrient Specialist in the Rotorua district in May 2004, and was promoted to the position of Area Sales Manager in April 2008. After another promotion Andrew became the North Island Regional Sales Manager, and is now the National Sales Manager.

Prior to joining Ballance, Andrew ran an agricultural contracting business in the central North Island. A native of Yorkshire, England, Andrew grew up in a small farming village and says his choice of career was influenced by his grandparents, who had an arable farm nearby.

After graduating with a Diploma in Agriculture, Andrew specialised in pigs and cereals, progressing through the ranks to Assistant Manager of a 550-sow breeding unit and 500-hectare arable farm.

Andrew Rutherford is the Key Accounts Nutrient Specialist for the Central Plateau, and has worked in the agriculture industry for 20 years. He spent seven years with PGG Wrightson Ltd working up through the ranks from a trainee in the Central Plateau to Branch Manager in Katikati, before joining Ballance in March 2002. A promotion to Key Accounts Nutrient Specialist followed in April 2008 - a role in which Andrew enjoys building strong business relationships, and having a positive influence on his customers farming operations through providing quality advice.

Having grown up on his family’s 225-hectare sheep and beef farm in the southern Hawke’s Bays, Andrew has a thorough and practical appreciation of farming. He has combined this experience with the learnings gained through his time at both PGG Wrightson and Ballance to develop a broad knowledge of the agricultural sector.

He has also gained accreditation as a Certified Nutrient Management Advisor, and has spent a number of years as the Judges Coordinator for the Ahuwhenua Trophy Competition. This has extended his network within both Maori farming and the farming industry as a whole.

After graduating from Massey University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, majoring in farm management and valuation, Grahame joined the Rural Bank in Taranaki. In a varied career, Grahame has held a number of roles with different organisations across the North Island including: client relationship management, farm consultancy and leadership of teams.

Grahame has a passion for coaching others to be effective and achieving their goals and brings a wealth of coaching and commercial acumen to the sales team.

Grahame also holds a Post graduate Diploma in Business and Administration endorsed in Human Resource Management and a Diploma in Business in Property Management.

When not working Grahame enjoys a range of activities including endurance events, coaching children’s football and following a range of sports.

Courtney completed her B Com in Agriculture via correspondence whilst holding down a full time job working for Farmlands - this meant the need to be very time focused and planned. A year after completing her B Com Courtney joined Ballance in 2013, progressing through to Key Accounts starting in December 2016.

Both the Intermediate and Advanced Sustainable Nutrient management courses have been completed allowing the submission of papers to obtain accreditation as a Certified Nutrient Management Advisor. Courtney has also sat the Women in Leadership course run by Agri Womens Development Trust.

Courtney is also a part of the Sheep and Beef strategy team that was set up in 2016 at Ballance. This team play an important role in helping Ballance understand how we help our customers meet future needs and ensure our sales team receive the right training.

Ian Ross joined Ballance in March 2018 bringing with him experience from a number of previously held leadership roles.

Originally from Northern Ireland, Ian completed his secondary schooling in NZ and went on to Massey University where he completed a Bachelor of Agriculture.

With a focus on the primary sector, Ian has experience across Dairy, Meat, Arable and Finance disciplines. He brings to this role a passion for customer service and the development of people.

Ian’s early career involved agronomy and grain manager roles prior to a period working in rural banking, where he held a number of senior leadership roles. Recently, that change in career direction involved Ian leading sales teams in the corporate segment of primary industry training.

Outside work, Ian has a keen interest in salt and freshwater fishing, boating, game bird shooting and golf.

Josh is the Regional Sales Manager for the Western Lower North Island region.

Josh joined Ballance in January 2010 as a Nutrient Specialist in the North Waikato. He then spent two years dairy farming managing 400 cows in the South Waikato, before returning to Ballance to join the Science Extension team where he has spent the last 7.5 years in a technical support role to the business.

Josh is born and bred in Whanganui on a sheep and beef property and attended Lincoln University to complete a Bachelor of Agricultural Science.