New Zealand
Bestowed by HRH Queen Elizabeth II as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science and industry in the 2020 Queens Birthday Honours. Having held technical leadership roles throughout the dairy supply chain, Professor Hill has worked for Fonterra and its predecessor companies for over 30 years, the last 17 as Fonterra’s Chief Science & Technology Officer. Between 2012-2016 he served as President and Chairman of the Board of the Brussels based International Dairy Federation (IDF). He is currently Chairman of the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium and sat on the Board of the NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. In 2018 he established the Sustainable Nutrition Initiative at the Riddet Institute, Massey University, where he holds an Adjunct Professorship in Sustainable Nutrition. Professor Hill has published over 100 scientific papers and is an inventor or co-inventor of over 20 patent families. Recently Professor Hill has helped establish three start-up companies including Netherlands based Vivici B.V. focused on precision fermentation. Prior inventions and patents were used to create the a2 Milk Company Ltd with 2022 annual sales of over $1.5 billion, $123 million NPAT and a market cap of over $4 billion.
Responsible for company technology strategy and innovation performance, science and technology development, scientific affairs and external research partnerships.
Responsible for science, technology and innovation across Fonterra's manufacturing operations.
Responsible for leading the peak body for the global dairy sector including a Brussels based management team and chairing the IDF Board. IDF membership represents approximately 80% of all global milk production. IDF manages over 100 programmes and projects covering all aspects of the dairy chain and acts as the voice of the sector to key external stakeholders including intergovernmental organisations (FAO, OIE, WHO, CFS etc.) to influence best practices, guidelines, methods of analysis, policies, standards and regulations in dairy, food and agriculture.