New HMC recruit brings strong agribusiness experience to the team
Kate Robinson (nee Webber) has joined the HMC Communications team as senior account manager, bringing with her sound knowledge and experience in agriculture.
Robinson has more than 22 years public relations experience in both agency and in-house communications roles. She and HMC managing director, Heather Claycomb, met more than 15 years ago early on in their PR careers.
“I’m excited to be back working with Heather again,” says Robinson. “She has built her business from the ground up with professionalism, integrity and honesty.
“I am proud to be aligned with those values and honoured to have the opportunity to work with some of New Zealand’s most well-respected companies.”
Born and bred on a dairy farm near Cambridge, Robinson’s passion for agriculture has always been in her blood. She spent nearly 6 years with Baldwin Boyle Group in Hamilton and Auckland providing public relations counsel to some of our country’s largest agricultural businesses.
Robinson joined the communications team at DairyNZ in 2007, leading public relations efforts for the dairy industry’s environmental and animal welfare programmes. She was also part of the team that coordinated the transition from Dexcel to DairyNZ, which included a major rebranding campaign. During that time, Robinson was responsible for leading communications for DairyNZ’s farmer tri-annual levy vote to secure funding for industry good research and development.
Robinson spent a number of years copywriting for The NZ Dairy Exporter as well as managing DairyNZ’s farmer-to-farmer mentoring service, Dairy Connect.
Until recently, Robinson was an equity partner in her family’s 1000 cow dairy operation near Taupo, where she lived for 10 years. She is now based in Kinloch and has two children aged 6 and 8.
