Born and bred in the stunning, arid landscapes of Central Otago’s Styx Valley, Dawn Sangster epitomises a ‘remote worker’, something this go-getter rural businesswoman’s been doing long before it was a ‘thing’.

She’s sat around some recognisable rural sector business board tables, her financial and practical knowledge coming in handy. All the while Dawn’s been active on the family farm, near Patearoa, with

husband David and her sister Carolyn and brother-in-law Drew Dundass, who manage the original Aitken family property in the Styx. These 2650ha properties make up Glen Ayr Ltd. They also have a

33% equity holding in Nottingham Dairy Ltd in North Otago.

Dawn won the 2012 Institute of Directors Otago-Southland Aspiring Director Award and is a Chartered Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. Last year all of this was recognised with an Order

of Merit in the New Year’s Honours, celebrating her 25 years of strong advocacy for women and service to governance.

The third woman to ever be elected to the Alliance Group’s board in its 70-year history, Dawn made a major contribution for 12 years from 2011 serving until 2023, and despite not being surrounded by

a lot of other girl power, more than held her own. “Women as shareholders of Alliance then weren’t that well recognised, but everyone was very supportive and welcoming,” she says.

In that time, she inspired and supported other women into leadership and governance roles, something she’s fiercely passionate about.

Dawn made it her mission to ensure female shareholders, who’d traditionally left the involvement to their husbands, were encouraged to become engaged. She introduced an innovative initiative taking

groups of women shareholders through the cooperative’s meat plants as “important shareholders” and the management team was right behind her holding workshops and seminars to explain the

workings behind the company.

Dawn is a past member of the NZ Beef and Lamb Farmer Council and an early facilitator for Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT). The trust was contracted to the Red Meat Profit Partnership to

run the very successful ‘Understanding Your Farming’ business courses. “These were designed to give women technical skills and the confidence to no longer think of themselves as ‘just farmers’

wives’, but critical farming partners,” she says.

She completed the trust’s inaugural Escalator Programme in 2011 – a year-long Wellington-based programme fostering leadership and governance. “When I was in that it was quite rare to see women

involved in agri-business,” she says. “There were very few women on ag-sector boards in NZ.”

By the time she finished Dawn felt inspired to get into governance.

The trust only accepted 14 women a year into the programme. “There are now 120-plus Escalator Alumni. They’re very visible in leadership and governance positions, both regionally and nationally. It’s

made a difference,” she says.

Unlike some countries NZ doesn’t have a quota to increase the participation of women on boards. However, Government initiatives like the Ministry for Women and organisations such as the Institute of

Directors are reinforcing the business case that diverse boards lead to better decision making and stronger organisations, Dawn says.

Throughout her 30-year agricultural career it’s been Dawn’s passion and mission to support other rural women into leadership and governance.

Keen to pass on her vast knowledge and experience, offering handy tips and tricks to others in, or keen to get into, governance, Dawn ran her own governance course in South Otago earlier last year. It

was such a success that she was invited back to do another in November, and she’s hoping to run the course in her home patch of Maniototo this autumn.

“It’s about giving people a better understanding between management and governance. We had a good mix there last year – farm consultants, agronomists, school board trustees, people from sporting

organisations, not just rural, and a mix of ages, gender and experience.”

Dawn may be right up there in agri-business, currently on the Farmlands’ Board, the Maniototo Irrigation Company, the governance group for the Tiaki Maniototo Freshwater Improvement Project, to

name a few. She’s also a director of Glen Ayr Ltd, Lambhill Station Ltd and Nottingham Dairy Ltd. However, she still somehow makes time to give back to her beloved Central Otago community too.

Home is where the heart is and Dawn was brought up on the family’s Maniototo farm at The Styx – Paerau – a farm her great grandfather bought in 1926. She loved riding, hockey and tennis – the

transition to the much larger Waitaki Girls’ High from her tiny country Paerau School a big one. “I hated living in Oamaru at school. People didn’t travel much then and I didn’t see my parents for months

at a time,” she says. “I used to write two letters home every week and my mother always replied. It was always a highlight to get a letter from Dad with the latest farm news. Oh, how I missed the farm.”

However, as with the rest of her life she excelled, a prefect and Dux of her year, before graduating with an Agricultural Commerce degree from Lincoln in the 1980s.

It was the days of Labour’s Rogernomics when she worked at MAF in Rangiora – farming had gone flat, so Dawn headed off on her OE working in London and travelling around Europe, then the US

and Canada with her sister on her return.

Back working on the family farm, she got stuck into community life, horse riding, hockey, local theatre, playing Rizzo in Grease, and squash, also getting involved with Beef and Lamb farm discussion

groups.

Romance then struck while she was on the Cavalcade and met David, her Marlborough husband of 31 years.

They farmed in Marlborough for six years while raising three boys under four then returning to the Maniototo and buying the Patearoa farm with her family.

Dawn, always with a bent towards governance, was quickly co-opted as local Playcentre treasurer. Later she was elected to the Maniototo Area School Board of Trustees and sat on the board of her

sons’ John McGlashan College in Dunedin.

Somewhere in amongst all this she’s raised angora goats for 40 years. The mohair in NZ is pooled and exported to South Africa where it’s in demand at auctions. “That was the money I used for my

children’s education, a bit of an off-farm investment. My husband says we don’t count goats and it’s best not to mention them,” Dawn grins, but ‘Wheels’ the 2025 pet one, who couldn’t stand up on his

own at birth, was a favourite with the ‘kids’.

Those kids, now young men, all came home from the corporate world during the Covid lockdowns – some bringing girlfriends. “I loved that time. We had turns at Master Chef every night, played cards

and board games,” Dawn says. “That month of lockdown was among my happiest memories, a really lovely family time, but I appreciate for many it was an extremely difficult time.”

As for now, well, Dawn’s been doing the local Patearoa Golf Club accounts for 15 years, the 2025 accounts high on her ‘to do’ list.

“Perhaps one day I will stop and actually play,” she grins.