Richard Earle and Mary Earle

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Mary D. Earle, Professor Emeritus, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

At Massey University Mary Earle introduced product development courses into the food technology degree, and eventually organised the first four-year degree in product development in New Zealand. She also helped to introduce food technology and product development degrees in five universities in Thailand.

Her involvement with the New Zealand food industry has been extensive, in meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables, fish, bakery and snack foods companies. It included over three hundred company funded and associated student product development projects with many different companies, and the development of a Food Technology Research Centre that aided the food companies' development projects.

In the early 1980s a four-year bachelor's degree in product development for all industries was introduced, a department of consumer technology was set up in the Faculty of Technology and the first professor of Product Development appointed. Postgraduate degrees, masterate and PhD, were introduced, all involving either product development projects or study of new techniques.

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Richard L. Earle, Professor Emeritus, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Richard Earle was Head of the Department of Process and Environmental Technology and Dean of the Faculty of Technology at Massey University. Trained as a chemical engineer and in operations research, he worked in the Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand. He then became Foundation Professor of Biotechnology at Massey University and was concerned with the processing of biological materials across a wide range of products and industries including foods and pharmaceuticals.

He wrote a pioneering textbook on Unit Operations in Food Processing, used throughout the world. He has taught reaction technology courses at undergraduate and graduate levels, and in industrial seminars in New Zealand, Canada, Thailand and Australia. He has been involved with the manufacturing industry, including the development of a pharmaceutical company using meat by-products in New Zealand, and has also authored or co-authored many papers and a number of books.

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Allan Anderson

Professor Allan M. Anderson, School of Engineering & Advanced Technology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Allan graduated from Massey University, New Zealand with a BTech(FoodTechnology) degree and later completed his PhD under Dr. Mary Earle. This was followed by a period of lecturing in food product development at Massey University before taking up the position of Development Manager for a medium sized food company. Allan then spent almost 10 years consulting to companies in Asia, Australia and New Zealand on the management of product development practices and processes. In the mid 1990s he took up the position of Section Manager with the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute and, in 1997, was appointed Chief Executive of NZDRI, which was subsequently merged into Fonterra. In 2004 Allan again joined the staff of Massey University, this time as Professor of Product Development in the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, the position he holds today.

Since 2007 Allan has been actively involved with the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), initially as part of the establishment team for PDMA-NZ, and was president until 2012. In 2013 he was appointed to the Board of PDMA and currently holds the position of Chairman, PDMA. He is a member of PDMA's Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award selection committee, has been involved in the development of an International Innovation Management Standard and has recently carried out a total review of the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification programme in preparation for its launch into China.


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