The New Zealand Institute of Crop and Food Research has made three new appointments in the areas of human resources, communications and business investment.

The company has appointed Leeanne Carson as its General Manager, Human Resources. Ms Carson is currently training and development manager for Wrightson, responsible for both strategic human resource work and Wrightson's training and development programmes. She has been with Wrightson for more than three years, and prior to that spent more than 16 years in the banking industry.

Ms Carson joins Crop & Food Research in early November, taking up the role left vacant by the death of Margaret Viles in the air accident involving seven Crop & Food Research staff in June.

Crop & Food Research has appointed Katherine Trought as its new Communications and Public Relations Manager. Ms Trought has more than 15 years' experience as a professional communicator, most recently as a communications consultant in the technology development, new business and energy sectors. Prior to this she was corporate communications manager for Orion, and its predecessor Southpower, during the deregulation of the energy industry in the 1990s.

She takes up the position left vacant by the death of Howard Bezar in the June air accident.

Also joining the staff of Crop & Food Research in the new position of Investments Manager is Stuart McKenzie. Prior to this appointment Mr McKenzie was director of Dunedin-based Quest VC, which invests in agbiotechnology-based start-up companies.