1 November 1984 New director and assistant director appointed to AERU

The Agricultural Economics Research Unit at Lincoln College has a new director and also now has an assistant director. Those appointed were named today.

They are Dr R. G. (Ralph) Lattimore,, who has been appointed Director of AERU succeeding Dr Peter Chudleigh who left earlier this year, and Mr R.L. (Ron) Sheppard, who has been appointed to the new post of assistant director.

Both take up their appointments from today (November 1).

Dr Lattimore is senior lecturer in the agricultural economics and marketing department at the college, and he will continue in this role.

Mr Sheppard was senior research economist with AERU, with responsibility for projects on marketing, international trade and domestic policy, before taking up his new appointment.

Major areas of Dr Lattimore's work are public policy and international trade.

Dr Lattimore returned to Lincoln College in September last year to become senior lecturer .

Since then he has also been consultant to MAF and the Department of Trade and Industry, and to the International Development Research Centre, and was recently appointed Government member of the New Zealand Raspberry Marketing Council and the Raspberry Marketing Export Authority.

Before returning to Lincoln College last year  Dr Lattimore was Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics, teaching agricultural policy, price analysis and marketing, at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

He has also worked for Agriculture Canada, the Canadian counterpart of MAF, the Ministry of Agriculture in Brazil, and as an international consultant in Morocco, Brazil, South Korea and Fiji .

Between 1973 and 1975 Dr Lattimore was chief of the commodity markets analysis unit in the economics division of MAF.

Mr Sheppard joined AERU in 1979 as a research economist. Before that he was with the Ford Motor Company of New Zealand from 1976, first as a financial analyst, and later as supervisorwith a responsibility for budgeting, cost control and forecasting.

He worked as an economist with the economics division of MAF, involved in commodity and external relations work, and later was in charge of the meat and wool group of the commodity section.

Dr Lattimore graduated from Lincoln College in 1968 as Bachelor of Agricultural Science, gained a Master of Agricultural Science degree from Massey University in 1971, and a Ph.D. from Purdue University in the United States in 1974.

Mr Sheppard graduated from Lincoln College in 1973 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree in economics with honours, and gained a Bachelor of Business Studies degree in accounting and finance from Massey University in 1981.

Both Dr Lattimore and Mr Sheppard have been published extensively.

Dr Lattimore, who is married with four children, is 39. Mr Sheppard, married with two children, is 33.

In the last year Dr Lattimore has been teaching international trade and commerce, agricultural policy and microeconomics.

He would continue teaching, at his own request, as well as heading AERU, because he felt maintaining contact with students was "very, very valuable" in his research, he said today.

"There is a very high degree of complementarity between teaching and research in agricultural economics."

Dr Lattimore said AERU would have a "broader agenda" in future, and among the reasons was that the number of chairs had been expanded within the farm management and agricultural economics group.

He saw the role of the AERU over the next five years as being one of consolidating and enhancing its position as research arm of the two departments in business and commerce, farm management and agricultural economics .

However, Dr Lattimore emphasised that although there was a great deal of interchange between the AERU and the two departments, AERU did stand alone as an independent research unit.

Mr Sheppard said his main work with AERU had been in marketing research ''broadly defined as including anything post-farm gate.''

"My main interests are in marketing, market research and agricultural policy issues, “he said.

Since joining AERU Mr Sheppard has twice been overseas where he carried out research for the unt.

He saw his new role as being more involved in administration of AERU, and in contract research and development, work which has been his main input in the last few years, he said.

AERU services decision makers in the agricultural sector by way of independent and analytical research.

Further information from Mr Ron Sheppard, Assistant Director, Agricultural Economics Research Unit, Lincoln College, Canterbury, New Zealand