Hamish Levack, a graduate of Auckland and Aberdeen universities, specialised in national and regional forestry development planning for the Government.

Hamish studied this interest further at Dartmouth University, and consultancy work in Samoa and Borneo followed. He managed the divestment of 70,000 ha of Crown Lease forests, is a past editor of the NZ Journal of Forestry, and the NZ Institute of Forestry’s Handbook.

Hamish was a member of the board that established the Forest Growers Levy Trust in 2013, and is a significant private forest owner himself. He is the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association’s president, and a fellow of the NZIF.

Stuart Nash, the current Minister of Forestry, has said that Hamish’s co-authored 2006 book ‘The Great Wood Robbery? - Political bumbling ruins New Zealand Forestry’, has helped him formulate his views on the forestry policy reforms that are now needed.