In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia sits down with Andrew Kelly, Executive Director of BioPacific Partners, to unpack a career that’s anything but linear – from veterinary science and epidemiology through to leading research institutes, venture capital, and now guiding global corporates through the innovation landscape in food, ag and health.

Andrew shares how growing up in rural Victoria and choosing vet science with “farm animals in mind” led him into regional disease control, research leadership and eventually across the ditch to New Zealand, where he saw first-hand how a more commercial, customer-focused approach to publicly funded R&D could get good ideas out of the lab and into the paddock faster.

Together, Georgia and Andrew explore what really builds trust between innovators, researchers, corporates and farmers – and why prep (in capital letters, three times over), empathy and genuine curiosity still beat any slick sales script.

• From rural Victoria to global life sciences
  How a kid from a small country town became a vet, then an epidemiologist, then a leader of major research institutes and finally a venture capitalist and adviser to global giants.

• Why Andrew chose New Zealand over Australia (at the time)
  What he saw in NZ’s “corporatised” R&D system that Australia hadn’t yet nailed – and how thinking globally is baked into New Zealand ag because the domestic market is simply too small.

• When research actually meets the customer
  The difference between chasing revenue vs chasing profit and impact, and why “we’re doing good for people” isn’t enough if real customers aren’t lining up to buy.

• Inside BioPacific Partners
  Why Andrew describes his work as a consultancy in life sciences – spanning food, ag and health – and how his team helps both global corporates and local innovators navigate the Australia–NZ region.

• Trust, relationships and the limits of Zoom
  Why remote communication can’t fully replace being in the room, and how cups of tea, idle time and noticing the “whole person” help build genuine trust across cultures and continents.

• Lessons from Māori culture on connection
  How starting with “who am I and where have I come from” changes the tone of a meeting, and what Western business can learn from relationship-first approaches to doing deals.

• Prep, empathy and selling complex ideas
  Why Andrew puts huge emphasis on preparation – researching people, their history and their deals – to fast-track rapport, and how empathy and compassion sit at the heart of selling complicated, unfamiliar ideas.

• Working with senior decision makers
  Understanding the pressure they’re under, why you only get one short window to show you can genuinely help, and the power of knowing the three people they’ll ask about you before they say yes.

• Follow-up, nurturing and long-term business
  How five-year-old clients end up coming back because of small, thoughtful touches – sharing relevant articles, checking in, and treating relationships as compounding trust, not one-off transactions.

• Quick-fire: coffee, music and Netflix
  Andrew’s coffee order, his current dive back into ’90s “angry white man” rock courtesy of his kids, and why he’s hooked on The Diplomat.

In this episode, we cover: