Summit delegate has North dairy links

Aidan Gent is following in the footsteps of his father, former Fonterra director Greg Gent, with both beginning their careers working for banks.

Greg Gent, 55, began working for the Bank of New Zealand in 1972, moving into dairying five years later with 700 cows on the Ruawai property previously farmed by his late parents, Jack and Jean Gent.

The family now has four farms milking 1000 cows.

Aidan Gent, 25, gained a bachelor of commerce degree at Auckland University before joining Westpac Bank, for which he is now an agribusiness manager at New Plymouth.

He has been selected as one of three New Zealand employees Westpac is sending to Pittsburg in the United States for the third annual One Young World Summit on October 18-22.

One Young World is a London-based charity that gathers together young people from 190 countries, helping them make lasting connections to create positive change.

Issues to be discussed by the 1300 delegates at the US summit include the media's changing identity and power, leadership, world health challenges, the role of global business, religion and interfaith dialogue, and protection of the environment.

Counsellors for delegates will include chef Jamie Oliver, musician Sir Bob Geldof, cricketer-turned-Pakistani-politician Imran Khan, Wikipedia founder and chief executive officer Jimmy Wales and English soul singer Joss Stone.

Mr Gent jnr will be one of 42 delegates who will speak at the summit. His topic will be sustainable development and he said he was looking forward to talking about New Zealand agriculture.

Gent said he still loved the Ruawai farm where he grew up and he worked in the cowshed whenever he went home. He had recently bought shares in one of the family farms and would eventually like to buy the lot.

His three younger sisters were not interested in farming at this stage, he said, "But that could all change if they get husbands who like farming."