Chan's experience in the rural sector is extensive.
She was previously on the boards of Ngāi Tahu Farming, Alpine Energy, Connetics, Business Mid Canterbury and Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury, and was an associate director with DairyNZ.
Chan has completed the Fonterra Governance Development Programme and Stanford University's Te Hono Bootcamp.
She was named Dairy Woman of the Year in 2017 and received the Women in Governance Award for Inspiring Governance Leader in 2021.
Chan thought her previous roles and "range of skills" were a good fit for the NZPork board.
"I guess you'd call me a jack of all trades in some respects but hopefully I can bring that to help producers get better value for their products," she told The Country's, Jamie Mackay.
Her experience with developing policy, along with her involvement in new science and technologies for the primary sector, would come in handy for the challenges the pork industry currently faced.
"That animal welfare space is pretty huge for the pork sector at the moment and not only that but also probably the consumer space is going to be important, going forward."
It was an "extremely challenging" time for the pork industry and Chan was looking forward to talking with producers about the issues they faced.
Although the industry was dealing with the same struggles as other primary sectors, such as staff shortages and compliance issues, there was one major hurdle for pork farmers, Chan said.
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"Competing domestically with imported pork that isn't anywhere near the standard of pork produced in New Zealand.
"[We've] absolutely got some of those big challenges that other farmers have but even more so in the consumer space, in terms of competing with substandard products."
Product labelling was another area of concern for Chan.
"Labelling requirements are really confusing because you can just process it in New Zealand and make some claims on your label - even though it's come from heaps of different countries."
This confusion was hindering efforts to get New Zealand pork to customers, she said.
"I know heaps of people who just want to buy New Zealand pork but they can't literally figure out which one it is that's 100 per cent New Zealand."
She was keen to offer more clarity to Kiwi consumers but believed it would be a large undertaking.
"I think the first point of call is to get everyone on board right through the supply chain, from supermarkets sticking the labels on, through to people buying it to actually seek out that 100 per cent pork label - because at the moment it's really confusing.
"It's probably easier said than done but it's where we need to head to, to make it way more clear for the New Zealand consumer."
