Mike Casey

Following a string of successful digital ventures in Sydney, Mike Casey returned to New Zealand in 2019 to raise his family and grow cherries. But while the setting changed, Mike’s entrepreneurial spirit remained. After years of scaling businesses in fast-paced tech environments, Mike channelled his experience into building Forest Lodge Orchard, what is now considered the world’s first fully electric commercial orchard.

When Mike arrived in Central Otago, it didn’t take him long to start taking risks in an industry dominated by fossil-powered machines - he imported the country’s first electric tractor and frost fans, and converted his Hilux to an EV. The orchard now runs on 21 electric machines powered by on-site solar, and has become proof that emissions reduction and rural profitability can go hand in hand.

Under the brand Electric Cherries, Mike produces 80 tonnes of cherries annually, however, his vision stretches beyond the farm gate. In 2023, he co-founded Rewiring Aotearoa, a non-profit business that helps communities across Aotearoa unlock the economic upside of electrification, now supported by philanthropic funding. His impact stretches across influencing policy, shifting public conversation, and helping to scale household-level electrification across the country.

Mike has now launched the Queenstown Electrification Accelerator, with plans to use Queenstown as a lighthouse project that can be replicated in other communities. From cherry orchard to national model for electrification, Mike is turning talk into action and unlocking a cleaner, fairer, more prosperous nation where climate is an opportunity, not a cost.