Brought up on a sheep and beef farm in the Ida Valley, he completed a science degree before travelling the world shearing and then moving into the corporate world.
Mr Anderson had always wanted to return to the region in the latter part of his career and use his experience "to do something".
When the opportunity arose at MIC, it was too good not to take. "It feels quite meaningful delivering back to the community something that really matters, for the last tranche of your career."
Living on a lifestyle property at Hills Creek, he works in the MIC office in Ranfurly with business support manager Renee Weir.
The pair were keen to raise MIC’s profile; now there was a formal management structure in place, it was beginning to take a larger role in the rural Maniototo community.
One of the key focuses was understanding and engaging in the regulatory changes occurring and celebrating the positive aspects of irrigation; its contribution to a thriving rural economy and, therefore, the local community, Mr Anderson said.
MIC was set up to receive the headwork assets constructed by the Crown in the 1970s which were sold by the Crown to the farmers that the scheme was designed to serve.
It is owned by three "distribution" companies: Maniototo West Side Irrigation Company Ltd, Maniototo East Side Irrigation Company Ltd and the Waipiata Irrigation Company Ltd.
MIC owns the headworks for the whole Maniototo Irrigation Scheme, which supplies water for hydro-electric generation to the two Manawa Energy (previously Trustpower) power houses on the scheme.
Water used for electricity generation is subsequently supplied to the distribution companies for their shareholders to use for irrigation, stock and domestic water supply.
The take point for the Maniototo scheme from the Taieri River is at Paerau. The Taieri is augmented from MIC’s reservoir at the southern end of the Rock and Pillar Range, the Loganburn Reservoir.
Historically, the company was run by volunteer directors who put in much time and effort to make sure it ran smoothly and several operations staff did the physical work, Mr Anderson said.
One of the challenges was that, as farmers started to use their water more efficiently, they became busier, making it more difficult to dedicate time to governance.
Mrs Weir said more regulatory pressure also meant the need to "be ahead of it rather than knee-jerk reactions" and the new management structure came into effect on July 1 last year.
Returning to New Zealand from his shearing foray overseas, Mr Anderson was accepted into a Wrightson graduate programme and moved into finance.
For the past two decades, he had been in rural banking, most latterly with ASB in a lower South Island role, based in Dunedin.
He started "dipping his toes" into governance; he was on the board of the Otago Farmers Market Trust for a few years and had also been chairman of the board for a large-scale dairy farm at Puketoi, owned by a group of mostly Maniototo-based shareholders. It was his involvement with that company which saw him represent Maniototo West Side for MIC.
It became evident that MIC needed to move to a formal management structure "to address things people were aware of but didn’t have the time to put in", both from an operational perspective — including a strong focus on health and safety — and getting involved with wider stakeholder groups, including the Otago Regional Council.
Because of the way the scheme had been run historically, it was difficult to have the resources to get involved in the community, Mr Anderson said.
"I take the view our role in the community is pretty significant in terms of infrastructure, its probably the most significant piece of infrastructure in the Maniototo and contributes so much to our community," he said.
Married to Maniototo sheep and beef farmer and fellow St Kevin’s College alumni Gerard Weir — the couple have a young family — she did some kindergarten teaching and then worked for ICL Chartered Accountants, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
While there, Mrs Weir was contracted to MIC to do some work and, when the job at the irrigation company arose, it was "too hard to say no", she said.
It was all about balance; the company was thinking "future forward" and acknowledged it had to be a leader in the environmental space. There was a "huge" amount ahead of them and defining where they could make better outcomes for shareholders, she said.
Mr Anderson said it was very much in a change management stage and they were doing work on a 10-year vision while also looking to slightly restructure MIC’s operational model.
Both were grateful to the "hugely supportive" board which provided a good mix of skills and also the huge amount of volunteer work contributed previously.
"Now we’re handed that responsibility, we have to be very respectful of that," Mrs Weir said, adding it was about ensuring that security for shareholders and their families both now and for generations to come.
Mr Anderson said the innovation in the irrigation sector had been "incredible"; from the days of wild flood irrigation to the sub-surface irrigation recently installed on the dairy farm he had been involved with which was 100% efficient.
"The industry is light years ahead of where it was."
One of MIC’s challenges was to bring innovation to the scheme to improve delivery of water. Most shareholders were large-scale sheep and beef farmers while the dairy farming community was now a much bigger part of the wider community.
It was incumbent on all land users to demonstrate sustainability and farmers were aware of their responsibilities, he said.
MIC became involved with workshops the Otago Regional Council ran before Christmas on the new Land and Water plan and that provided some understanding of what other stakeholders were thinking. There were a "whole lot of participants" in the process and that needed to be respected.
For Mr Anderson, growing up in the area and also his own association with farming, had proven invaluable as he understood the rural community.
He described it as a "breath of fresh air", adding that was no disrespect to the corporate world, which he had enjoyed and which gave him the skills to do his latest role.
"It’s a great way to spend the last years of your career doing something really tangible and meaningful and delivering something for the whole community. It’s so nice to get up every morning and look at the Hawkduns, it’s an easy commute to work."
It was also nice to be part of the wider business community in Ranfurly.
Mrs Weir said she was finding her position very rewarding. "Every day there’s just so much to do, so much ahead of you, every day you feel you’re turning up to work achieving something. The systems have been there and now it’s about creating systems which is my sort of thing."
With a life-long love of learning, it was also about upskilling every day.
Community engagement was a major part of it and she was also looking forward to engagement with the likes of iwi, and "making sure everyone understands expectations around water and what it means to us all".
