A financial and economic analyst, Neville spent 22 years in the corporate world of international and regional development banking. This has been followed by 21 years as the owner and executive director of a group of companies involved in the provision of medical specialist surgical services including associated technologies. Neville has high level management skills with a specific specialization in the health sector in systems thinking and systems dynamics.

Neville is a fourth generation Tauranga boy from a longstanding agricultural farming family. He learned woodworking, mechanics, farming and gardening from his father and grandfather, and culinary arts from his Danish grandmother. He has grown and exported fruit to the discerning Asian markets. He is skilled with all manner of tools and equipment. He is comfortable designing, building and fixing just about anything. On the current property, he designed the solar power system and the water systems. He understands weather and climate as a certified coastal skipper (RYA) and recreational pilot.

Driven by concerns that much of what the human species is doing is unsustainable, Neville started looking for alternatives and discovered permaculture in 2011. He earned his design certificate from Auckland Permaculture Workshop in 2012 and, in 2014, from The Permaculture Institue (Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton). With sustainability and responsible use of earth's natural resources in mind, he felt compelled to sell up in the city and buy the rural property of which he and Catherine are a part. Their shared vision is that the property will demonstrate that abundance and sustainability are not mutually exclusive concepts, nor are practicality and beauty.