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Proud to be Me is a series of stories focusing on ordinary and extraordinary people in the Selwyn District. This week Coen Lammers talks to Maury Leyland who moved Tai Tapu from Auckland and developed the protein business Leaft with husband John Penno.

Maury Leyland arrived in Selwyn from Auckland about a decade ago and is now fully immersed in farming life, and in growing a rapidly growing protein business, Leaft.

“I had always lived in a bushy part of Auckland, and was heavily involved in sailing, so I found the barrenness of Canterbury pretty hard work to start with,” said the former marine engineer.

“I'm a very settled mainlander now in Tai Tapu. It’s so beautiful here and I've really taken to the farming life, living in the Port Hills.”

Tai Tapu is a long way from the Hauraki Gulf – and from the waters off San Diego – where, 30 years ago, Leyland made sailing history.

At 24, she became the first woman, and still the only woman, to race on a Team New Zealand boat in the quest for the world’s oldest sporting trophy, the America’s Cup.

A self-described “Jill of all trade”, Leyland raced aboard Black Magic yacht in one race of the 1995 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series. Her roles spanned boat designer, back-up navigator, performance analyst and travel lift driver.

She even filled in as tactician against the Spanish Challenge in patchy conditions – a race the Kiwi crew one by 20 minutes on their way to claiming New Zealand’s first America’s Cup.

When she arrived in San Diego, there were only three other women working in Team New Zealand – a sailmaker, a marketer and a receptionist.

“I was out on the boat every single day – grinding and sailing for eight or nine hours, six days a week,” she said.

“My official role was in the design team, but I was also sailing as a navigator and doing performance analysis.”

After her time in elite sailing, Leyland spent a decade with strategy firm Boston Consulting Group before moving into the dairy sector. She later joined Fonterra, where she became part of the executive management team.

During her time in the dairy industry, Leyland became interested in how New Zealand could produce more high-value exports, reduce its reliance on bulk dairy production and improve environmental options for the land.

In 2015, Leyland encountered a kindred spirit in Synlait founder John Penno at an executive training workshop at Stanford University. The pair quickly found common ground and began developing the idea of extracting Rubisco protein from lucerne leaves.

They married two years later at Tai Tapu’s iconic Otahuna Lodge.

“John finished as Synlait CEO to work on the new concept and I was busy doing research and kitchen experiments to figure out if this could be a real opportunity,” Leyland said.

The business formally took shape in 2019 when food engineer Ross Milne joined as chief executive to lead the food-processing aspects of the operation.

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“We are still young, and have a long way to go, but we’ve come a very long way since we came up with this crazy concept.”

Selwyn proved to be a perfect place to develop and manufacture their ‘crazy concept’, Leyland said.

“We extract the Rubisco protein from lucerne (called alfalfa in the rest of the world), which is a leafy forage crop that grows really well here in Selwyn. We are working with arable farmers in Southbridge, who are brilliant at growing things and were keen to look for new options because the arable industry has been doing it so tough.”

She adds that having two universities nearby, combined with an active outdoor community looking for new products, created a fertile environment for innovation.

“When we started this, we probably didn't realise just quite how amazing this protein would be and how it makes people feel and makes them perform,” Leyland said.

She explains the high-quality concentrated liquid protein differs from other plant proteins, because it is extracted from the leaf rather than seeds.

“So it has a better amino acid profile than whey or meat. And because we only process it very lightly, you get all sorts of other nutrients to come through from the leaves as well. This means that it has an incredible amount of nutrient density,” Leyland said.

Because the liquid is easily digestible, it offers athletes a substantial protein boost without needing to consume large amounts of food.

“So it works really well alongside normal meals, giving an extra protein lift at the moment that your body can make the most of it. We find that it fits perfectly for people who are serious about their nutrition.”

Alongside supplying the protein liquid to athletes in the United States and Australasia, Leaft is also developing ingredient products after discovering the protein’s effectiveness as an egg alternative.

“We have been working with Foodstuffs South Island for their in-house baking  with our Rubisco protein isolate product which is white and creamy,” Leyland said.

“It emulsifies and creates foam, which are all the things you want when you are baking. It really enhances the food and has been the most recent part of our journey.”

In between creating a more environmentally-friendly market for local farmers, Leyland and Penno have also been working hard to regenerate their own slice of Selwyn.

“We found lots of ways to contribute by bringing back more diversity through a combination of planting, fencing areas off from stock and trapping to allow natural regeneration.”

Leyland said a century ago only 1% of the native forest still remained on Banks Peninsula, which has only recovered to about 10% today.

“I was shocked to hear that, so I feel we need to lean into that one.”

Now firmly settled in Selwyn, Leyland has no regrets about the move south.

“I like the weather, the access to the mountains, being so close to a coastline and the connection to nature and the land around here. I’m absolutely loving it.”

Last modified: 06 Mar 2026 2:36pm