Twenty years ago this November we formally created VetSouth. It was initially a merger of Gore & West Otago Vets (in Gore) and Central Southland Vets (in Winton). We then brought in Southern Vet Centre (in Invercargill) 10 years later.
The goal was to create a sustainable veterinary business for the people of Southland and southern Otago. We’re far away from things down here, both people and products, and this brought challenges.
Collaborating and creating VetSouth has helped us better meet those challenges along the way and allowed us to continually provide you with top-class, sustainable animal health support.
Unfortunately, we can’t make people sustainable. Sadly we’re saying a very fond farewell from the business to one of the founders of VetSouth, Mark Bryan. Originally from Scotland, Mark has been in Southland for almost 30 years, initially helping to grow the Winton vet clinic before being a key driver behind forming VetSouth in 2005.
Mark was a mixed vet back in the day, although his focus evolved to be more on dairy and sheep. He completed a Masters in Epidemiology in 2004 (before Covid taught the world what an epidemiologist was) and used that to incorporate a significant amount of clinical research into our workstream. That in turn allowed products and procedures to be tested in southern conditions rather than up north, to the benefit of many of our clients.
More recently he has been instrumental in the continued growth of VetSouth, developing West Coast Vets on the same model, and continuing to expand the employee-shareholder model as VetSouth developed into VetNZ and, in 2023, grew into Comhla Vet. Comhla Vet now has clinics, staff and local shareholders across both the South and North Island’s of New Zealand, and also Australia.
Many of you will have encountered Mark over the years – either listening to him speaking at events, spotting him in the farming papers, merrymaking alongside him at a Scottish ceilidh, bumping into him on a mountain, or being exposed to his views on the merits and misfortunes of the Scottish rugby team.
Mark has always been passionate about being a vet, and about the crucial role that vets play in rural communities. This year, he was awarded the Presidential Award from the New Zealand Veterinary Association for 20 years of voluntary contribution to the Association.
He’s adamant he isn’t retiring. So instead he’s finishing up with VetSouth in February next year to embark upon a Masters in Psychology, focusing on veterinary wellbeing.
“VetSouth is going fantastically and has a superb set of leaders in place. We have outstanding teams across all the organisation and in each clinic. I’m keen to continue to support the profession and rural communities through this new journey. VetSouth will always be part of me – the people, the clients, the farms are all special and it’s been a privilege to have been able to work alongside you all” says Mark.
All of us here at VetSouth would like to thank him for his incredible input over the past 30 years. He’s a great vet, a great leader, and a great friend.
We will arrange a suitably bonnie Scottish leaving function at some stage in early 2026, so keep an eye out for that. This isn’t goodbye forever – no doubt we’ll all continue to see Mark popping up around the place in the future!
