2023 Speakers

Dr Samantha Allan is a veterinarian with career experience ranging from private clinical practice through to government veterinary work including management of jurisdictional endemic disease control and eradication programs, regulatory work and extensive emergency disease response experience in both field and control centre roles.

In Samantha’s current role as General Manager of Emergency Preparedness, Animal Health and Biosecurity at Animal Health Australia, she leads a team of veterinarians, animal scientists and training professionals to manage the delivery of a suite of key national emergency preparedness, surveillance and biosecurity programs including the AUSVETPLAN, the Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA), National Biosecurity Response Team (NBRT) and the National Arbovirus Monitoring Program (NAMP).

Stephanie has over 10 years of experience specialising in space policy and strategy, with a focus on international and interagency coordination, facilitating dialogues and government priorities and projects. She spent most of her time based in Washington DC, supporting US government agencies such as NASA, US State Department, and Dept. of Commerce, on a variety of issues such as Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, Commercial Space/NewSpace Industry Engagement, and STEM workforce planning. She currently leads KPMG Australia’s Space Industry Practice for the Adelaide Office and supports businesses in their grants and R&D tax incentives under the Accelerating Business Growth team. Stephanie is a Space Foodie, and also supports Methuselah Foundation on the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge.

Scott is the Chair and Managing Partner at Astor Perkins, a deep tech and sustainability VC that backs mavericks solving some of the hardest problems facing humanity on Earth and in space.  

Among a raft of other achievements Scott is a TEDx speaker, Top Global Innovation Keynote Speaker, Forbes New York Business Council member, Singularity University Smart City Accelerator Mentor, SXSW Pitch/Accelerator VC Judge, and IBM Futurist. He’s also a Tribeca Disruptor Foundation, National Sloan/Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and winner of Innovation Awards. Scott has been featured in many publications including The New York Times, TechCrunch and TIME. 

Scott is a globally renowned expert in product innovation that integrates exponential technologies, out-of-the-box thinking, and proven science and research methodologies to create breakthrough. 

Adam is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Anterra Capital, a venture capital fund focused on investing in innovative companies that are transforming the safety, security, and sustainability of global food.

Adam grew up on a farm and is passionate about improving our food and agriculture system, with over 20 years of experience in private equity and venture capital. He believes the best way to do this is to bring strong entrepreneurs to the food and agriculture sector and work in cooperation with other stakeholders across the value chain.

Prior to working for Anterra, Adam co-founded a fintech startup and worked for Rabo Private Equity and Bain & Co.

Adam holds an MBA and bachelor’s degree in Law from Cambridge University, England, along with a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Mick has worked in the environmental and sustainability space for over 20 years.
His background is in waste auditing and resource efficiency programs. He’s also worked with MLA’s off-farm R&D program.
Mick spent over 11 years with Goodman Fielder leading the environment and sustainability functions, including the launch of the Better Together strategy in 2021.
With his expertise in sustainability’s commercial value, he became GrainCorp’s Head of Sustainability in June 2022, helping shape the delivery of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) ambition.
Mick is the President of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform’s Australian Chapter.

Rachel is a Professor at the University of Adelaide’s School of Humanities. She runs the Food Values Research Group, which uses interdisciplinary social science methodologies to explore food consumption and production ethics, animal welfare and community views on food and agriculture, particularly emerging technologies’ use.
She has completed research for Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) on gene-edited livestock, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) on new breeding techniques in food production, and Australian Eggs on community views on hen welfare.
She serves on the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR’s) Gene Technology Ethics and Community Consultative Committee, and FSANZ’s Social Science and Economics Advisory Group. She’s a Chief Investigator (CI) on the new ARC Training Centre for Future Crops Development.

Ben is the Founder and Principal at AgTech Consulting and works closely with clients to accelerate development, commercialisation and adoption of AgTech.

He loves innovating to create impact, and has done so for close to 20 years developing and managing large–scale agribusiness, water, carbon, environmental restoration, minerals & energy, and hi-tech sector programs for the South Australian Government. These involved strategic planning, complex stakeholder engagement, technical expertise, change management, and detailed management of risks, costs, timeframes and human resources.

Ben has a PhD in biology from Flinders University and further training in environmental science, project management and sales. He is naturally collaborative, optimistic, hands-on and solutions focussed, likes to inspire, and has a futuristic outlook.

Craig is the Dean of Agriculture and Environmental Science and Head of School at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ). He’s an agricultural engineer with over 25 years’ experience in agricultural research, development and extension.
The School of Agriculture and Environmental Science meets the environmental global challenges of an ever-growing population through the study of agricultural sustainability, food security, climate change, wildlife management and ecosystem conservation.
Craig’s primary research interests include farming systems innovation and technology solutions to improve farm productivity and profitability. He’s involved in various major initiatives and collaborative research projects nationally and internationally.
His experience includes farming systems research and technical support to large corporate farming operations. This involved developing and implementing new infrastructure, machinery, technologies and innovative farming strategies.

Mark is an experienced agribusiness executive and non-executive director. He’s currently General Manager, Farmland Agency and Investments at Elders Rural Services.
Mark is a non-executive director at Water NSW and Agribusiness Australia. He’s been involved in agriculture and agribusiness all his working life. His experience ranges from managing farms, farm management and economic consulting, and more recently to agricultural funds management.
Mark believes that to remain competitive Australian agriculture must increase the rate of productivity growth at the farm level and throughout the supply chain.

Ben is the Managing Director of New Edge Microbials (NEM). His love of farming combines naturally with his expertise in economics and business management to drive a company that sits at the cutting edge of biotechnology and feeds his insatiable curiosity for the new.

Based in Albury, NSW, NEM is one of Australia’s largest industrial producers of microbial and biological products to aid plant growth and increased crop yields. Backed by science, the company invests heavily in research and development and, with 20 years in the industry, is firmly at the forefront of agriculture’s “nature tech” revolution.

Jen Barwick is the National Climate and Nature coordinator for The Pew Charitable Trusts.  Pew is a global non-partisan research and public policy organisation, dedicated to serving the public through evidence-based advocacy. Pew works with Traditional Owners, communities, landholders, farmers, industry, and policy makers in Australia to promote conservation and sustainable management of our unique landscapes and the marine environment. Jen and her colleagues at Pew work with a range of partners to identify, advocate for and support solutions that protect nature and support the role of people in the landscapes, including how protection contributes to providing jobs, and social and economic outcomes – and addressing the broader climate change challenges we now face.  Jen’s current focus is working with stakeholders and government to support the growth of nature-based solutions, like carbon and the proposed biodiversity conservation markets, to ensure they realise the potential to deliver genuine and increased land restoration and conservation, greater climate resilience, as well as help generate improved economic, cultural and social benefits across regional Australia.

Georgia has a passion for sustainable food systems, agriculture and ESG. She is the owner and CEO of Bulla Park, Australia’s largest organic mushroom farm. Georgia also sits on numerous boards as Deputy Chair of Australian Mushroom Growers Association, Non-Executive Director of Rowing Australia, ACO Certification, Second Bite and Advisory Board Member Law Squared. Sustainability Committee Member at the National Farmers Federation. She was also recently awarded an International Nuffield Farming Fellowship and Organic Woman of the Year 2023.

She specialises in high performance farming embracing the use of technology and innovation to achieve fast growth and scale in agriculture with a focus on ESG. She began her career in the startup space Founding wine packaging business Lupé Wines in 2010. The company created innovative IP to manufacture a single serve glass of wine and raised venture capital to expand quickly into events, hotel minibars and airlines across Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. The company was acquired in 2016. Georgia briefly spent some time in the tech industry as CEO of Realestate.com‘s new venture Spacely as well as CEO of Startup Victoria.

Jacob is a Gamilaraay man working in the native grain space. The Gamilaraay are people of grassy plains and meandering rivers who maintain an intangible cultural connection to grassland foodways.
He’s passionate about re-awakening the Australian native grain foodways that have sustained his ancestors for thousands of generations and their potential in a modern context.
Jacob is an entrepreneur, researcher and academic working with Southern Cross University and the Yunus Centre at Griffith University. He uses transdisciplinary research to expand the knowledge base of native grain foodways. Jacob is developing innovative business ideas to help drive the industry forward in a way that First Nations people lead with authenticity and integrity.

Professor Rachel Burton is Head of the Food Science Department at Adelaide University. She is a plant scientist and molecular biologist, passionate about plant cell walls and developing novel crop options for modern agriculture including hemp, agave, sorghum, Plantago (psyllium) and chia. Rachel and her group, in collaboration with a range of industry partners, are developing innovative pathways to make these crops multifunctional, useful for food, fibre, building materials, replacement plastics and medicine, but also highly sustainable and carbon neutral. This embraces the concept of using the entire plant, with no waste, including employing insects to convert plant biomass into a source of valuable proteins and oils, with frass as an organic fertiliser, as part of the integrated circular ecosystem. Research into the performance of new products is used to inform selection of superior crop cultivars for the future, combined with the best approaches for their cultivation and post-harvest processing.

Lucy is Director of Ocean Decade Australia, a not-for-profit connecting Australia’s ocean stakeholders through new approaches to foster national change and improve our approach to ocean management, stewardship and use.  

Lucy founded Lateral Consulting and works across scientific research, strategy, innovation and external engagement. She’s worked in Australian higher education for 15 years, leading science engagement, research strategy, international partnerships, innovation and business development. She was on the University of Technology-based NSW Deep Green Biotech Hub board. 

Lucy’s work in international research spans marine toxicology, coral biology, fisheries and science policy. It explores the links between ocean health, human health and food security.  

She works with public and private sectors to increase scientific understanding, stakeholder engagement and implementation of sustainable practices in industry and government.  

David Carter has worked his entire career at Austral Fisheries and its predecessors. After graduating from Melbourne University in 1978 with a Marine Science degree, David’s first job was as a Deckhand on a prawn trawler off the coast of Darwin. This was the beginning of what has been a 44-year career in the fishing industry.

David has a strong commitment to sustainable, science-based fisheries management. He has helped numerous fisheries achieve sustainability certifications with the Marine Stewardship Council; campaigned and battled against Patagonian toothfish poachers to completely eradicate them from Australian toothfish fisheries; collaborated with NGOs such as WWF to improve global seafood sustainability standards, and in 2016, led Austral Fisheries to become the first carbon neutral seafood company in the world.

David was inducted into the National Seafood Industry Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2020 he received the Marine Stewardship Council’s Lifetime Achievement award.

Growing up in the Hunter Valley, David started his career in Australia, going on to live and work in New Zealand, the UK, Canada and the USA, building more than 20 years of experience in software, sales and finance.
In 2018, David co-founded Deep Planet, a global Agri Tech startup passionate about helping agricultural businesses, supply chain companies and growers to gain new and unbiased insights while supporting sustainability in their operations.
David holds an MBA from Oxford University, Bachelors of Commerce and Information Science from Newcastle University, Australia, and is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Professor Michelle Colgrave is the Deputy Director (Impact) in CSIRO Agriculture and Food, and formerly led the Future Protein Mission that will develop protein-based industries (including traditional protein, plant-based protein, insect, and microbial protein) along the value chain from production to the customer, delivering premium protein ingredients and products, addressing the rapid growth of the protein-based sector. Prof Colgrave is also chief investigator on the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, applying proteomics (the study of proteins using mass spectrometry) to agriculture and food science to the benefit of human health – with a special focus on proteins involved in food intolerance and allergy as well as bioactive proteins that bring specific health benefits.

Andrew Cooke is a founder of Rezare Systems, one of New Zealand’s leading agricultural software specialist companies, which is now part of the global Map of Ag Group where he is Chief Technology Officer.

With many years of experience applying software technology to agricultural science and farm systems, Andrew now leads initiatives connecting farmer and supply chain data in agrifood, ag finance and sustainability.

He is known for his work in data interoperability, leading formulation of the New Zealand farm data code of practice which became the pattern for sector interoperability codes world-wide. He has led the technical design of standards for livestock data interoperability as part of the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) and is currently focusing on geospatial and sustainability data interoperability in agriculture.

Andrew is a passionate advocate for the better use of technology in Agribusiness to improve productivity, sustainability and profitability.

After an extensive executive career in capital markets and funds management he has spent the last seven years in the Agritech sector mentoring emerging technology companies as an Investor, Adviser and Company Director.

He is currently President of AusAgritech, Managing Director of Farmbot Monitoring Solutions Australia and holds various Non-Executive board roles.

Recognized in the league of great scientists, Sarah boasts multiple awards for her contribution to biosecurity and Australia’s plant health status.
From a young age, Sarah had a strong fascination for natural science. Her career has taken her far and wide, connecting with like-minded people making a difference. Her work to keep ahead of emerging risks, spans three jurisdictions.
Today, Sarah is still firm in her belief that plant health is the backbone of our existence. As CEO of Plant Health Australia – the trusted coordinator in Australia’s biosecurity system and recognized internationally as a leader in plant health and biosecurity, she brings together expertise, knowledge and stakeholders to generate solutions that improve biosecurity outcomes to ensure the system is future-orientated and solutions-focused.

Dr Natalie Curach is leading the Australian-based operations for Ginkgo Bioworks – a Boston-based biotechnology company offering biology by design. Natalie was at the forefront of the growth of synthetic biology in Australia commencing with the establishment of the SynBio Research Priority at Macquarie University and then led the SynBio investments for Bioplatforms Australia. Natalie conducted her PhD on recombinant protein production in filamentous fungi, and has a Graduate Diploma in Business Management. Natalie has worked as a scientist engineering biology within startups, university, and government laboratories before transitioning into business development and leadership roles with the biotechnology ecosystem in Australia.

Eitan has been Managing Director of CropX New Zealand, providing digital farming solutions, since 2021. Prior to the Managing Director position, Eitan was the COO and Deputy CEO for close to five years, after relocating to Wellington with his family.
Eitan has a technological military career background, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel of Israel Defence Forces in 2008. Since that time Eitan has held senior positions in large global companies in the homeland security and intelligence sector.
Eitan has garnered vast executive managerial experience, leading successfully mega projects for safe and smart cities, critical infrastructure protection, intelligence, homeland security and he masters the IOT and SAAS Agri-Tech Sector.
Eitan holds Masters and Bachelor Degrees in Commercial Law from Tel Aviv and Berkeley Universities, an MBA from Polytechnic University New York, and BSC in Computer Programming from Champlain College Vermont.

Michael Dean has over 25 years’ experience across food and agriculture, venture capital, sustainability, carbon markets and the law. Prior to AgFunder, he founded SeedRock Capital Partners and was founder and CEO of Seedrock Africa Agriculture, a West-African based social impact investment agribusiness. As a lawyer, Michael has had experience with large-scale projects that incorporate complex environmental and development issues. Recently, he was recognised in the Meaningful Business 100 list, for his work to help achieve the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

Natalie leads the science, research, and development of farm carbon solutions within the FLINTpro software system and has been working on sustainable farming practices for over 15 years. She is a network leader in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. With a background as an agricultural scientist, Natalie focused her research on issues around climate change and mitigation, primarily at The University of Melbourne. Natalie has expansive working knowledge on calculating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and working towards carbon neutral farming. She is passionate about improving the climate resilience of farm systems and meeting the growing requirements for environmental sustainability reporting.

Brad, alongside his parents, runs a dryland broadacre cropping business in Scaddan, Western Australia. Upon completing his agribusiness degree at Curtin University, he returned home to the family farm, where he performs the regular range of daily farm tasks, as well as playing a key role in executing the farms’ precision ag strategy, and facilitating decision-making through his business analytics and agronomy work. This passion for precision ag and data-driven decisions led to him being awarded the 2022 Young Farmer of the Year Award, sponsored by McDonald’s Australia, at the Kondinin Group and ABC Rural Australian Farmer of the Year Awards. Brad was also awarded the 2022 Award for Excellence in Innovation, sponsored by Telstra.

Photo credit: Rosie Henderson @byrosiehenderson.

Sam Elsom is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sea Forest, an innovative environmental biotechnology company, and the first and largest commercial supplier of Asparagopsis. This red species of seaweed, when included in very low quantities, reduces the production of methane in ruminants such as cattle and sheep and is the most prospective tool for Australia’s agriculture industry to reach its carbon-neutral target by 2030.

Sam is a passionate environmentalist with over 15 years experience in sustainability. Having founded one of Australia’s first sustainable apparel businesses to measuring social and environmental impact across supply chains as well as implementing a satellite factory in India to support poor communities with income, training, clean water and education. Sam was drawn to explore seaweed cultivation for its impressive capacity to sequester CO2 as a potential solution to reverse climate change.

Jim Fader is a purpose-driven business leader with 20+ years in retail across multiple sectors and countries and five years in business turnarounds and restructures. Jim has chased innovation his entire career, revitalising fresh foods as a General Manager, Product Development for a market leading supermarket chain, landing award-winning duty-free store concepts as Buying Director and turning car tyres into printer ink in a waste-to-energy startup. Jim builds entrepreneurial cultures with an authentic leadership style focussing on people, pace, and collaboration.

Robert is the Professor of Bioprocess Engineering at the University of Adelaide and will be working in the School of Chemical Engineering.

During the first half of his career, Robert worked in the biopharmaceutical, medical diagnostic and medical device industries and was involved in the conversion of processes from the laboratory-scale to the commercial-scale. On joining academia he continued working on process development and has been involved in the translation of research to the biopharmaceutics, wine and industrial enzyme industry sectors. Robert’s scientific research has focussed on protein chemistry; protein self-assembly, self-association, thermal stability and protein interaction with small molecules. Robert’s recent research has been on the use plant proteins for human nutrition and for industrial processes.

On a lighter side Robert’s personal interest is in the history of brewing and the diversity of archaic styles of malt liquor.

Since co-founding S2G Ventures in 2014, Victor has emerged as one of the top thought leaders and venture capitalists in food and agriculture globally.  

With his pioneering “systems investing” thesis, he led investment into two of the sector’s most successful and transformative companies—Beyond Meat and sweetgreen—resulting in sector-defining IPOs and unicorns such as Apeel Sciences.  

He has a portfolio of personal investments and board positions and advises companies such as MycoTechnology, Mori, Air Protein, Tiny Organics and Digestiva.  

He’s the Founder and Chairman of FoodShot Global, a multi-stakeholder investment and grant-giving platform that awards the GroundBreaker Prize annually. His new fund, New Epoch Capital, is launching in 2023 with the vision of becoming the premier fund for conscious consumer growth. 

Kioumars Ghamkhar is Director, Margot Forde Forage Germplasm Centre. Kioumars is the Senior Scientist, Plant Genetic Diversity, Plant Genetics Team at AgResearch (NZ). Kioumars is a tech-savvy plant biologist, with around 20 years’ experience in plant science and 10 years’ experience working in the plant-tech space. Outside his official research work, Kioumars is founder of Map & Zap, which strives to make weed control a more sustainable practice, through their AI-based weed ID and laser technology system.

Matt Gilliham is current Director of the Waite Research Institute, the University of Adelaide’s flagship for agriculture, food and wine innovation, with a role in stimulating and supporting new research initiatives across the spectrum of agricultural research (from policy and economics, to animal, soil and crop sciences). He recently led a global consortium to secure funding for the establishment of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S) focused on delivering technologies required to sustain humans in deep space, and to improve the sustainable production of nutrition, medicines and materials on Earth.

As General Manager, Agribusiness for Commonwealth Bank, Natasha has the privilege of working with a team of highly experienced, innovative and committed bankers who are dedicated to supporting the goals of agribusinesses. Natasha is responsible for the successful execution of Commbank’s agribusiness strategy including products, services and initiatives which enable farmers to expand and grow,  to diversify their operations, to explore new markets and to innovate and experiment. Natasha and her team deeply understand global trends and ensure that agribusinesses are well placed to manage both the risks as well as the opportunities these might bring.  Agribusiness is playing a key role in the transition to net zero and Natasha and her team are working closely with farmers to improve farm productivity, to initiate new sustainability projects and to engage successfully in the transition and carbon economy.

Daniel is an environmental and agricultural economist with a focus on behavioural theories and interventions, production analysis, supply chain innovation, and rural development. Daniel is the Founder and Principal of Heuris Pty. Ltd (www.heuris.com.au), a research-focused economics consultancy working on sustainability, rural development, agro-food systems, behavioural change, and impact evaluation. Heuris is leading the design and operation of economic, social, behavioural insights, and impact assessments for Farming for the Future. Daniel also founded and runs a smallholder inclusive coffee supply chain program involving hundreds of farmers and two cafes, is currently an Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics and is Vice President of the Australian-Indonesia Business Council (SA Chapter). Daniel has led and participated in various impact programs including a startup wine production company focusing on market access and incentivisation of sustainable agricultural practices in South Australia and has led a range of agro-food systems and policy projects including for the OECD on resilient food supply chains and incorporation of environmental insights into productivity measures.

Robert Hardie is Executive Manager for Health and Agriculture at nbn. Robert joined nbn in April 2020 and since then has been working with key stakeholders in rural, remote and regional Australia to lift digital capability in the health and agriculture sectors. Robert brings more than 15 years’ experience of public policy development and advocacy to his role, including time as a political adviser to the Australian Government and policy director for NSW Farmers. Outside work, Robert is a Director with Masters Swimming Australia and a committee member with the NSW Farm Writers’ Association.

John Harvey joined AgriFutures Australia (formally RIRDC) in May 2016 as Managing Director. He accepted the challenge to set a new, more commercial direction for the organisation.

Prior to this appointment John held various positions at the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), spanning 18 years and including five years as Managing Director.

A graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, he was a Director of Australian Crop Accreditation System Limited and a Director of the Value-Added Wheat Cooperative Research Centre.

He has served on the boards of Pulse Breeding Australia, Barley Breeding Australia and the National Soybean Breeding Program. He was a member of the Australian Winter Cereals Pre-Breeding Alliance and the CRC for Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity.

Bridgit has been part of the agricultural sector her entire life; growing up on a farm in New Zealand, studying at Massey University and working in varied roles across science, commercialization and export until founding her own business Regen in 2010.  The essence of Regen was always using technology to support farmers be more efficient and sustainable, so on the successful sale of Regen to CropX in 2020 it was natural to then take on the role of Chief Sustainability Officer for CropX Technologies.

In addition to her role with CropX Bridgit is the Chair of AgriTechNZ and involved in several other start-ups in governance and mentor capacities.

Andrew Henderson is a leading strategic policy specialist with a passion for building the sustainability and prosperity of rural and regional Australia and enhancing the recognition of its role in the economy and its place in national security. Andrew is the Independent Chair of the Safemeat Advisory Group and the Jurisdictional Traceability Group and is a member of the national Sheep and Goat Traceability Taskforce. Andrew has been heavily involved in reforming Australia’s livestock traceability and integrity systems since 2017, and has advised the Commonwealth government on biosecurity, red meat and livestock, northern Australian development, and climate change. As the Principal of Agsecure, Andrew’s mission is to support industry and government to understand each other and work better together for the benefit of the nation, working across private enterprise, industry, not-for-profits, and governments. Andrew is also a published author on biosecurity, food security, national security, agricultural supply chains and other matters of national interest.

Steven is the Client Partner – GTM Partnerships for IBM and has over 20 years of experience in digital, technology and customer experience innovation for enterprises, start up and government.

Having extensive expertise in digital product development, new business model design and enterprise transformation, he is passionate about enabling customer-centred business transformation and innovation.

Ryan grew up on a farm in New Zealand. He completed his undergraduate studies in agriculture before being awarded a Fulbright scholarship to complete a masters and PhD in animal science and mathematical modelling at Cornell University in New York. On returning to New Zealand, he joined a large-scale dairy farming operation called Synlait farms, where he held an operations and innovation role. It was at Synlait where Ryan and two Co-Founders identified a need for a digital system to manage the thousands of people coming and going from their properties, which is when they started Onside. Ryan has led Onside since its inception including raising $6m of investment and securing $5m of government funding to progress their mission to power the world’s biosecurity.

Fern’s global experience spans 18 years in Product Management and Product Marketing. She held leadership roles in the high-tech and telecommunications industries, working for companies such as Telstra and Apple, where she led cross-company teams to deliver new product development and go-to-market launches. At Telstra she led Enterprise Product Marketing through significant network transformation from copper to fibre. While at Apple she worked in the B2C space managing the accessories category in over 100 retail stores across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

3 years ago she was introduced to research on leaf protein as the most abundant source of protein, and realised its potential as a future food source. Driven by her growing awareness of the environmental and nutritional impact of our food choices she co-founded The Leaf Protein Co. where she and the team are working to re-introduce more biodiversity into our food system with Rubisco.

As Head of Business Development for Syngenta, Brett’s responsible for investigating new business opportunities and identifying and developing next-generation technology solutions for agriculture. 

He joined Syngenta in 2004 with roles in R&D and Product Management, supporting the delivery of new crop protection technology for Australian and New Zealand growers. Brett also led large-scale business transformation and integration projects across commercial, supply chain and IT. 

Brett has an MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management. He’s interested in discussing all things agritech, commercialising start-ups and craft beer. 

Jay is the CEO of Athena IR-Tech, bringing a background of over 35 years of executive level technical and business leadership in companies such as Accenture, Constellation Wines Australia and Schneider Electric.

Throughout his career Jay has always had a technology thread running through each role he has held. Jay was Director of Technology at Accenture’s B2B eMarkets Center of Excellence and led Schneider Electric’s Demand and Supply Optimisation business where his team across Australia and Moldova developed artificial intelligence based planning and scheduling solutions for industries with complex supply chains such as wine, grain and mining.
Jay has also owned and operated his own vineyard in McLaren Vale, South Australia and brings a passion for technology, climate change and wine to his role at Athena IR-Tech.

Tim Hunt is an independent thinker, specialising in strategic analysis, communication, facilitation and education in the Food & Agribusiness sector.
Tim has more than 25 years of experience in analysing trends in international markets and F&A supply chains and advising processors, branded food companies, primary producers and ag investors of the strategic implications for their businesses.
Through his career Tim has held roles as General Manager RaboResearch Australia and New Zealand, Global Dairy Strategist Rabobank, and senior analyst roles at ANZ and LMC International.
Tim is currently the joint Program Director of Rabobank’s Business Management Programmes and assists companies and large primary producers on strategy.
He is an impactful keynote speaker with experience addressing conferences on 5 continents.
Tim has worked in New York and Oxford, and as the Principal of Tim Hunt Consulting, now calls Melbourne home.

Bryce Ives is masterful at making groups connect and facilitating conversations that matter. Instrumental in leading some of Australia’s most enduring agricultural leadership, youth development and community media projects, Bryce is also an experienced company director and c-suite executive with a focus on engagement, communications, public and government affairs, and social impact work. Bryce designed the Talking 2030 roadmap, consultation framework, to get Australian Agriculture to $100 billion at the farm gate by 2030.For the past twelve years, Bryce has worked as Chief Facilitator of the AgriFutures Horizon program and for the AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award program.

Jack Jacobs is Yindyamarra Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University. He works closely with Stan Grant to inspire and provoke critical discussion around democracy, justice, equity, tolerance, and belonging.

Jack is the co-host of the Yindyamarra podcast and the host of Beaconsfield podcast, on which he speaks with leading thinkers about reform. He has appeared as a guest on ABC Radio National’s, The Philosopher’s Zone, and contributes to The Conversation and other mediums.

Jack is an advocate for respect and inclusion within organisations. In 2021, he worked on the Australian Human Rights Commission’s landmark review of Federal Parliament’s workplace culture. He has also worked on culture reviews aimed at preventing and responding to sexual misconduct in university residential colleges.

Jack has a first-class honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Sydney.

Hunter Jay is the CEO and cofounder of Ripe Robotics, a startup working on autonomous harvesting of fruit. Before Ripe, Hunter built ‘FlagWars’, a multiplayer battle game that was featured on the iOS App Store in several countries, and OSS, an online story service that connects authors with paying commissions. An engineer, Hunter is particularly interested in (and concerned about) the development of artificial intelligence. He lives with fruit pickers onsite in Shepparton, while developing Ripe’s machines.

David Jochinke, commonly referred to as ‘DJ’, is a third-generation dryland farmer and livestock producer in the Murra Warra community, at Wimmera Plains, Victoria, operating under the family business, AV Jochinke & Co. He is also the Vice President of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) Board. Throughout his representative career, he has been a strong advocate for rural communities and the farming industry, through numerous high-profile leadership positions at both state and federal levels. Insights gained include focusing on clearly communicated visions and empowering teams to collectively deliver innovative outcomes that enhance the wider agricultural industry. With a role-up-your-sleeves attitude, he has an extensive executive network and a depth of practical production knowledge.

Vladimir Jiranek is Professor of Oenology and former Head of the Department of Wine Science at the University of Adelaide (since 2012). He is also Director of the current (2018-2024) and previous (2013-2017) ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production. He is a research-active wine microbiologist with over 120 peer-reviewed publications; some 30 PhD completions. His expertise is in the isolation and optimisation of microbes for fermentation processes using field work, GM techniques/CRISPR, directed evolution and mutagenesis followed by high-throughput screening with custom-built robotic systems. Several strains his group have identified are in commercial release, highlighting his commitment to end-user outcomes. His own group of 10 HDRs/PDFs has facilities and expertise for fermentation (<100 L) and microbiology research. Vladimir will discuss the emerging opportunities in the use of winery infrastructure for purposes other than wine, and how fermentation science can be used for the precision production of novel and tailored beverages.

Ben grew up on a cropping and livestock property near Gulargambone in Central NSW and has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Newcastle (UON). In 2014 his passion for precision agriculture led him to complete a Graduate Certificate in Precision Agriculture from the University of New England (UNE). 

Ben joined John Deere in 2005 and has spent the last 17 years supporting John Deere customers through various field-based roles.  

In Ben’s current role as Production Systems Manager—Production and Precision Ag, he’s responsible for identifying market trends in Australia and New Zealand agriculture for future product development opportunities. He also leads John Deere’s go-to-market strategies for the small grains, cotton and sugar cane production systems. 

Nate has spent his career supporting leaders in their attempts to design trustworthy organisations that deliver positive social impact. His work draws on moral philosophy, behavioural science, sociology, design and systems theory. He’s been an entrepreneur, angel investor, consultant, speaker and writer. Previously he advised the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on trust, supply chain transparency and consumer insights. He now lives in Melbourne with his young daughter.

Dr Steven Lapidge is the creator and CEO of Fight Food Waste Ltd, which incorporates the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre and Stop Food Waste Australia. The organisation is the lead agency in Australia’s fight to halve food waste by 2030 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. His career so far has focused on industry-based science and commercialisation across the invasive species, agrifood innovation and sustainability fields. His qualifications include a PhD and an MBA. He is a Fulbright Professional Business/Industry Fellow and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Julien is the Director of Strategy and Business Development at Naïo Technologies, a pioneer in agricultural robotic solutions for easier farming, where he has worked for seven years.
In this role, Julien is responsible for defining the company’s product offerings, positioning and distribution channels and negotiating partnership proposals with key accounts.
Julien is also focussed on worldwide market study and developing new business opportunities, with a particular emphasis on expanding into the Australian market in 2023.

Jennifer has a 30-year track record in carbon projects and climate solutions, having facilitated some of Australia’s first carbon trades more than 20 years ago. Today, she is working on commercialising net zero technology, as part of a joint-venture project to develop Australia’s first biorefinery, producing Australia’s first low-carbon renewable fuel, in Narrogin WA. She also has a vision for integrating regional regeneration hubs, and implementing ‘whole of farm’ regenerative approaches to carbon projects. She is also passionate about graphene batteries as well as green hydrogen, with projects in Australia and Canada, as key tools in Australia’s transition to net zero.

Ethy is an impact investor, entrepreneur and strong supporter of using technology to positively impact lives and the planet.  Previously she has held senior roles in the Israeli Government focusing on International Trade, Innovation and Investments as well as senior diplomatic positions.

After her career in government, Ethy established Impact Innovation Israel, a strategic consultancy firm focusing on tech and innovation in sectors where there is a substantial impact on society and the environment.

She is currently the Managing Partner of Kinneret Impact Ventures, a specialised Israeli Impact VC Fund focusing on technology startups in areas of Agriculture, Food and Climate. She is also the co-Founder and Israel CEO of the Bridge Hub – global Agrifood tech innovation hub based in Australia and Israel – and is an advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank on Agtech and Climate.

Ethy has a keen interest in making technology solutions accessible to all and supporting the vulnerable sections of the population in becoming self-sufficient by helping them to implement tech solutions.

Hans Loder is a geologist and viticulturist with 20+ years’ field experience in collecting, managing and using data to extract insights. He’s a 2021 Nuffield Scholar, supported by Wine Australia, where he researched data management solutions for viticulturists, under the title, “Here come the robots, but what do we do with the data?” He is also a viticulturist for Penley Coonawarra, where he’s continually pushing convention and leveraging technology in order to provide detailed oversight, scale through efficiency, and sustainable production.

Devon is focused on solving one of the defining problems of our time – how to feed an increasing population with decreasing resources, without damaging our planet in the process. She is a technologist by trade, and has specialised in applying technology to drive sustainable food production. In her current role, she is responsible for ensuring that Regrow’s world class agriculture resilience platform is successfully enabling opportunities for reduced environmental impact on-farm across Asia Pacific.

Established in 1884, and proudly family-owned and operated by four generations, Macka’s use only the world’s best genetics to breed quality, grass-fed, grain finished Verified Black Angus Beef for the domestic and export market.

Macka’s has a strong team, and being a family business, a shared passion and commitment drive the team towards producing the highest quality Black Angus Cattle & Beef.

Alasdair MacLeod is Executive Chairman of the Macdoch Group, a private investment company with offices in London and Sydney. The vision of the group is to see Australia become a global leader in building natural capital and transitioning to a low carbon, climate resilient future. The group invests in agricultural land, the development of technology and advisory businesses. Investments seek to provide the tools, advice, data and test cases to build natural capital and a climate resilient future. Alasdair is also Chair of the Macdoch Foundation, a philanthropic body which seeks to build the resilience of people and the planet.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur and business advisor. Launching his first company at 21, which started a 15 year journey to launch four other businesses across a range of industries. His long term support of entrepreneurship and mentoring was recognised in 2020, as a winner in the InDaily 40 under 40 awards.

Michael’s curiosity for solving problems using technology led him to Agriculture and the food system, where he now leverages his skills, experience and network to help AgriFood Tech startups commercialise and scale their innovations to redesign the food system. Prior to joining SVG Ventures Thrive, Michael led AgriFood Tech at BDO Australia for 4 years, where he was an advisor to several Investors, Start-ups, Agribusinesses and Government Departments.

Michael is deeply engaged in the development of the AgriFood tech eco-system, working with various AgriFood tech events and programs, as well as being the co-organiser of the South Australian AgriTech Meetup Group. Michael’s thinking on redesigning the food system was featured in his TEDx talk, in which he detailed the potential of emerging technologies in agriculture to build a more sustainable and resilient food system.

Oli Madgett became a grower in McLaren Vale in 2015, and leads Perennial in Australia, working with the MLA and AgriFutures to scale soil carbon quantification and decarbonise agrifood supply chains. Oli runs the Adelaide AgriTech Meetup, which brings together a community of more than 1,500 developers, farmers and entrepreneurs interested in the agricultural technology space.

Anuj is a Managing Director and Head of Agri-Food at Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. He also is part of the leadership team which overseas Africa and Middle East.

Anuj founded Temasek Food & Agriculture team in 2013 and since then Temasek has invested over US$8 billion in global farm-to-fork value chain including in over 30 start-ups (such as Impossible Foods, eFishery, Pivot Bio, Bowery, Farmer Business Network) and many innovative technology-focused companies with the collective purpose to drive resiliency and greater efficiency in global food supplies while promoting environmental sustainability and social impact in line with UN SDG goals and Net Zero 2050 targets.

Adam has over 20 years of deep experience in the aquaculture world and is an experienced CEO and General Manager. Prior to joining CH4 Global in 2020, Adam was General Manager of Aquaculture at (PIRSA), the Department of Primary Industries and Regions, a key economic development agency in the Government of South Australia. There he was responsible for leading the operational and strategic directions of the Aquaculture, Policy Planning and Environmental Group. Previous to PIRSA, Adam was the longest-running CEO of the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers Association (TSGA). Before TSGA Adam worked at an executive level with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and as a Divisional Manager for Greening Australia. Adam is also a past Director on the Boards for the National Aquaculture Council, the Tasmanian Aquaculture Council and Seafood Training Tasmania.

Over the last 18 years, Catherine has worked in management, strategic and leadership roles in the agricultural, research and regional development sectors in Australia and internationally. During this time, she has become a proven business leader, communicator and organisational renovator, focused mostly on leadership development, advocacy and delivering innovative solutions for the industries in which she works. Currently the CEO of Riverine Plains Inc, she is passionate about building prosperity in their members through sharing knowledge and skills.
Catherine has always worked in rural and regional Australia and is inspired by the potential of our regions. She is passionate about the people side of agriculture, learning from and sharing with others. Mentoring is a role she plays with enthusiasm as she believes to have vibrant rural communities, you need confident, supported people and prosperous businesses.
She uses her Rural Science degree to understand the technical aspects of agriculture, while her experience in business and governance helps maximise efficiency and outcomes for the organisations for whom she works. Catherine has worked as a beef industry consultant, an entrepreneur, a farmer member based, organisational CEO and has sat on a number of NFP and public boards both in Australia and Internationally.
She received a 2022 Queens Birthday Honours, Order of Australia Medal for contribution to agriculture and rural communities, is UNE’s 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and was the 2012 WA Rural Women of the Year.
In her spare time, Catherine loves cycling, horse riding, travel and exploring the outback. She is also passionate about finding a cure for cancer and has raised over $100,000 to put towards research, education programs and patient support.

An experienced company director, Cathy McGowan has an extensive career in business, agricultural research, development, extension, and politics. Prior to her role at AgriFutures Australia, Cathy’s career highlights include representing the rural electorate of Indi in Parliament from 2013-2019, being the president of the peak national organisation, Australian Women in Agriculture, Chair of National Regional Women’s Advisory Council, and a community representative at the 4th Ministerial meeting of the WTO in Doha. Cathy lives in the Indigo Valley, Dudwroa and Dhargal country where the community groups play a vital role in enhancing sustainability within the Murray Darling system.

An accomplished and forward-thinking business leader with a broad mix of international consulting, supply chain, engineering and manufacturing operations experience gained with leading global brands, Paul has a genuine passion for innovation and engineering simple solutions to highly complex technical problems, combined with a proven track record of building and leading high performing teams. Inspired by the increasingly pressing need ‘to feed the world a smarter way’ Paul has turned his expertise to developing award-winning Australian AgTech solutions. As InvertiGro CoFounder and CoCEO Paul has led the development of InertiGro’s innovative product and service offering from conception to international commercialisation.

Dr Kieren Moffat is a social scientist committed to bridging the gap between communities and the companies, industries and institutions that work alongside them. Prior to co-founding Voconiq, he was a Senior Research Scientist with the CSIRO. Working across a broad range of industries across the world, Kieren uses quantitative social psychological research methods to reveal the pathways to deeper community trust for companies and industries, and to provide a voice for community members in decisions that affect their lives. He is the lead researcher on the Community Trust in Rural Industries and Community Perceptions and Worker Experiences projects.

Phil Morle is a partner at Main Sequence where he leads the ‘Feed 10 Billion People’ challenge. He’s passionate about delivering healthier people and a healthier planet, leading him to develop an interest in a number of adjacent areas such as decarbonisation, synthetic biology, new materials and recycling. Since joining, he has led the firm’s company creation program called Venture Science, developing notable startups such as v2food, Samsara Eco and Eden Brew.

Jenny is Associate Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology at the University of Adelaide in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and The Waite Research Institute. She is an Affiliate Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, and a Director of Plant Systems Biology at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, USA.  

Jenny’s goal is to develop crops which contribute to a sustainable and renewable bioeconomy. In Adelaide, her team is using synthetic biology to develop new crops for food and material production in controlled growth environments and applying new agricultural biotechnologies to develop resilient field crops.
In the US, her work focusses on reengineering the plant cell wall for the sustainable production of fuels and biochemicals from biomass, and to enhance plant-microbiome interactions for sustainable biomass crop production. Jenny has a particular interest in the potential for plant synthetic biology to deliver on-demand production of biomaterials and pharmaceuticals.   

Hamish is a 5th generation farmer from Central NSW, who grew up on a mixed farming enterprise, focusing on Broadacre cropping and Trade EU steers.

After working in the Northern Territory on a Station in the Kimberly in 1996, Hamish completed a Bachelor of Management (Farm Business) USYD Orange Campus.

2004 – 2012 Hamish became a councillor for the Cattle Council of Australia and represented Beef and Agriculture at State, National and International levels.

This unique mix of backgrounds enabled Hamish to see the value of Farm data for management, productivity, compliance and integrity.

In 2018 Hamish co-founded Pairtree Intelligence to overcome the issue of Data Silo’s and enable the myriad of Agtech solutions to all start to connect with each other.

Pairtree’s focus is to enable farmers to better utilise their farm data for more accurate insights and actionable outcomes.

Tegan is a Co-Founder and CPO of one of Australia’s fastest growing agritech companies, Loam Bio, which was founded in 2019 and now has over 70 team members across offices and labs in Australia, Canada, and the US. 

Starting her career in farming on the family property at Bogan Gate, NSW, Tegan has qualifications and experience in agricultural sciences. In her role at Loam, she has built one of Australia’s largest microbial product development teams – including establishing global R&D programs, specialist soil analysis laboratories and an international microbial library boasting over 2,500 strains of fungi. 

Tegan and the Loam team explore how the world’s smallest organisms – microbes – can solve the world’s biggest problems, and have developed ground-breaking microbial products that enable farmers to build significant levels of soil carbon in cropping systems.

Connecting world-class microbiologists with real-world farming challenges, Tegan is a leader in agritech driving high-impact solutions for farming systems and climate change.

Samantha is Content Producer and Editor, Agrifood Engagements & Events at AgriFutures Australia. She is a journalist and communications specialist with experience in agriculture, agrifood tech innovation and investment, sustainability, fashion and brand strategy.

Growing up in outback Queensland on a cattle and sheep station gave Samantha a nuanced perspective of Australian agriculture. She has since cultivated her writing repertoire as an editor, launched print and digital publications, and worked in the Middle East and Australia supporting brands, such as Amex, AgriFutures Australia, Qantas, Rabobank, NSW Farmers, Virbac, and Syngenta.

Samantha takes great pleasure in sharing stories from around the world that urge the community to think deeply about our future food security and the pivotal role of innovation.

Carmel Onions is the National Director, Agribusiness at the Commonwealth Bank. CBA has a long and proud history supporting Australian agriculture and Carmel’s team supports the business with strategic initiatives, such as the CBA Agri Green Loan and Sustainability Linked Loans for Agriculture. Carmel is an advocate for the intersection of natural capital enhancements and on-farm productivity outcomes, and building resilience into farming systems. Carmel has been with CBA for 20 years and holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from the University of Sydney.

Hermione is a supply chain and freight logistics specialist with executive management experience in public and private sector organisations, over a career spanning three decades.
Hermione is a Non-Executive Director of the Melbourne Market Authority and Austrade’s Export Freight Advisory Board and has previously been Supply Chain Advisor to Asia Australia Society, Non-Executive Director of Food Innovation Australia and a member of the National Agricultural Labour Advisory Committee.
Hermione’s career has focussed on end-to-end supply chain strategy, complexity, planning multimodal infrastructure and problem-solving freight logistics in metropolitan, regional and international markets.
Hermione has been the recipient of many industry, university and business awards and in 2020 was recognised as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain.

Charlie Peel is The Australian’s rural reporter, covering agriculture, politics and issues affecting life outside of Australia’s capital cities. He began his career in rural Queensland before joining The Australian in 2017. Since then, Charlie has covered court, crime, state and federal politics and general news. He has reported on cyclones, floods, bushfires, droughts, corporate trials, election campaigns and major sporting events.

CEO of Three60 Consulting, Jackie Poyser, is a highly experienced facilitator, communications and engagement specialist and business administrator. Working across the agriculture, health and tourism sectors for more than 25 years, Jackie has a passion for customer centric approaches, with a focus on generating and implementing ideas for continuous improvement to work practices and processes.

Jackie leads a dynamic team at the Brisbane based communication and engagement specialist company – Three60 Consulting – who have achieved notable success in strengthening stakeholder relationships, setting business strategies, enhancing people and culture and creating business transformations.

Matthew Pryor is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Tenacious Ventures, and a founding board member of the Australian AgriTech Association. He was previously Co-Founder of Observant, an Australian agritech pioneer acquired by Jain Irrigation in February 2017. He was the founding chair of Rocket Seeder, a food and ag innovation accelerator, and founding chair of the Australian Government Agriculture 4.0 Task Force. He is an active member of CSIRO’s Agriculture and Food Advisory Committee and is passionate about promoting Australian agrifood innovation globally.

Kristi Riordan is Co-Founder and CEO at Harvest B, an Australian B2B food technology company developing and manufacturing plant based proteins.  Kristi is an experienced operating executive of multiple venture backed tech companies that redefined categories in highly regulated industries over the past 20 years.  During this time, she has been supported by investors including W23 (investor of Harvest B), Bessemer, Matrix and CRV in the USA.  Having spent most of her career in New York City, Kristi was granted a Distinguished Visa in 2019 under the new Global Talent program and is now permanently residing in Australia.  Prior to her career in tech growth companies, Kristi spent time at Blackstone Private Equity in NYC, KPMG and served as a law clerk on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington D.C.  Kristi holds her Certified Public Accountant license and is an admitted lawyer in the USA.

Lisa is a passionate Food Scientist with extensive global R&D experience working for a variety of multinationals that include Unilever, Mars and Woolworths South Africa. Lisa was the R&D Executive for MANE Flavours leading their Innovation Centre and R&D program for Sub-Saharan Africa based in Cape Town before joining v2food in Australia.

Lisa is currently Chief Science Officer where she is responsible for developing, leading, and translating v2food’s science research strategy into breakthrough product advancements that help unlock barriers to plant-based meat adoption. Lisa has a particular passion for ensuring the application of science and technology is meaningful for both people and planet.

Lisa has recently completed her PhD in Food Science through the University of Stellenbosch. Her research explored the current and future application of food science & technology in South Africa in responding to major shifts in food consumption patterns since 1994.

Tribal affiliations: Ngāti Raukawa, Pare Hauraki and Ngāpuhi

Guy has a background as a commercial lawyer and strategic adviser in NZ, Hong Kong, Vietnam and the UK. He now specialises in the indigenous sector and works with a wide range of indigenous founders helping them in their commercialisation strategies. He has personally invested into various start-ups in various areas including nutraceuticals, climate technology, health beverages and energy management systems.

Guy is Managing Partner of a new indigenous venture capital firm in NZ – Māui Toa VC and sits on the Boards of the NZ Agritech IPT Māori Advisory Group, the commercial development arm of his tribe and CH4 Global – a methane-inhibitor company operating in various countries including Australia.

Previous Directorships include NZ Growth Capital Partners (investor into VC’s) and Kiwirail (NZ rail operator).

Since founding HelloFresh in Australia in 2012 Tom has overseen the expansion of the meal kit business into all mainland states in Australia and New Zealand. More recently, the business has focused on increasing the addressable market for its D2C meal products with the launch of EveryPlate Australia in 2020 and the acquisition of Youfoodz in 2021.

Tom grew up on a beef and wool property in NSW’s Southern Tablelands. HelloFresh sits at an intersection of his lifelong interest in agricultural production and ingredient provenance, digital commerce expertise, and erstwhile culinary ambitions.

Saar, CEO & Co-Founder at Beewise, is a seasoned entrepreneur.

He started his career as a software developer; in 2001 he became CTO of Ad4Ever which was acquired by aQuantive where he served as GM & VP of Rich Media.

In 2007 aQuantive was acquired by Microsoft, where Saar served as Director of Rich Media solutions until 2008, when he left and founded ActiveBuilding, a pioneer in PropTech. ActiveBuilding was then acquired by RealPage in 2013.

Saar has had three successful exits from the five companies he founded or joined prior to founding Beewise.

Saar received his MBA from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.

Chris is Director of ProAdvice, a professional services firm specialising in accounting, farm business coaching (business strategy, integrated professional services, succession planning) and incorporating wealth advisory services through Morgans Financial.

As a management consultant, Chris’ client work is varied and includes collaborative farming, succession planning, business re-structure and re-finance, business expansion and assisting families in business. Working as a client manager, Chris acts as ‘chairman of the board’, providing strategic advice, improving business systems, assisting with change management and coordinating the clients’ professional adviser team.

Chris has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from Sydney University, is a member of the Ag Institute of Australia, holds his CPAg (Certified Practising Agriculturist) and has been working with rural clients in South Australia since 1989. He has held various roles in the agricultural industry, including as a Livestock Officer for Primary Industries SA and as the Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia Property Management Planning Officer.

Clare Scriven was raised in Mount Gambier and returned to the region with her family after living and working in Adelaide for some years.

Clare is committed to regional development, improving educational opportunities, supporting small business, and promoting the importance of primary industries sectors.

Prior to entering Parliament in 2018, Clare’s career spanned forest industries, human resources, government policy and service delivery.

Clare’s post-graduate studies in management and business have complemented her diverse working background.

Clare is passionate about regional communities.  As a member of the Legislative Council, she represents all South Australians.

She and her husband, Gerard, have six children.

Mary Shelman is an internationally recognised thought leader, speaker, and strategic advisor on global agribusiness, agritech, and food system trends. The former Director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Program, she now works with companies, governments, and investors around the world through her consulting and advisory firm, Shelman Group, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Shelman provides unique insights into technology and consumer trends and champions collaboration, industry alignment, and forward-looking strategic planning to achieve system-wide improvements and create pathways for sustainable growth. She serves on The Kroger Company Zero Hunger Zero Waste Foundation advisory board and is a member of Perfect Day’s Sustainability and Health Advisory Council. A native of Kentucky where she still owns a farm, Mary holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Andrew has deep professional experience working within international agri-food technology ecosystems including industry supply chains, with researchers and with governments.

Working across many sectors including with organisations in aquaculture, viticulture, horticulture, eggs and meat and livestock in Australia, the US and UK he has developed strategy and implemented industry defining technologies.

Leveraging his 20+ years experience delivering cutting edge technology across industries including media, utilities, defence and AgriFood, Andrew founded technology consultancy More Than Machines, and helps Agri-Food organisations, Startups, Researchers and Government to develop digital strategy and technology solutions that leverage their data to optimise their land, production, markets and products.

Previously, Andrew was Chief Data Officer at Meat and Livestock Australia where he developed and implemented the Australian Red Meat industry data strategy and digital supply chain research programs that demonstrably increased productivity, product quality and enabled new market opportunities through the targeted implementation of digital technology.

Andrew was responsible for the data science and technology outcomes of the first Australian agricultural-wide research collaboration “Accelerating Precision to Decision Agriculture” a collaboration between all 15 Rural Research and Development Corporations with a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, economists, software engineers, data scientists and agricultural scientists to analyse the risks and opportunities of digital transformation to Australian agribusinesses.

Anna was appointed Managing Director of Woolworths Group, its new stand-alone red meat business Greenstock in April 2021.

With 15 years of experience in the global agribusiness industry, Anna is a leader with a strong track record in operational excellence, opening new markets, and building market credibility through innovative products that ensure competitiveness.

Greenstock was created to work with primary producers and suppliers to provide the combined red meat needs of Woolworths Group’s retail, international and wholesale businesses. Anna is leading the transformation of Greenstock’s business model into a strategic multi-channel protein specialist, while delivering high-quality, sustainable and strong animal welfare solutions for Greenstock’s customers, partners, farmers and team.

Prior to this role, Anna was Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s largest cattle and beef company – the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) where she reshaped and optimised its supply chain, implemented the company’s first sustainability strategy and led the team to strong growth through a number of challenging seasons and difficult trading periods. Anna also spent time as the CEO at AuctionsPlus, which is Australia’s largest online livestock marketplace.

Anna has a Global Executive Masters BA, is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Board Director of Agribusiness Australia and a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation.

Shannon is the CEO and Co-Founder of Black Box Co, an innovative SaaS (Software as a Service) product solving big data problems in the livestock industry. Aside from Black Box, Shannon is a wife, mother, farmer and qualified veterinarian. She has extensive experience across the beef industry from beginning work as a jillaroo in the Northern Territory to coordinating a large-scale beef genomics project. Shannon was the 2019 co-winner of the Zanda McDonald Award. She is passionate about the beef industry, and innovation to make it more sustainable, productive, and profitable. Black Box Co is a cloud-based software program that links data captured along the beef supply chain to create insights for the industry. The data is cleaned, refined and disseminated through multiple proprietary algorithms to create informed insights to improve production and profitability, and accurately form prediction and forecasting models for performance and profitability. Black Box Co has been developed with data from over 800,000 cattle and has been built firsthand with industry partners right along the beef supply chain. The software instantly summarises and analyses on-farm production data from your crush side collection units, combining it with data beyond the point of sale (feedlot and carcase) to turn it into key insights. By taking the pain out of data management and analysis, Black Box Co allows users to get on with the important decision-making.

Michele Stansfield is the General Manager of Agritechnology Pty Ltd and CEO Of Cauldron Molecules Pty Ltd, a business supporting the development and manufacture of climate resilient foods through providing rapid scale up and the construction of multi-million litre fermentation facilities. Michele has a vision that Australia will be the global landing pad for climate resilient food development and manufacturing. Cauldron is leading the charge with the first full scale food fabrication plant due in 2025. She is working with large industry to best utilise our natural resources and working with research providers to build commercially viable technologies.

Anthony (Tony) Stewart is the Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Foods International, Australia’s largest 100% family-owned red meat processing company. Tony is a senior executive with extensive global executive leadership experience in the consumer goods, manufacturing and distribution, and agribusiness sectors. Prior to joining Thomas Foods International, Tony worked in senior executive roles for a number of large private and listed businesses including Pernod Ricard, Detmold Packaging Group, and Beam Inc.
Tony is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kath has spent more than a decade reporting on rural and regional affairs across Australia.

As national rural reporter with the ABC, Kath now reports across TV, radio and online from Parliament House in Canberra.

Kath’s reporting has focused on Australia’s trading relationship with China, the Murray-Darling Basin, climate policy, droughts, floods, and fires.

Kath was recently awarded the National Rural Press Club’s ‘Overall Winner’ award, and while she loves to travel, is most at home at Marlo, in east Gippsland.

Suzanne Thompson – is very proud of her ancestral bloodlines, and brimming with knowledge of her culture, Australian history, and innovative ways to share her passions with others in a respectful and contemporary way.

With 20 years working in both the government and community sectors Suzanne found herself following in her cultural footsteps as a pioneer for social and economic empowerment, trade, and indigenous self-determination.

She is Founder and Managing Director of Yambangku Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and Tourism Development Aboriginal Corporation (YACHATDAC) which manages a 22,000 Acre Property in Outback Central Western Queensland, she is now redefining the very idea of social enterprise and appropriate cultural trading methods that will ensure a safe and transparent economic future for indigenous people.

Suzanne also volunteers her time as the Chair of the Australian Native Foods and Botanicals (ANFAB) National Peak body and is working directly to secure indigenous interests and right in this rapidly expanding global marketplace.

She has just been appointed as indigenous advisor to the Tourism & Events Queensland board (TEQ), and interim secretary for the newly formed Queensland First Nations Tourism Council, the peak body for First Nations Tourism in Queensland.

She is currently fostering support and investment for nature-based economies, including Indigenous Land Management, Carbon Farming and First Foods & Medicines, and the recognition, protection, and renumeration of indigenous intellectual knowledge by industry.

More recently Suzanne has been appointed to the Central Western Queensland Ministerial Round Table for her invaluable insights and connections to Regional Outback Queensland.

Alexander is currently the Head of Group Strategy, responsible for the long-term growth strategy and business development of Syngenta Group, based in Basel, Switzerland.

Joining Syngenta in 2003, Alex spent ten years of his career in the seeds business, heading corn and oilseeds, vegetables and more recently as the head of Global Marketing for Syngenta Seeds. He worked closely together with scientists such as breeders and geneticists, as well as commercial teams to develop and commercialise new seed varieties and traits. Alexander also spent significant time in corporate roles, responsible for strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), corporate ventures and digital agriculture.

Alex is an engineer by training, holding a diploma in Mechanical Engineering and a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Hannover, Germany.

Lieke is the Executive Officer of the Waite Research Institute where she supports communication of all University of Adelaide research in the fields of agriculture, food and wine.

Before starting this position, Lieke received her PhD in Wine Science, researching the effects of bushfires on grape and wine quality. For some years Lieke held the role of Research Winemaker for the University of Adelaide and the Australian Wine Research Institute, and managed the Ag, Food and Wine science outreach program Why Waite.

Lieke is passionate about sustainable agriculture and how scientific innovation will drive the future of what we eat and how we produce our food.

Aparna is the Collaborative Innovation Lead at Bühler for the region of Southeast Asia & Oceania. In this role, she leads innovation strategy in emerging opportunities for sustainable foods and scouts for novel agri-food technology applications with external partners in the ecosystem to develop purposeful and high-impact transformations for the future of food.
Her career spanned a decade in the public sector with A*STAR. As head of A*STAR Enterprise’s Agri-Food and Nutrition division, Aparna played a key role in supporting the scientific, business, regulatory and strategy aspects of building up Singapore’s alternative protein capabilities, enabling local food production as part of the nation’s food resilience agenda. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from NTU, Singapore, and a PhD in immunology from the Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Italy.

Dr Rob Waterworth is the CEO of the Mullion Group and Co-Founder and CEO of FLINTpro – the world’s first software system built to integrate multiple data streams required to estimate greenhouse gas emissions for the land sector. Rob has 20+ years’ experience leading a diverse range of land sector monitoring and management projects in the government and private sector. This experience includes small projects to national scales, designing and developing operational land sector inventories, emissions projection systems, and technical processes for nesting projects within national systems to support carbon markets. Rob holds a PhD from the Australian National University, and a Bachelor of Forest Science / Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne.

Nina’s work aims to improve the return of value to Australian producers and improve the trust of agricultural supply chains, by improving the measurement, monitoring and transparency of Australian agricultural supply chains.

Her portfolio helps to maximise the impact of innovation and research ensuring that CSIRO science creates solutions that are relevant to industry, benefit human health, and reduce environmental impacts.

As part of CSIRO’s Trusted AgriFoods Exports Mission, Nina leads the Verifying Product Credentials work package, underpinning the global value of Australian brands with independent data, information and science. CSIRO is developing tools to verify the provenance of agricultural products, by linking traditional environmental measurements with rapid scanning, remote sensing, and digital supply chains.

She uses stable isotope-based methods to quantify sediment and soil-based biogeochemical processes. Of particular interest is developing tools, which combine modelling and monitoring approaches in order to gain a better understanding of how anthropogenic changes impact key biogeochemical reactions.

Nina is the local point of contact for the Waite Campus Indigenous Artist in Residence Program, which explores the nexus of Western and Indigenous knowledge using art to translate science.

Robert is a Director at Artesian, joining in 2017. Based in Sydney, Robert leads Artesian’s agrifood VC investment activities. Artesian’s agrifood VC strategy encompasses the broad agriculture and food value chain, including a focus on opportunities that have positively embedded climate and natural asset outcomes, and that have the potential to enhance global food security.
Prior to joining Artesian, Robert most recently worked as a manager within the agricultural investment team at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, a division within the asset management arm of the Macquarie Group. Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Commerce from the Australian National University.

Angela has spent her career working at the intersection of consumer brand strategy and sustainability, and now serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer at R.M. Williams. Prior to joining R.M. Williams, Angela was at Peloton Interactive, where she designed and launched Peloton’s sustainability program, and at McKinsey & Company where she worked with companies across industries on growth, brand, and sustainability strategy topics. While at McKinsey, Angela managed McKinsey’s North America Sustainability practice, launching solutions in carbon accounting, decarbonisation pathways, and consumer brand sustainability strategy. Angela earned her Masters of Climate Policy & Economics from the Australian National University, and her MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Peter Wren-Hilton is a successful entrepreneur and founder in the New Zealand and global food and agritech community. As Founder of Wharf42, Peter is committed to strengthening opportunities across the Tasman through increased collaboration and partnership. As a Director of Platform 10, a global framework, Peter is working to accelerate promising biopesticide companies and facilitate market development and adoption. Peter has served on the evokeAG. Steering Committee since 2018.

Jon has worked in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, M&A, New Technology Commercialisation, Supply Chain and Procurement Executive roles in FMCG, Manufacturing, and Telecommunications. He worked in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and more recently Australia.

At Telstra, Jon is the Agribusiness, Supply Chain, and Retail Industry Executive. Prior to this, he was the Supply Chain Executive accountable for the end-to-end operations of the Retail, Industrial, and B2B Supply Chains.