Georgie Aley, Chairperson, Future Farmers Network

Georgie Aley is currently Chair of the Future Farmers Network and has been a Director since 2008. Georgie has previously held the role of Company Secretary and is currently a member of the Board’s Corporate Governance and Communications Sub-Committees.

Outside of FFN, Georgie is the National Business Development Manager for Grain Growers Limited (GrainGrowers). GrainGrowers is Australia’s only national, independent, member-based, financially sustainable and technically resourced grain producer organisation. Georgie is responsible for managing and further developing the key relationships GrainGsrowers holds with industry and Government partners; driving new business opportunities and linking GrainGrowers three key service areas to drive and develop commercial relationships.

Georgie holds a Bachelor of Business Management (Equine) from the University of Sydney with a major in marketing, and a Certificate in Professional Grain Trading. As a member of GrainGrowers Senior Management Team, Georgie has vast strategic planning; stakeholder management; public relations, marketing and communications; event management and industry engagement expertise.

Georgie maintains strong industry linkages and actively participates in the Australian agricultural industry, currently representing GrainGrowers on several industry committees including the Go Grains Health and Nutrition Advisory Committee and the Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarships Selection Panels. Georgie is the Agricultural and Environmental Officer for the Sydney City Branch of the NSW CWA; a Director of Workforce Consulting; and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD).

James Kellaway, BAppSci (Agr); GDMM; MBA; GAICD; ACIS; AFAIM

James Kellaway is the Managing Director of the Australian Egg Corporation Limited and has extensive agribusiness experience in brand management, business development and product marketing with organisations including Horticulture Australia Limited, the former Australian Horticultural Corporation, Meat & Livestock Australia, the former Australian Meat & Livestock Corporation and the NSW Meat Industry Authority. James has been responsible for implementing marketing, communication, R&D, operations and investor relations programs. These roles had a key focus on delivering commercial results to all company stakeholders.

James is a non-executive director of the Australian Poultry Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) where he is also a member of the Audit & Risk Committee. He is also the Marketing Committee Chairman of the International Egg Commission and is currently on the production and trade and economics and statistics committees of the Commission. Previously, James has served as a non-executive director of the Australian Livestock Export Corporation, where he was a member of the Finance Audit & Risk Committee, and Chairman of the Animal Health Australia Industry Forum.

James has a Masters of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Technology Sydney, a Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management from the Graduate School of Management at Macquarie University and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Agriculture from the University of Western Sydney. James is also a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Graduate of the Chartered Secretaries of Australia and hence a registered company secretary and an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

Lachlan Hughes, Rangeland Quality Meats

Lachlan Hughes was born and raised on Stanbroke property Bulloo Downs in far South Western Queensland, before continuing his schooling years on the family property Banchory Station out of Clermont. After finishing high school Lachlan attended the Emerald Agricultural College, gaining a Diploma in Applied Beef Studies.

After working at home for a couple of years, Lachlan headed off to continue his education again, this time at the University of Queensland’s Gatton Campus to study Agribusiness. It was here that Lachlan met his wife Anna, and they have now made their home together on the family’s Southern Queensland properties at Dulacca.

Lachlan and Anna are very passionate about animals and living in and with the environment. When the concept of Rangeland Quality Meats was born, it provided them both with an avenue to express their passion for the industry and to communicate the quality products the country can supply to the public.

Matthew Dwyer, Editor - online, Meat & Livestock Australia

Mathew Dwyer is the Editor - online for Meat & Livestock Australia and has the responsibility for managing the company’s online communications including the MLA website, member emails and various social media platforms.

Matthew’s role is to leverage online communications to allow rural audiences to connect and share information. Matthew recently spent time in the United States to gain an understanding of how social media has been used successfully to advocate agriculture to urban communities.

Tom Whitty, AgChatOz Co-Founder

A communications and media professional with a passion for raising awareness about rural Australia - Tom co-founded two well renowned social media initiatives. #AgChatOZ a weekly Twitter discussion about hot issues affecting Australia’s agricultural sector and #RuralMH- a fortnightly discussion about rural mental health issues.

Tom has a Bachelor of Journalism from Monash University, previously worked as a communications and campaigns officer at CropLife Australia (the peak plant science body of Australia) and recently moved into government relations.

Tom is fuelled by his passion for story telling, raising the profile of agriculture in the community and closing the urban-rural divide.

Charlie McElhone, General Manager of Policy, National Farmers Federation

Charlie joined the NFF as Manager – Economics in June 2006 and later took on the Trade portfolio in November 2008. In 2011, Charlie became General Manager - Policy, overseeing all policy areas of the NFF while still maintaining expertise in the Economics and Trade portfolios.

Since joining the NFF, Charlie has taken the lead on issues including biofuels, taxation, competition policy, Managed Investment Schemes, trade reform, Cairns Group Farm Leaders and climate change mitigation.

Through the climate change policy debate, Charlie coordinates the NFF’s Climate Change Taskforce and has engaged extensively with industry and Government in the development of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) and the Carbon Tax.

His experience in agricultural economic analysis, lobbying and advocacy has included roles with the Australian Meat Council, InFARMation and Australian Pork Limited.

Charlie holds Bachelor of Agricultural Economics degree from the University of Sydney, a Graduate Diploma in International Business and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Canberra. Charlie is also a recipient of the United States International Visitor Leadership Program.

Anthony Dunn, Livestock Manager, Echo Hills

In May 2010 my family and I moved to ‘Echo Hills’ and I commenced work as Livestock Manager for the Thompson Family. This role offers the opportunity to link non-farming families with Australian food production.

Previously, I lived at Beaudesert in SE Qld where we own a small commercial breeding operation and are currently investigating conservation opportunities to implement in our grazing practice. I have always worked in the beef industry and have experience working in following areas: large scale embryo transfer seed stock operation; feedlot; breeding; backgrounding; and processing.

I am passionate about the future of the beef industry, promoting what we offer and continuing to improve practices to ensure production is sustainable in the future.

The tour of ‘Echo Hills’ will allow us to share how the Thompson Family are integrating beef and cropping. You will also see how CSG impacts on our operation and some of the benefits they have offered.

Barbara Bishop, Consultant for Beef Australia 2012

Barbara is the Director of Barbara Bishop & Associates, that was established in the Northern Territory in 1987 and specializes in building people capacity.

Barbara has more than 30 years experience in teaching, training and leadership. This experience has developed her understanding of people dynamics and people management and provides a great platform for her to facilitate leadership, coaching and mentoring experiences including creating processes and programs that inspire and empower people to respond proactively to needs within families, workplaces and communities.

She trained as a teacher in Agricultural Science and completed a Bachelor of Education. Barbara is MBTI accredited, Member of the Australian Human Resource Institute, Member of Australian Institute of Management, Member of Australian Institute of Training and Development.

Barbara has experience in a diverse range of industries including agriculture, education, health, finance, retail, and local government, in both the private and public sectors. Since 2000, her client base has predominantly been in the agriculture and the rural sectors of Australia.

Tim Driver, Chief Executive Officer, Precision Pastoral Pty Ltd

Tim Driver is the CEO of Precision Pastoral Pty Ltd which specialises in designing and building production animal management systems. Tim has worked extensively with the Sheep CRC and CRC-REP (formerly known as Desert Knowledge CRC) in developing remote livestock management systems, capable of identifying, weighing and drafting individual animals.

Tim grew up on a cropping and prime lamb property in Central West New South Wales where he developed a keen interest in livestock production and is passionate about developing systems to drive profitability in livestock production systems.

Terry Pulsford, Rabobank Roma Branch Manager

Terry joined a major bank in 1980 in Rockhampton. He worked extensively throughout Central and Northern NSW, Queensland and Broome, WA. Terry has in excess of 20 years experience working with rural producers.

Terry left the major bank in 2001 to pursue other interests. He then returned to the agri-business finance stream with Rabobank in 2008. He is currently the Rabobank branch manager in Roma and is responsible for an area west of Dulacca to the NT and NSW borders.

Terry has extensive exposure and experience in working with rural families in assessing their financial requirements to achieve their collective and individual goals.

Dennis Hoiberg, Lessons Learn Consulting

Dennis has over 30 years experience working with organisations in both the private and public sectors and has been working extensively in the agribusiness sector since the mid 1990’s providing expertise in business planning facilitation, leadership and leader development, people management and engagement strategies, human capital/resources strategies and performance management strategies.

He works with senior management teams in developing the business strategy and then in the broader organisation in implementing and getting the strategy “right”. Dennis works in areas of individual, team and organisational change and has a specific interest in individual and team resilience. Dennis owns Lessons Learnt Consulting and also provides organisational consulting services to Rimfire Resources clients in both Australia and New Zealand.