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HAL Board

Selwyn Snell - Chair

Selwyn Snell has a long history of involvement with agribusiness. He was previously CEO of Single Vision Grains Australia, BioProspect Ltd and Iama Ltd. Mr Snell has spent a significant period of time in Japan working as Managing Director of agrichemical company Zeneca KK. During this time he became a proficient Japanese speaker and developed experience in international trade.

Currently, Mr Snell is a Non-Executive Director of Plant Health Australia. He is Chairman of Indigo Pacific Ltd, and The CyberInstitute, a subsidiary of the Australian Institute of Management (Qld/NT). Mr Snell also owns and operates Barawyn Pty Ltd. A consultancy business that provides advice focusing on agriculture, horticulture, bio-security, finance, biofuels and clean air emissions.

Mr Snell holds a Diploma of Agrichemicals. He is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. Mr Snell is also a member of the External Advisory Committee of the Queensland University School for Land, Crop and Food Sciences. Born in New Zealand, he now lives in Queensland.

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Professor Rob Clark - Deputy Chair 
Professor Robert Clark

Professor Clark is Emeritus Professor and Visiting Research Professor at the University of Tasmania. He is also a member of the Rural Research and Development (R&D) Council, the Australian Government’s key advisory body on rural R&D. The principal goal of the council is to provide high level advice and coordination to better target and improve the effectiveness of the government’s investment in rural R&D.

Professor Clark is also the proprietor and Managing Partner of Lanoma Estate, a 400ha intensive agricultural property in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania. His previous appointments include Deputy Chairman of Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation, and non executive Director of Webster Ltd and Clements & Marshall, both publicly listed agribusiness/food companies.

He holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with First Class Honours and a Doctor of Philosophy (Horticultural Science), and resides in Tasmania.

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Ken Boundy - Director
Ken Boundy

Mr Boundy is a company director and businessman with investments in primary production, information technology and tourism. He is a former managing director of Tourism Australia and has wide experience in marketing and research.

He brings to the board over 25 years of leadership in public and private sector organizations. These roles spanned the wine, food, building materials and tourism industries. He spent his early career as a research scientist and regional director in the Victorian Department of Agriculture.

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Sue Carter - Director
Ms Sue Carter is a Chartered Accountant (UK), and holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and History together with a Master of Applied Science in Group Psychology. In addition to being a Core Facilitator at the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Sue is currently a non-executive director of AMP Superannuation Ltd, ANZ Australian Staff Superannuation P/L, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Treasury Corporation of Victoria.

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David Cliffe - Director
David Cliffe

Mr. Cliffe has been involved in horticulture for 35 years within the seed and nursery industry. Having spent 20 years with Yates Seeds Ltd during which time he had wide exposure to the vegetable, flower and coarse grain industries. As farm manager of the company’s research stations, he also has considerable hands-on production experience along with an understanding of corporate management.

He is the owner of Narromine Transplants, a large container seedling-growing nursery based in the Central West of New South Wales and specialising in the supply of seedlings and other planting material to the forestry, citrus, winegrape and processing tomato industries. Previously a Yates subsidiary which he helped establish and manage for the company and eventually took over in a buyout in 1992, Narromine Transplants is recognised as a leader and innovator in its field with markets in all the Eastern States and South Australia; the nursery has a full time staff of 10 and up to a further 20 part time workers.

Mr. Cliffe has travelled extensively both overseas and domestically, looking at all aspects of nursery and horticultural production with an early emphasis on vegetables but more recently with forestry, winegrapes and citrus, particularly clonal propagation of Eucalyptus species.

He has a background with the Nursery and Garden Industry of Australia, having been a director of the Association in 1988 then again from 1993 to1997 and as President in 1998/99. Some other positions and committees he has served on include; Chairman Greening Australia Council, the Horticultural Alliance Steering committee, Horticultural Industry Consultative Group and Australian delegate to the Association of International Horticultural Producers. In 2002 he received the NGIA Award of Honour in recognition of his services to the industry and in 2004, life membership.

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Dr Ray Johnson - Director
Graeme Hargraves

Dr. Ray Johnson has worked at senior levels in the agribusiness sector for more than 20 years, spanning animal nutrition, aquaculture, pet food and livestock genetic industries. A former CEO of NSW Farmers Association he has also worked for the Victorian DPI and most recently was CEO of Genetics Australia Cooperative, Australia’s largest livestock genetics company.

Originally from a farming background at Parkes, Dr. Johnson has degrees in Agricultural Science, and a PhD in Rural Science. He is currently Managing Director of Agriplacements Australia Pty Ltd and a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the Australian Farm Institute and of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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Robert G. Seldon - Director
Robert Seldon

Mr. Seldon has over 40 years experience in merchant banking, including 15 years as chief executive of a major US Banking subsidiary in Australia. He has had substantial exposure to both food and agribusiness activities, with an active participation in the provision of advice on mergers and acquisitions within that sector. Numerous company directorships have been held including the Southern Farmers Group, SAFCOL, Consolidated Milk and Sunburst Regency Foods. He was formally chair of the Australian Horticultural Corporation and a director of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority. Recently he retired from the boards of Ridley Corporation Limited and Ridley Inc. after a decade in that position. Both are major public companies involved with agriproducts and are listed on the Australian and Toronto Stock Exchanges respectively. He is currently chair of Windsor Farm Foods Group Ltd, the Stening Simpson Insurance Broking Group and Seldon & Associates Pty Ltd, financial consultants.

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Darral Ashton

Mr Ashton has been involved in the Apple and Pear industries for more than 35 years. He has managed a family orchard at Batlow, NSW and also has broad experience in retail and importing/exporting produce, as well as marketing.

Mr Ashton is a former Chairman of Apple and Pear Australia and a current director of Plant Health Australia Limited.  He is also a former director and chairman of the Batlow Fruit Cooperative.

Mr Ashton is an associate member of the Australian Institute of Marketing and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.