Dr Nigel Steele Scott PhD FTSE - Chair

Dr Steele Scott graduated with a PhD in Agricultural Science from the Waite Institute. From there he went to the CSIRO Division of Food Preservation. He retired from CSIRO as Deputy Chief of Plant Industry in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological and Engineering Science. He has had extensive experience in a wide range of Horticultural crops and has led major collaborative research and development initiatives in horticultural and other agricultural industries. As a scientist he has been involved in the molecular genetics of plants since the inception of the science. He is a frequently invited speaker to scientific, industry and community meetings in Australia and overseas and was awarded a Centenary Medal for services to Australian Horticulture.

Robert G. Seldon - Deputy Chair

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.

John Webster B.Ec, GAICD - Managing Director

Mr Webster's working life, since graduating with an economics degree in 1976, has been in agriculture, holding senior management positions in strategic planning, research, marketing and commercialisation of R&D across a range of industries. His skills are in developing strategic direction and building teams to deliver commercial results. Achievements in these areas were recognised with the Howard Yelland Award in 2001 for "his outstanding contribution to the Australian and international beef industry". Mr Webster joined HAL in May 2001 as the inaugural managing director. Since joining HAL he has focused on improving the commercial return from industry investment in horticulture R&D and marketing levies, initiating key across-industry strategic initiatives whilst developing strong relationships with peak industry bodies and Government.

Ken Boundy M.Agr.Sc; MBA; FAICD; FAIM; FAIAST - Director

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.

Professor Robert John Clark AM -Director 

Professor Clark is Emeritus Professor and Visiting Research Professor providing academic leadership to the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research’s value chain management theme. This follows a long career in academia with the University of Tasmania.

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.

David Cliffe - Director

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.

Ms Lisa Cork - M.Man.Agr.Bus - Director

Lisa Cork is a horticultural marketing specialist with over 20 years experience. She has an extensive international trade background, having worked successfully in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

For the past 13 years, Ms. Cork has run a horticultural marketing consultancy firm, where she is recognized for her strategic marketing initiatives and her market development expertise.

Ms. Cork is a regular columnist and contributor to fresh food industry magazines.

Ms Cork has a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Management from the California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo and a Master of Management with Distinction in Agribusiness from Massey University. A Californian by birth, she now calls New Zealand home.

Ms Jan Davis - M.Agr.Bus; M.Env.Plan; BEC; FAICD; FAIM; FAuSAE- Director

Jan Davis has a strong background in the Australian horticultural industry and in member based organisations within the sector. She is a currently a non executive Director of Plant Health Australia and Chair of the Australian Agricultural Colleges Corporation, and a past Director of Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation, AUSVEG Inc, Australian Horticultural Growers’ Council Inc, Greening Australia, and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology.

Until recently Ms Davis was Chief Executive Officer of Growcom, a role held since 2001. She previously held senior executive roles with the Australian Mushroom Growers Association, Greening Australia and the Nursery Industry Association of Australia.

Ms Davis has a Bachelor of Economics, a Graduate Diploma of Education, a Graduate Diploma of Environmental Studies, a Master of Environmental Planning and a Master of Agribusiness. She resides in Queensland.

Graeme Hargreaves - Director

Mr Hargreaves was an Australian Senior Trade Commissioner in Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand, South America, the Caribbean and Singapore for 22 years to 1987. He has been growing macadamias in the Northern Rivers of NSW since 1983. For the past 15 years he has been actively marketing Australian macadamias in Australia and many export markets.

In 1997 he resigned as Managing Director of Macadamia Plantations of Australia (MPA) at Dunoon, rather than relocate to head office in Melbourne. He was on the Board of the public company which owned MPA at the time. Since then he has been consulting as Export Marketing Manager for Suncoast Gold Macadamias and joined the Board of that company three years ago. He has had some involvement in marketing almonds in Spain and prunes in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and South Africa.

He has been Chairman of the Australian Macadamia Society (AMS) since 2003, having been on the Board and the Promotions Committee of the AMS since 1994. He resigned from that Board at the end of October 2007, having served the maximum term permitted as Chairman.