Hort Innovation announces Board candidates

Hort Innovation, Australia’s grower-owned research and development corporation for horticulture, has announced four candidates for two vacant Board positions. Voting Members will elect the new directors via a pre-AGM Ballot, with results to be revealed at the virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) on November 28, 2025.

Chair of the 2025 Director Nomination Committee, John Said, said “This year’s Board candidates reflect the depth of talent and vision within Australian horticulture. Each candidate was shortlisted through a rigorous selection process and have been nominated based on their relevant skills and experience.”

The 2025 Director Nomination Committee was comprised of the Hort Innovation Deputy Chair, together with three independent members – a levy payer, a nominee of the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, and an ‘independent eminent person’, in keeping with the Hort Innovation Constitution.

The 2025 Board candidates are:

• Julie Bird (re-nominating Director): First elected to the Board in 2018 and re-elected in 2021, Julie has held the position of Chair of the Hort Innovation Board since 2020. Julie is an experienced agribusiness leader and non-executive director with more than 30 years’ experience across Australian horticulture, with expertise spanning nuts, summerfruit, citrus, apples and pears. She also serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Cotton Research & Development Corporation and Grain Producers SA.
  
  
• Theodora Elia-Adams: Theodora is an experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit, Risk and Finance Committees, having served both commercial and member-based organisations for over 8 years. She is a Chartered Accountant and former senior partner at Ernst & Young (EY) and has deep expertise in financial governance, investment analysis and audit complemented by current board leadership roles. She currently serves as Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee for AUSVEG, the peak national body representing Australia’s vegetable growers.
  
  
• Lynn Smart: Lynn has 14 years’ experience as a Non-Executive Director across government owned, large private groups and the non-profit sector. She is an experienced Board Chair and has also chaired Board Finance, Audit and Risk, Culture, People and Safety and Remuneration and Governance Committees. Her professional career as an accountant (she is a member of CPA Australia) and relevant qualifications support her Board experience (she is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors). She currently serves on two Boards and previous Non-Executive Director roles include five years on the Board of North Queensland Bulk Ports (including oversight of the Port of Mackay, with export trade of agricultural commodities such as wheat and sugar) and five years as independent Chair of the Zarraffas Coffee Group, a privately owned national coffee franchisor with governance oversight across a supply chain of international growers, roastery operations and franchisee engagement.
  
  
• Jan Vydra (re-nominating Director): First appointed to the Board in 2019 and elected to the Board in 2022, Jan is the current Chair of the Board’s Audit & Risk Committee. A first-generation farmer, he co-founded one of the country’s leading fresh herb businesses in 2008. He has transitioned from traditional farming to ag-tech entrepreneurship, focussing on advancing controlled environment agriculture and scalable food production systems. He is currently Chief Commercial Officer of YieldX, an Australian ag-tech company.

Further details about each candidate and the voting process will be provided in the Notice of Meeting, to be distributed to Members towards the end of the month.