Keynote: Major General Stephen Day
Coordinator-General for Drought
General Day was born into a military family in Sydney in 1960. His father and both grandfathers served with the Australian Army.
He has served in the Army for 40 years and seen operational service in Africa, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. General Day has a reputation as a distinguished and compassionate leader and has been formally recognised for his leadership by the Australian, French and United States governments.
He left the full-time Army in 2015 as a Major General to work in the business world. Which he did for three years, principally with PricewaterhouseCooper. In 2018 he was asked to return to duty and was appointed the Coordinator-General for Drought working for the Prime Minister.
General Day is a mentor to the Australian men’s cricket team, the CEO and several executives of Rio Tinto, and Army Combat Brigade commanders. He is drafting the new ADF leadership doctrine.
Dr Mark Schipp
Australian Chief Veterinary Officer
Dr Schipp was appointed Australian Chief Veterinary Officer in 2011. In 2012 he was elected to the OIE Council and in 2018 was elected President of the OIE General Assembly for a three year term.
Together with the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Schipp chairs the Australian Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. He is also a member of the Animal Health Committee.
Previously, Dr Schipp held positions responsible for animal derived food product inspection, market access and export certification.
He served two terms overseas as Agriculture Counsellor in Seoul, South Korea and in Beijing, China.
Dr Schipp is a biology and veterinary graduate of Murdoch University. After graduation he worked with the Western Australian Department of Agriculture.
Tracey Hayes
Facilitator
Live Export Class Action
Ms Hayes is an experienced Chair, CEO and Director working throughout Australia and internationally across a diverse range of areas including agriculture, infrastructure, research and development, natural disasters and international relations, trade, and market development.
Currently, Ms Hayes is Chair of the North Australian Infrastructure Facility, Executive Director – Northern Australia Business Development for AAM Investment Group, a member of the National Resilience and Recovery Agency advisory board, and on the board of the Australia Indonesia Institute. She is also a long- term proprietor of an equipment and machinery business.
Formerly, Ms Hayes was the first female CEO of the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association, tasked with leading the billion-dollar NT pastoral industry. Appointed by the Governor General, Tracey was a member of the Order of Australia Honours Council, Chair of a Government Statutory Authority, and a founding board member of the Cooperative Research Centre for Northern Australia.
Ms Hayes is facilitator of the Live Export Class Action, resulting in a landmark precedent setting victory with compensation for families and businesses expected to exceed $1 billion.
A champion of women in leadership with a particular focus on rural and regional areas, Ms Hayes has tertiary qualifications in natural resource management and a Global Executive Master of Business from the University of Sydney.
Greg Pankhurst
Indonesian feedlot owner
Mr Pankhurst has more than 30 years of experience managing beef cattle production and feedlots since graduating New England University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics in 1989.
He spent more than 30 years living and working in Sumatra, Indonesia where he part owned two of the country’s largest feedlots with Consolidated Pastoral Company and Dicky Adiwoso. During his time in Indonesia, Mr Pankhurst helped to develop, manage and operate more than 15 feedlots.
Mr Pankhurst is passionate about livestock, cattle welfare and achieving optimum efficiencies in an operation. With diverse experience, he is a leader in tropical livestock production and lotfeeding.
He is currently the chairman of the Queensland Livestock Exporters’ Association, and Director and shareholder of Frontier International.
Dr Peter Barnard
Managing Director
Oliver & Doam
A respected agricultural economist, Dr Barnard has devoted the past 30 years of his life to the Australian and international agricultural industries.
Currently Dr Barnard is Managing Director of Oliver & Doam, an independent consultancy firm that provides economic and policy advice to the agricultural sector.
Previous to this role Dr Barnard was a General Manager for 25 years at Meat & Livestock Australia. In this capacity he headed up MLA’s overall planning, international marketing, market access, live export and market information programs.
Dr Barnard has a PhD in Economics from Adelaide University.
Jason Strong
Managing Director
Meat & Livestock Australia
Mr Strong has more than 30 years’ red meat and livestock experience, knowledge and connections from the farm through to the end consumer in both domestic and international markets. He is a well-recognised and respected senior executive with extensive skills in commercial and industry business management and administration, supply chain development, meat science and grading, genetics and marketing as well as on-farm experience.
Mr Stong is Managing Director of Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd and Chair of Integrity Systems Company Limited and MLA Donor Company Limited. Mr Strong is also a director of AUS-MEAT Limited and Red Meat Traceability Systems Pty Ltd.
Angus Gidley-Baird
Senior Analyst, Animal Protein
RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness
Mr Gidley-Baird is a Senior Analyst in the RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness Research team, responsible for research and analysis on the local and global animal protein sectors.
In his role, Mr Gidley-Baird provides regular market updates on beef, sheepmeat, pork, poultry and seafood markets. He is the lead author on the Rabobank global beef quarterly and writes the Australian beef seasonal outlook. Furthermore, he develops and writes feature research, providing knowledge and insights on key industry issues.
Recent reports include looking at livestock supply chain management of GHG emissions, growth in grainfed beef markets, forward and value-based marketing for beef, and the global demand outlook for sheepmeat.
Mr Gidley-Baird is a regular speaker at farmer and industry events and also produces podcasts as part of the RaboResearch team communications.
Luke Bowen
Deputy CEO, Agriculture, Fisheries and Defence
Northern Territory Department of Industry Tourism and Trade
Mr Bowen was born and raised on a mixed farm in Western Australia, educated in Perth and studied agriculture at Curtin University. Early in his career he spent time working in the agriculture sector in Western Australia and Europe and six years as a sales and marketing executive in building and construction, service and supply sectors.
He has extensive experience in Indigenous economic development across Australia and particularly pastoral development in Northern Australia.
Mr Bowen was Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association from 2008 – 2014 and a member of federal Agriculture Minister’s Industry Advisory Council.
In 2014 Mr Bowen was engaged by the Northern Territory government to run the Northern Australian Development Office, which expanded to key responsibilities for international relations, trade and investment. Since January 2021, under a new Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Mr Bowen has taken responsibility for agriculture, biosecurity, fisheries and defence industry.