Pulse Australia Board
Members are drawn nationally from a range of disciplines including;
farming, agronomic research, grain handling, international trade and marketing.
The current directors of Pulse Australia Limited are:
Gerald is a broad acre grain and pulse grower from the Wimmera area of Victoria.
Gerald is very active in both local and national rural affairs, providing generously of his time to sit on many of the committees that are put in place to deal with issues of concern to farmers and other sectors of industry from time to time.
He is a past Chairman of Pulse Victoria and has held many positions within industry bodies including as deputy chair of the Victorian Farmers (VFF) grains group, delegate to the Grains Council of Australia (GCA) and as past Deputy Chair of the Victorian North Central Land Protection Board.
Along with a well balanced view of the national picture, Gerald brings a clear understanding of the Victorian pulse industry and its strengths and weaknesses to the PA Board. His practical experience and in depth knowledge as a major user of pulses in his own farm rotation contributes greatly to Pulse Australia’s policy development and strategic planning process. His understanding of cross industry linkages and networks helps to ensure that Pulse Australia develops agreed and transparent cross sectoral objectives and meets its identified obligations to the whole Australian Pulse Industry.
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Mervyn is a broad acre grain and pulse grower from Katanning in WA who joined the Pulse Australia board in 1996.
He holds a Diploma in Agriculture from MURESK college (now part of Curtin University), and has had a long association with Australian agriculture through his unstinting involvement in industry organisations over many years.
Mervyn was a foundation member of the Pulse West Australia group (now a partner in the Grains Industry Association of WA (GIWA).
He is a past member of the Grains Council of Australia (GCA) Pulses and Oilseeds Committee and is also a past Chairman of the WA Pulses and Oilseeds Partnership Group, which provided strategic direction to the WA Department of Agriculture industry development programs.
Mervyn brings in depth knowledge and understanding of West Australian farming systems to the Pulse Australia Board, complementing commercial input from the other WA board member, Mark Pontifex. Mervyn maintains an extensive network of contacts across all sectors of the industry. His long standing membership of the Pulse Australia Board also provides continuity of “corporate memory”, helping to ensure robust discussion and development of clear and appropriate policy decisions by the organisation.
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With a family farming background, Brett brings to the Board extensive experience in both the South Australian and national grains industry with emphasis on pulse accumulation and trading, through his ten year career with ABB Grain Limited.
During this time Brett has held a number of key positions with ABB across most sectors of the business including grower services, logistics, track trading and domestic marketing. Following the 2003 takeover by ABB Grain of the high profile pulses accumulation and trading business, Jossco, Brett was assigned to the new venture to support further development of international pulse marketing, undertaking considerable focussed overseas travel. In 2008 he was appointed as Manager of the Pulses Business unit within ABB Grain with overall responsibility for domestic and international trade in pulses.
Brett also brings a good general knowledge from a major Bulk Handler and Marketers point of view of issues to do with export inspection, quality standards and market fluctuation to the PA Board, along with sound advice on all policy matters related to pulse exports.
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David Matthews is a past president of Pulse Victoria and a long term member of the Australian pulse industry quality standards committee. He holds a Diploma in International Trade from Ballarat University and completed a Churchill fellowship studying rural/urban population drift in 2001.
A pulse grower in the Wimmera area of Victoria, David also owns and is the managing director of Wimmera Grain, a company that is involved in accumulation, processing and marketing of pulses both domestically and internationally. Through his company David has taken an outstanding leadership position in the broader Victorian Grains Industry, fostering on-going grower training and implementation of on-farm quality assurance, and leading district discussion and action to improve freight services to the Wimmera area.
David is heavily involved in new seed development both through Wimmera Grain’s own R&D program for specialty pulses and in the commercialisation of new main stream pulse varieties released through Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) and other breeding programs. David brings his extensive knowledge of this facet of the industry to the PA Board in addition to his other contributions as both a grower and processor.
David is also a director and foundation share holder of the first community bank in Australia (Rupanyup Community Bank) and is presently Co-Chair of the Bendigo Bank Strategic Advisory Board - now a network of 240 community banks in all states of Australia.
David has been appointed to the Pulse Australia Board as the unanimous joint nominee of all the Australian state pulse groups.
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Denis Logan is a pulse and grains accumulator, marketer and seed merchant from Toowoomba in Queensland.
He is the principal of his own procurement, processing, grading and packing company, Champion Seeds Pty Ltd. Denis is a past President and current Treasurer of the Australian Mungbean Association (AMA).
Denis commenced his career in the Australian Pulse Industry in 1985. For about 9 years he was involved in coarse grain trading with Mt Tyson Seeds, during which time he became involved in the emerging chickpea industry, and the development and commercial introduction of new varieties suited to Queensland growing conditions. Carrying this interest forward, he entered into a partnership with Associated Grains in Dalby for ten years before moving into his own individual business through the purchase of Millmerrin Grains (renamed Champion Seeds) in 2002.
Through his long term membership of AMA and the Queensland Pulse group, Denis became strongly involved as a leader in the development of responses to pulse quality and food safety issues, particularly for the mungbean industry. Denis has an extensive industry network and is very well acquainted with all the different issues that may bear on the many smaller firms involved in the pulse value chain and represents these issues to the PA Board. He also brings an excellent understanding of the overall Northern NSW and Queensland Pulse Industry along with detailed and specialist knowledge of the quality requirements of the market place, not only for mungbean and chickpea but also for other niche sectors of the industry.
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Francois holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science/Economics degree from the University of Lille, France, and an MBA from Cornell University in the USA.
A highly experienced international Grain Trader, Francois commenced his career in the global grains industry with Louis Dreyfus in Chicago in 1989 and since then has held various positions with international grain and Pulse trading companies in New York, Hong Kong, Paris and Melbourne, including with the Andre Group of Switzerland from 1990 until 2001.
Francois joined Hong Kong based Noble Group in 2001 to manage Noble Grain Australia, then joined ABB Grain from 2005 to 2008, moving to AWB Australia in March 2008 to manage the pulses and oilseeds desk. He has subsequently been appointed to head up the AWB Australia Pulses and Oilseeds division and is now the AWB nominee to the PA Board.
Francois’ International trade experience and network of contacts is an invaluable asset to the Pulse Australia Board in both developing overall policy and in responding to issues in international trade contracts, importing government inconsistency and so on, that may arise from time to time.
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After some years in private practice as a commercial lawyer within nationally operating law firms, Geoff joined the Australian Government Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) in January 2001 as their Corporate Lawyer. He holds a Master of Laws degree specialising in intellectual property law. He is also a graduate of Course 13 of the Australian Rural Leadership Program and of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Geoff holds a current legal practising certificate and membership of the ACT Law Society.
Geoff was appointed General Counsel and Board Secretary of GRDC in 2004 and Executive Manager Legal & Procurement in 2009. He manages the GRDC legal, procurement, risk management and compliance areas. Geoff is also the GRDC Board Secretary, providing administrative support to the GRDC Directors.
Apart from his general legal background and the important link between GRDC and Pulse Australia, Geoff brings a sound understanding and practice of Corporate Governance to the PA Board and staff. He is presently chair of the Pulse Australia Audit committee.
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Coming from a farming family on the Yorke Peninsular in South Australia, Mark holds a degree in International business from the University of SA and an MBA from University of WA.
Mark’s 12 year career in the Australian Grains Industry includes extensive experience in grain accumulation and domestic and international trading - commencing with SA Cooperative Bulk Handling, then moving to Ausbulk and later ABB Grain in South Australia before his appointment in 2006 as Trading Manager, Lupins, Oats and Pulses with the Grain Pool Pty Ltd in Western Australia.
Coming from Grain Pool Pty Ltd, and with close ties to Cooperative Bulk Handling (CBH), Mark brings to the Board a detailed understanding of all commercial aspects of the Western Australian Grains Industry from both a major Bulk Handler and a Significant Marketer’s point of view - with an emphasis on lupin and other pulses accumulation, handling, marketing and export logistics.
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Ron Storey holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from Monash University. He has had a 30 year involvement in the Australian grains and agribusiness sector and was a senior executive with AWB Limited for almost 20 years, dealing with local and overseas grain marketing, risk management and logistics.
Since 2000, Ron has run an agribusiness consultancy (Storey Marketing Services) and in 2005 acquired Australian Crop Forecasters P/L (ACF). ACF is Australia’s best known private and independent broad acre forecasting service which is used by a range of major grain companies, farm input suppliers and agribusiness organisations. ACF also consults widely to the private and public sectors. Ron is also Chairman of Australian Grain Technologies P/L, (AGT) one of Australia's leading plant breeding companies.
Ron first joined the Pulse Australian board in 1998 as a nominee from AWB Limited. He was a key member of, and contributor to, the working group which undertook the GRDC funded Australian Pulse Industry strategic review in 2004 and now sits on the Pulse Australia Board as a director with Special Qualifications, advising on all facets of the Australian pulse value chain and its organisational structures, strengths and weaknesses and providing a major contribution to strategic and business planning.
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