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:
Peter has a wealth of experience in agribusiness. He has a practical understanding of the agribusiness value chain from plant and animal genetics, production systems, QA, logistics, risk and capital management and international marketing.
He appreciates intimately the various pressures that exist on today’s agricultural supply and demand chains.
Peter holds the position of Manager - Global Supply Chain for JK International Pty Ltd a Brisbane based global commodity trader. Previously he was President of JK’s Americas operations based in Vancouver, Canada.
Prior to moving to JKI in 2001, Peter held a range of positions with AWB (formally the Australian Wheat Board). Trading coarse grain, milling wheat, canola and pulses within a grower and end user customer focused environment.
Peter maintains a keen interest in production economics via a family farming and contracting business on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland.
Peter holds a Post-Graduate qualification in Agribusiness from Monash University (Melbourne) and is also a lecturer for the Commodities and Risk Management Unit offered by the University of Queensland.
Peter is passionate about the role pulses play in diversifying on farm agronomic rotations and cash flows. He is equally passionate about the opportunities to grow customer markets by improving quality and form propositions.
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Angela holds a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma in Export Management. She has also held a Futures Advisors License.
She is the founder and owner of Dubbo based business Grainpro Pty Limited which apart from marketing grain runs a packing plant at Trangie.
She has extensive experience in the Pulse Supply Chain including Marketing, Container Logistics, Pulse Standards and Production Issues.
Through experience, Angela has gained a practical understanding of the industry from the farm through to the consumer.
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Caroline is the Government Relations Manager at Viterra.
She has extensive experience in the areas of regulation and policy development in the Australian grains industry. Prior to joining Viterra, Caroline held positions with Wheat Exports Australia, the Grains Council of Australia and the South Australian Farmers’ Federation.
Caroline holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from the University of Adelaide, a Master of Agribusiness from the University of Melbourne and a Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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David 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 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 and is now the Cargill / AWB nominee to the Pulse Australia 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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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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Ron 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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Sanjivis the Manager of Pulses and Oilseeds trading with Sydney based Gardner Smith Pty Ltd.
He holds a masters degree in Economics/International Trade from the Delhi School of Economics and an MBA.
Sanjiv is on the Executive Committee of the international pulse body CICILS IPTIC and also sits on the Grain Trade Australia panel of approved arbitrators.