A warm welcome to the Emerging Industries Technical Advisory Group

The Emerging Industries Technical Advisory Group (TAG) has been established to provide technical investment advice and recommendations on stakeholder project applications and outputs to AgriFutures. It’s an exciting opportunity for the Group to be involved in Australia’s new and emerging rural industries, by providing feedback and assessment of stakeholder research, development and extension (RD&E) ideas and applications, as well as technically assessing project outputs where required.

The TAG comprises members with a diverse range of skills, allowing the Emerging Industries Program team to nominate specific members to assess applications and outputs based on their expertise, a streamlined approach AgriFutures Australia Senior Manager, Emerging Industries, Dr Olivia Reynolds, is eagerly anticipating.

“The TAG is designed to provide the required expertise to enable AgriFutures to make informed decisions around procurements and outputs, while increasing efficiencies in the way we operate.”

Welcome to the Technical Advisory Group

Dr Aanandini Ganesalingam

Dini is the Business and Research Development Manager for InterGrain’s wheat, barley and oat breeding programs and has more than 9 years’ experience in all aspects of RD&E. Dini has a PhD in plant breeding & statistics and an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Science (with Honours) and Economics from the University of Western Australia. During her involvement on the Emerging Industries Technical advisory panel, Dini hopes to contribute to the extension of R&D to ensure that various projects in their design and application, see implementation and deployment to the benefit of the industry.

Dr Anh Nguyen

Dr. Anh Nguyen owns and runs Torch Bearer Wines Estate. She was born and raised in the old quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam and has spent most of her adult life in Canada, USA, and Sydney working as a researcher and product development engineer, before making the career switch to her passion – farming and wine making. Anh won the prestigious AgriFutures Rural Woman Award for the state of Tasmania in 2019, holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from University of Massachusetts Amherst and is a member of AICD. In addition to being the managing director of her own company, Anh is also a non-executive board director of Natural Resources Management South.

Bronwyn Venus

As the Head of Partnerships and Grants for Sugar Research Australia (SRA), Bronwyn’s focus is on identifying partnerships to support the delivery of SRA’s innovation and commercialisation agenda, building long-term, strategic partnerships aligned with the delivery of transdisciplinary systems and solutions to address industry priorities. As a senior researcher for more than 30 years with organisations including CSIRO, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the University of Queensland, she is passionate about the agriculture and food industries.

Darren McCoy

Darren formerly ran his own corporate advisory business, specialising in inbound investment in Australian agriculture. He has since established a native botanicals business and has a deep understanding of the native foods industry, particularly Lemon Myrtle and extensive commercial knowledge of, and passion for, the Australian native botanicals market. He is as well connected to the myriad of dedicated traditional growers as he is to the vast network of global buyers of botanicals. Darren is a graduate of Wharton Business School, a leader and director with extensive cross-border business experience.

Dr Davina Gregory-Dunsmuir

In her current role as a Policy Analyst with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, Davina manages various policy initiatives to support the goals of the Department, in particular the Industrial Hemp industry, and projects to support the AgriVision 2050 goals among others. Davina is bringing her passion for supporting new industries to grow and develop through her lived experience with establishing strategic priorities, risk management, research, development and extension, new product introduction, governance and regulatory experience. Davina is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, with experience on a number of boards including the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture and the Tasmanian Government Biosecurity Advisory Committee.

Derek Cropp

Derek is a consultant actively involved in obtaining seaweed aquaculture licences for private companies in Western Australia. He designed and operated Australia’s first successful commercial hatchery for silverlip pearl oysters (Pinctada maxima) in Western Australia. He taught micro-algae and shellfish culture at the UTAS Aquaculture Centre and trained staff at several commercial hatcheries around Australia. Derek is a Churchill Fellow and studied scallop culture in China, Japan, Canada and New Zealand while he was a scallop research officer with the Tasmanian Fisheries Dept. He has been an external member of the Institutional Biosafety Committee for UTAS since 2019 and is a well-connected and accomplished member of the Australian Aquaculture industry.

Dr Harjeet Khanna

Harjeet is an independent consultant and plant scientist with 35 years’ experience in agricultural research and research management. She was previously an Executive Manager at Sugar Research Australia (SRA) and brings with her extensive expertise in research program and project management, including R&D gap analysis, investment prioritisation and development of impact-oriented business cases to drive research investment. Her career highlights as a biotechnologist include generation of the world’s first Fusarium resistant Cavendish banana clones and high pro-vitamin A enriched banana clones for Africa, as part of Gates Foundation Grant Challenges in Global Health program.

Dr Keith Noble

Dr Keith Noble is a tropical fruit grower and Rural Planner in FNQ. He is a director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre and Chair of Terrain NRM, the Natural Resource Management body for Queensland’s Wet Tropics, previously a director of Growcom, Troplinks and Regional Development Australia. He was Founding Director of Australian Tropical Fruits and Australian Tropical Marketing before Cyclones Larry and Yasi changed the course of the emerging tropical fruit industry. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Registered Planner with the Planning Institute of Australia.

Dr Matthew Hall

Matt currently works as the Phytosanitary & Market Access Manager for Draslovka Services, focusing on the global acceptance of environmentally sustainable fumigants for the treatment of goods in international trade. He has over fifteen years of experience managing industry-funded research programs and has completed his bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science and PhD in Horticulture at the University of Sydney and his Master of Business Administration at Griffith University. Matt is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Central Queensland University (CQU), where he contributes to the Institute for Future Farming Systems.

Patrick Madden

Patrick has over 40 years’ experience in agriculture, in hands-on farming, academia, carbon research and rural policy. Whilst working on the mixed enterprise family farm in Central West NSW, he spent four years with TAFE NSW teaching early computer applications and wool classing, before moving onto university lecturing in farm economics and accounting. Over the past 20 years he has worked with the NSW Government in economic modelling, research and policy development, particularly in drought, industry assistance and regional development.

For more information on the Emerging industries Program, please visit Emerging Industries | AgriFutures Australia