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Industry

Australian Almond Industry Conference


Confirmed Speakers

John Lloyd

CEO
Horticulture Australia


 John Lloyd is currently Chief Executive Officer, Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL), in November 2009, previously running a management consultancy specialising in operational and strategic advice to agricultural clients.   He has also been the CEO/Vice President of CNH Australia/NZL, General Manager Commercial at Incitec Pivot, and General Manager Marketing at Wesfarmers Dalgety.  John holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New South Wales and an MBA from Macquarie University.

Danny O’Brien

CEO
National Irrigators' Council

 Danny O’Brien was appointed CEO of the National Irrigators’ Council in July 2009.  A former journalist, he comes to the NIC with a background in public affairs, politics and government, having worked for MPs in Victoria and as a Senior Adviser for a Deputy Prime Minister.  He is based in Canberra.

Darren Lehmann

Australian Cricketing Legend
 From the time he burst on to the scene at age 17, Darren has amassed a huge amount of runs but only ever been rewarded by the national selectors with a One-Day international place. Darren is also a useful slow left-arm bowler with a knack of picking up important wickets. He is a powerful attacking batter and loves to despatch the ball to all corners of the ground, he is also great at manufacturing shots when the bowlers are giving little away.

Sara Grafenauer

Accredited Practising Dietitian & Nutrition Lecturer
University of Wollongong
 Sara is an Accredited Prasticing Dietitian of 13 years. She is a graduate and academic at the University of Wollongong and consults specifically to the food industry. Sara’s research interest is in the area of satiety signaling and functional foods. She has a passion for food, cooking and naturally, she loves almonds!

Stefano de Pieri

Celebrity Australian Chef		 The gastronome from Mildura, and Australian almond ambassador, who calls himself a cook (not a chef) is famous for his cooking. As host of the acclaimed TV series A Gondola on the Murray, author of four culinary books, and the genius behind one of the country’s greatest regional restaurants, it might be assumed that he is all-consumed by the world of food. He isn’t.

Prue McMichael

Plant Pathologist & Principal Consultant
Scholefield Robinson Horticultural Services
 Prue McMichael is a Plant Pathologist and Principal Consultant at Scholefield Robinson Horticultural Services. She received her Bachelor of Agricultural Science from the University of Adelaide and her Masters and Doctorate degrees in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Davis. She worked as an Extension pathologist and a Product Development specialist in California.

At Scholefield Robinson over the last 16 years she has worked on a wide variety of annual and perennial crops, led research projects, contributed to high level industry development and policy reviews, and conducted biosecurity, legal and loss assessment work. She has worked particularly closely with several industries and her recent projects with the almond industry include the Carmel bud growth disorder, the food safety scoping study and review, and the biosecurity manual.

Joseph Ebbage

Marketing Program Manager
Almond Board of Australia
 Over the past five years, Joseph has worked on developing and implementing the marketing program for the Almond Board of Australia. He is the principal of “Consumer Insights”, a market research and consultancy agency specializing in the Fast Moving Consumer Industry and has developed innovative solutions for companies including Sakata, San Remo, Select Harvests, the Nuts for Life Program and Horticulture Australia Limited.

Julie Haslett

Marketing Program Manager
Almond Board of Australia		 Julie Haslett is the Chief Executive Officer of the Almond Board of Australia and a Director of the Australian Nut Industry Council and Plant Health Australia. Julie was appointed in the role of CEO in March 2007, following employment with the Almond Board since 2002, previously holding the roles of Executive Officer and Admin/Finance Manager.

Ben Brown

Industry Liaison Manager
Almond Board of Australia		 Ben Brown was appointed as Almond Industry Liaison Manager in May 2007.  Ben is responsible for working with almond growers, ensuring industry issues are identified and addressed in the R&D strategic planning process.  He oversees a broad range of communication activities to assist in the transfer and uptake of research outcomes.  Ben also has management responsibility for the almond industry’s budwood site located in Monash, South Australia.

Brett Rosenzweig

Industry Development Officer
Almond Board of Australia		 Brett Rosenzweig was appointed as a full-time Technical Officer in April 2007, following previous contract employment since August 2006.  In this role Brett is responsible for day-to-day management, data collection and operations of the CT Optimisation Trial, located at Clark Taylor Farms’ almond property in the Riverland.  As of July 2010, Brett role transitions into Industry Development Office (IDO), assisting industry uptake of research findings.

Mark Skewes

South Australian Research & Development Institute (SARDI)		 Mark Skewes joined the then South Australian Department of Agriculture in 1986.  Mark currently works for the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), based at the Loxton Research Centre.

Mark has been running a drought response project for the past 3 years.  He took over management of the solute movement monitoring project at the CT Farms Trial Site from Tapas Biswas last year.

Mark has many years’ experience in all aspects of irrigated crop management, in particular in the areas of irrigation system design, irrigation scheduling and soil water monitoring, as well as performance assessment through benchmarking.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science Degree (1985) and a Graduate Diploma in Natural Resources (1986).  Mark is a Certified Irrigation Designer (Sprinkler) under the Irrigation Association of Australia’s CID program (1996), and holds a Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training.

Dr Greg Buchanan

Almond IAC Chair
Dr. Greg Buchanan worked for the Victorian Department of Agriculture, based at Mildura, from 1970 to 2008. His applied research involved biological control of red scale, management of grape phylloxera, and integrated pest management for drying and wine grapes.

In 1991, he was appointed to lead the Plant Protection programs for the Riverlink network, which involves CSIRO and “agricultural” Departments in Victoria, NSW, and SA. From 1991 to 2008, he was a research manager for several large projects, initially in horticulture and then across the agriculture industries. Greg retired in 2008, and is a member of Horticulture Australia’s advisory committees for table grapes, almonds, and dried grapes.

Ross Skinner

Almond Industry Services Manager
Horticulture Australia Ltd
 Ross Skinner is Horticulture Australia’s Industry Services Manager for Almonds. Ross has qualifications in Economics and Accounting but has worked in horticulture for 26 years and commenced managing the R&D programs of the dried fruit industries in 1986 and was appointed the General Manager of the Dried Fruits R&D Council in 1992. He also managed the Australian Dried Fruits Board and its export marketing programs. Ross joined HAL in 2002 and his role involves developing and implementing strategic plans through R&D and marketing programs for the Almond, Pistachio, Citrus, Table Grape, Olive and Dried Fruit industries.

Dr Karl Sommer

Senior Research Scientist - Plant Physiology
Future Farming Systems Research Division
Department of Primary Industries Victoria

 Dr Karl J Sommer is a senior scientist with the Department of Primary Industries Victoria based in Mildura.   He has been with the Department for nearly 6 years working on irrigation issues in permanent horticulture.   Previously he spent 3 years working as director of viticulture with a large winery in Italy and prior to that worked for over 10 years as a research scientist for CSIRO Plant Industry in Merbein near Mildura.  

He holds graduate and post-graduate qualifications in agricultural science from Germany, Canada and Australia.  His current research interest is focused on the effect of deficit irrigation on plant performance as applied almonds and grape vines.  

He will present the first season's results of a deficit irrigation field trial jointly run by DPI Victoria and the almond industry.  The aim of the work is to investigate the impact of deficit irrigation on almond performance in inland Australia and to develop irrigation strategies that minimise water use while maintaining production and economic returns.

Dr Michelle Wirthensohn

Horticulture Australia Research Fellow, Australian Almond Breeding Program
The University of Adelaide		 Michelle Wirthensohn was born and educated in Adelaide receiving a Bachelors degree in Agricultural Science with Honours specialising in cattle genetics and breeding, and then achieved her PhD in Horticulture at the University of Adelaide. 
Since that time she has worked on several plant breeding projects involving banksias for cut flowers, eucalypts for the cut foliage trade, olives for oil and table markets, and now breeding new almond cultivars.

Craig Spilsbury

Grower & 2009 Phil Watters Award Recipient		 Craig Spilsbury has long been associated with the Australian almond industry with his family being one of the earlier almond producers in Willunga, south of Adelaide.  As with many of the other Willunga families, Craig’s family moved to the Riverland following the opportunity to sell their orchard to the expanding vineyard industry and move to an area with warmer temperatures, lower disease pressure, and better access to suitable soil types and more consistent water supplies.

Having worked on his family’s orchards, Craig first got his start as an almond grower with his own orchard in 1991 at Loxton.  Craig has been a valuable contributor to the almond industry, in particular, over the last eight years where he was one of the original growers to adopt and refine some of the research and best practice coming out of the industry’s watershed R&D project, typically known as the “CT Trial”.

Through his success, Craig has only been too happy to help other almond growers who have also tried to adopt these advances in best practice to the point he made his property available for a demonstration and adoption field day as part of the national conference going back four or five years ago.  Yields, fertiliser quantities, water quantities and nutritional sprays were all published in pamphlets for all to see and he spoke to everyone about his experiences of what to do and things he had not adopted.