Biographies - MLA board directors

Arthur (Don) Heatley
MLA Chairman

Mr Heatley has served on the MLA Board since 1998 and owns and operates two north Queensland properties that carry 9,000 head of cattle which supply the Japanese, US and live export markets. He has served on the Queensland Government’s Livestock Export Advisory Committee, as well as having held positions with the Cattle Council of Australia and the North Queensland Beef Research Committee.

David Palmer
Managing Director

Mr Palmer served as Regional Manager – North America, for Meat & Livestock Australia based in Washington, D.C. for the three years prior to his appointment as Managing Director in February 2006. Prior to his posting to North America, Mr Palmer was the General Manager, Industry Affairs & Communication with MLA, based in Sydney. Before joining MLA at its inception, Mr Palmer managed food safety and quality assurance programs at the Australian Meat & Live-stock Corporation, and spent six years as the Executive Director of the Cattle Council of Australia based in Canberra.

Peter Boyden
Director BSc (Maths)

Mr Boyden is managing director of Boyden & Associates, a business advisory company which focuses on senior executive mentoring, business planning and strategic development. Prior to starting his own business, Mr Boyden was the managing director of foods, Unilever Australasia. He has been involved in the food industry in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe for over 30 years. He is a director of Foods Standards Australia New Zealand, and was previously an executive director of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, a director of Unilever Australasia and a board member of Unilever Asia Pacific. Mr Boyden brings to the board extensive skills in business development, strategic planning and a wide knowledge of food industry marketing, as well as experience as a company director.

Bernie Bindon
Director

Prof Bernie Bindon was the chief executive officer of the Cattle and Beef CRC from 1993 until 2005 and prior to this spent 31 years in various senior positions with CSIRO livestock research. Following his retirement from the Beef CRC, Professor Bindon established a family company – Bernie Bindon Cattle Research Pty Ltd – of which he is a director.  Under Prof Bindon’s leadership the Cattle and Beef CRC conducted research which led to an understanding of the genetic and non-genetic factors controlling beef quality and feed conversion efficiency. This research provided the underpinning science for MLA's Meat Standards Australia (MSA) program and commercialisation of Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) and gene markers for beef quality traits. Prof Bindon has extensive skills in research management and as a scientist in physiology, genetics and meat science. He has been recognised for his contribution to the beef industry through the Beef Improvement Association’s Howard Yelland Award (2000) and the Rural Press/Rabobank “Beef Achiever of the Year Award” (2005).

Christopher Hudson
Director- BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD

Professor Hudson, who joined the MLA Board on 22 November 2000, has a scientific background and extensive experience in the commercial environment. He served as the R&D Director at Goodman Fielder Limited where he was responsible for the direction and co-ordination of R&D and technology. He is a Director of the Australia New Zealand Food Authority, Food Science Australia and the Dairy R&D Corporation, serves on the CSIRO Field Crop Sector Advisory Committee and is a member of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Nutrition. Professor Hudson is a Director of MLA Donor Company Limited.

Peter Trefort
Director

Mr Trefort manages his family’s property at Narrogin in Western Australia. Mr Trefort has more than 40 years’ experience in sheep and cattle production as well as management across the supply chain. He has worked extensively developing on-farm and processing R&D strategy with the Department of Agriculture (WA), University of WA and Murdoch (WA). He has been successful in developing and commercialising an innovative new range of lamb cuts to extend markets both domestically and internationally. Mr Trefort is a director of Hillside Meats, Elderstone Nominees Pty Ltd, Narrogin Agricultural College Advisory Council and WA Q Lamb and is chairman of WA Agricultural College Combined Advisory Councils. In 2007, Mr Trefort received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Murdoch University.  Mr Trefort is a respected conference speaker and media commentator.

Paul Troja
Director

Mr Troja is general manager and a director Rockdale Beef Pty Limited Australia. Previously he has held in various roles for The Angliss Group where he developed a solid understanding of the industry and the important issues of meat quality and consumer perceptions. He also worked for the Australian Meat & Live-stock Corporation (AMLC) both in Australia and in Asia. During this time he developed regional marketing strategies for the North Asia region which are still used today. Mr Troja also contributed to the development of AMLC’s quality assurance training accreditation courses for the processing sector, and the Handbook of Australian Meat, which remain industry standards. Mr Troja’s negotiated one of NSW’s first registered employee Enterprise Agreements in the meat industry.

Michael Carroll
Director

Mr Carroll serves a range of agribusiness companies in a board and consulting capacity. He has also served as a member of the Wheat Export Marketing Consultation Committee. He has held a diverse array of executive positions in a range of companies. Most recently he was responsible for establishing and leading National Australia Bank’s (NAB) Agribusiness division. Roles prior to this included several years as a Senior Adviser in NAB’s internal investment banking and corporate advisory department. Before joining NAB, he worked for companies involved in the agriculture sector including Monsanto Agricultural Products and a biotechnology venture capital company. Mr Carroll comes from a family which has been involved in farming for over 130 years and has his own property in western Victoria.

Lucinda Corrigan
Director

Ms Corrigan is currently a director and partner of Rennylea Pastoral Company, a leading beef genetics business in Southern New South Wales producing Angus seedstock for high quality national and international markets. She has been extensively involved in a number of co-operative research centres (CRC) over a number of years, both as a committee member and board member. In her capacity as a board member, Ms Corrigan has sat on the boards of the CRC for Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity, the CRC for Cattle and Beef Quality, Beef CRC, Future Farm CRC as well as the Beef Improvement Association of Australia. Ms Corrigan has been chair of the advisory committee for the CRC for Cattle and Beef Quality and chair of the communication and education committee and is a member of the remuneration committee and industry adoption committee for Beef CRC. Ms Corrigan is also a member of the finance and audit committee for Future Farm CRC, has been a member of the finance and audit committee for the CRC for Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity and a member of a technical review committee for the CRC for Meat Quality.
 

John Wyld
Director

Mr Wyld has been extensively involved in the cattle and sheep industries for a number of decades. Mr Wyld was involved in the establishment of MLA, sitting as a member of the Ministerial Committee which considered options for the replacement for the Australian Meat & Live-stock Corporation (AMLC) (MLA’s predecessor body) as well as being a member of the Ministerial transitional team to form MLA and on the selection committee for the initial MLA Board. Mr Wyld has substantial board experience, having sat on the boards of Austops Limited, Victorian Producers Co-op Limited, CRC for Beef Quality and the AMLC. Mr Wyld has also been president of the Cattle Council of Australia and the VFF Pastoral Group. He was intimately involved with the National Livestock Identification System, sitting on the livestock identification and tracing implementation taskforce and the NLIS standards committee and was chairman of the National Livestock Identification System Executive Committee. Mr Wyld currently operates cattle and sheep properties in South Gippsland and western Victoria.