Board of directors

Alan Beckett

Alan Beckett
Qualifications: BEc, FICA, GAICD
Director since November 2014

Mr Beckett runs an Angus breeding and backgrounding operation in Yea, Victoria. He brings 40 years’ experience with a major professional services firm, practising in the area of audit and corporate services to large companies with an emphasis on listed public companies along with practical experience in doing business in Oceania, South-East Asia, China, Japan and India. Mr Beckett is Chair of Defence Health Limited, Meat & Livestock Australia Limited, and a non-executive director of MLA Donor Company Limited and Integrity Systems Company Limited. Mr Beckett is also a member of the Remuneration, People & Culture Committee.

Previous roles:

Chairman of ASX listed Basper Limited (formally Berklee Ltd) and Deputy Chairman of the Department of Defence Audit & Risk Committee. He is a former independent member of the Audit & Risk Committee of Reserve Bank of Australia’s wholly owned subsidiary, Note Printing Australia Limited and a non-executive director of Westbourne Capital Pty Ltd and Westbourne Credit Management Limited.

Andrew Ferguson

Acting Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer

Mr Ferguson joined MLA as Chief Financial Officer in 2016 and was recently appointed as Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for MLA's financial integrity, including reporting, information systems and compliance, as well as the legal, human resources and risk functions.

He is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience in both the UK and Australia.

Russell Lethbridge

Qualifications: Dip Rural Business Management, Cert Animal Husbandry and Farm Engineering (Hons)
Director since December 2017

Mr Lethbridge, with his family, runs Werrington Cattle Company, a commercial beef cattle, breeding, growing and fattening enterprise. Werrington has been in the Lethbridge family for 124 years with the current branch of the family in ownership since 1980. The Werrington business runs over 13,000 head of cattle and comprises a breeding program on 120,000ha of natural eucalypt forest country, approximately 250km west of Townsville and 200km north of Hughenden in north Queensland. The business also consists of Rainmore Station, a 27,000ha property near Alpha in central Queensland. Mr Lethbridge has a deep understanding of cattle production systems, managing breeder and feeder cattle under extreme environmental conditions and pasture nutrition levels, utilising genetic selection and strategic herd management to achieve production and business success. Mr Lethbridge is a director of Meat & Livestock Australia Limited, Integrity Systems Company Limited and a member of the Audit, Finance & Risk Committee.

Previous roles:

Mr Lethbridge was Chair of the Hann Highway Action Group, a member of the Rural Fire Board and a member of the Oak Race Club Committee. He was an elected representative of AgForce for seven years, beginning as Regional Vice President for the north region, then as Regional President and Board Member and member of AgForce Finance Audit and Risk and Agribusiness Finance Drought and Climate Policy Committees. He was a member of the steering committee for the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group to develop and promote a business improvement package for north Australian cattlemen.

Manny Noakes

Qualifications: BSc, Dip Nut & Diet, PhD, GAICD
Director since November 2018

Professor Noakes is a research scientist in nutrition and health with over 30 years of R&D and nutrition communication experience. She has extensive knowledge in many fields of nutrition and health including the food regulatory system and functional food substantiation, and an in depth knowledge of the role of red meat in human nutrition. She has also published research on diet and sustainability and challenged the environmental agenda from a food and health perspective. Professor Noakes was instrumental in the development of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet which positions red meat as part of a healthy diet for weight control. She was instrumental in the development and release of five editions of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet (TWD) which sold over 1 million copies in Australia and has been further commercialised to a successful online program. Professor Noakes currently runs her own nutrition consultancy, is an Adjunct Research Professor with the University of South Australia and a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia. Professor Noakes is a director of Meat & Livestock Australia Limited and Chair of the Research Development & Investment Committee.

Previous roles:

Professor Noakes was formerly a Senior Principal Research Scientist and Director for the Nutrition and Health Program at CSIRO. In addition, she was also a member of the National Committee for Nutrition for the Australian Academy of Sciences as well as on its Expert Working Group Special Project: Nourishing Australia: A decadal plan for nutrition science.

John Lloyd

Qualifications: BSc, MBA
Director since November 2019

Mr Lloyd, with his family runs a small agricultural enterprise at Borenore, near Orange, NSW. He has a deep understanding of red meat industry dynamics, knowledge and connections across the agri-food ecosystem including the RDC sector, government and research providers. Mr Lloyd has led and created new funding models that have catered for longer-term strategic issues such as export markets, biosecurity, health and nutrition, pollination, major pests, intensive farming systems and urban greening as well as accessing broader and non-traditional sources of investment. Mr Lloyd has also completed the Company Directors course with the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is the former CEO of Horticulture Innovation Australia/HAL, leading both organisations over a nine-year period of significant growth, change and transition. Mr Lloyd is a Council Member of Charles Sturt University, a director of Menari Business Solutions Pty Ltd, Wine Australia and Meat & Livestock Australia. Mr Lloyd is also Chair of the Audit, Finance & Risk Committee.

Previous roles:

Mr Lloyd has broad experience across the Australian agribusiness sector with previous roles in senior leadership positions including Managing Director of Case IH/New Holland ANZ; General Manager of Commercial Incitec Pivot; and General Manager of Merchandise Wesfarmers Dalgety.

Jacqueline Wilson-Smith

BCom GAICD
Director since November 2021

Mrs Wilson-Smith is a Director for Food Agility CRC, Director of Travellers Choice, Chair of the Agrifutures Ginger Advisory Panel and a member of the Food & Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) Industry Steering Committee. Mrs Wilson-Smith is Founder of the Sustainable Innovation Co. and Co-Founder of the Food and Agribusiness Network (FAN) & former Chair. In 2017, Mrs Wilson-Smith was the Queensland recipient of the AgriFutures Rural Woman’s Award. Mrs Wilson-Smith is brings to the table a commercial lens, especially in marketing, innovation and understanding customers & stakeholders needs. Mrs Wilson-Smith is also director of Meat & Livestock Australia and chair of the Remuneration, People & Culture Committee.

Previous roles:

Since 1994, Mrs Wilson-Smith has held various corporate & international roles with McCormick, Gourmet Garden, Mondelez, Accolade Wines, Constellation & EY.

Tess Herbert

Qualifications: B. A, Grad Dip Ed, M. Litt, Grad. Cert. Rural Leadership, Masters in Agribusiness, GAICD, ARLF
Director since November 2022

Mrs Herbert owns and manages a sixth-generation family farming businesses in the central west of New South Wales. The operations consist of a cattle feedlot, lamb and wool production and crops, silage, and hay production. She spends most of her time in her office at the feedlot in its daily operations managing compliance, finances, and human resources for the family business. Mrs Herbert has a particular long-standing interest in red meat sustainability initiatives and the integrity systems that underpin Australian red meat production. Mrs Herbert is a director of Meat & Livestock Australia, Integrity Systems Company and a member of the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee.

Previous roles:

Mrs Herbert was previously the President of the Australian Lot Feeders Association, a director of the Red Meat Advisory Council, (RMAC) and chaired the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework Steering Group. She was also a board member for Central Tablelands Local Land Services and chaired the Red Meat Panel.

Jack Holden

B Enviro Mgt (Deakin), M Public Policy & Management (Melbourne), MAICD
Director since November 2022

Mr Holden is a sustainability practitioner with over twenty-five years’ experience in agriculture and forests. He has worked in government, consulting and industry roles and is currently the General Manager - Sustainability for Global Markets in Fonterra Group. Since joining Fonterra in 2011, he has worked with farmers on a full range of farm sustainability issues, most notably on innovations to provide sustainable solutions for livestock farming. He is also Deputy Chair of the Australian Dairy Sustainability Framework, and a member of the Victorian Agriculture and Climate Change Council. Mr Holden is a Director of Meat & Livestock Australia and a member of the Research & Development Investment Committee.

Previous roles:

Mr Holden was previously a sustainable agriculture extension officer in Western Victoria and was the inaugural Coordinator of the Southern Otway Landcare Network. He became a climate policy analyst in the Greenhouse Policy unit of Victorian Government and then joined KPMG’s Climate Change and Sustainability advisory practice prior to joining Fonterra. He also served as President of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Australia for 5 years until 2022.

Lucinda Hogan

Qualifications: B Agr Sc, Post Graduate Diploma Agricultural Consulting, GAICD
Director since November 2023

Mrs Hogan has devoted her entire career to working in Australian agriculture as a livestock and grain producer, manager of research and development and deliverer of skills and training to farmers across Australia. She and her husband previously owned and managed a large-scale sheep and irrigated grain production business in western NSW and currently breed prime lamb and trade beef on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. Throughout her career Mrs Hogan has worked in a range of research organisations including CSIRO, Victorian Department of Agriculture, Australian Wool Innovation, Sheep Cooperative Research Centre and the University of New England where she has managed large research and development projects and designed and delivered national training and extension programs particularly related to sheep production and climate resilience. She has been involved in the development and delivery of several digital decision support tools that assist livestock producers to select better genetics and manage feed supply and livestock performance in variable climatic conditions.

Mrs Hogan is currently the Associate Director of Climate Resilience Initiatives at the University of New England, a member of the Agrifutures Emerging Industries Consultative Committee, and a director of Keringal Pty Ltd and Meat & Livestock Australia. Mrs Hogan is also a member of the Research & Development Investment Committee.