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Our Board

The Board is established and governed under the Wine Australia Act 2013 and its actions are guided by its Board Charter. It has a Chair and between five and seven directors. On 29 November 2021, the former Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia, Hon David Littleproud MP, announced the appointment of six non-executive directors to the Wine Australia Board until 30 September 2024. Two new directors – John Lloyd and Justin Brown – have joined reappointed directors Cath Oates, Catherine Cooper, Frances-Anne Keeler and Mitchell Taylor. The Chair’s term ends on 4 July 2023. Please find the Board’s biographies below.

Dr Michele Allan (Victoria)
Dr Michele Allan (Victoria)

Chair

Michele is an experienced non-executive director and has a strong understanding of agribusiness, public policy and regulation within food and agriculture industries, R&D portfolio structure and management, enterprise risk management and science and innovation.

Michele currently chairs Apple and Pear Australia Limited, Defence CRC Trusted Autonomous Systems, the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre and is Chancellor of Charles Sturt University. She is also a director of CSIRO, Smart Sat CRC, Dairy Food Safety Victoria, MJ Chicken and CRC Food Agility.

She has previously held chair positions with Meat & Livestock Australia and the Wheat Industry Advisory Taskforce and was a director of Wine Australia and the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation. Other prior board roles include Tasmanian Irrigation, Innovation and Science Australia, Forest and Wood Products Australia, William Angliss Institute, Callaghan Innovation (NZ) and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.

Michele held executive roles with Amcor Limited, Kraft Foods, Bonlac Foods Limited, ICI, Tasmanian Bioinformatics Centre of Excellence Tasmania, Johnson and Johnson and Nestle.

Michele has a Bachelor of Applied Science from University of Technology Sydney, Master of Management of Technology from Melbourne University, Master Commercial Law Deakin University and Doctorate from RMIT. She is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.

Ms Cath Oates (Western Australia)
Ms Cath Oates (Western Australia)

Deputy Chair

Cath’s international winemaking career began after studying business/viticulture at Curtin University followed by oenology at University of Adelaide. Senior industry roles have included Group Winemaker at Mud House Wine Group (NZ) and Chief Winemaker at Plantagenet Estate.

Cath has previously served as President of Great Southern Wine Producers Association and Margaret River Wine Association, and as Vice President of Wines of Western Australia. During her time in New Zealand she also served on the Advisory Board of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand. She currently Chairs the Australian sector’s Sustainable Advisory Committee.

A keen wine show judge Cath has judged extensively both in Australia and overseas. Currently Cath is the owner of Oates Ends, wines from the vineyard on the intergenerational farming property in Margaret River. Cath also runs a winemaking consultancy business.

Cath served as Acting Chair of Wine Australia April to June 2020.

Cath chairs the Sustainability Advisory Committee.

Ms Catherine Cooper (South Australia)
Ms Catherine Cooper (South Australia)

Catherine is an experienced non-Executive Director having served on approximately 50 boards. After a professional career as a commercial lawyer, Catherine moved into the business world and developed wide knowledge and experience across a broad range of sectors such as agribusiness, food and health, energy, water, science and technology.

Catherine has been involved in start-ups, small to medium enterprises, public and private sectors, Australian Stock Exchange-listed (ASX), and not-for-profit organisations on a national and international basis. Career highlights include the establishment of national joint venture rural bank, nominated as a Telstra Business Woman of the Year finalist, inclusion in an international management program at GE and winning a position in the Australian Institute of Company Director’s ASX Top 200 Chairman’s Mentoring Program.

Catherine is an experienced Audit Committee Chair and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Among other directorships Catherine is the Chair of the South Australian Environmental Protection Authority, a director of Australian Eggs, a director of Grains Australia and of the Energy CRC- RACE for 2030.

Frances-Anne Keeler (New South Wales)
Frances-Anne Keeler (New South Wales)

Frances-Anne is a non-executive director with extensive marketing and operations experience spanning global markets and multiple sectors including tourism, hospitality, business events, major events, international education, franchising and financial services.  

She is Chair of the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse, a national platform for digital tourism information, and Chocolateria San Churro, a successful franchise with stores throughout Australia.  She also chairs an advisory board for the G’Day Group, Australia’s largest regional accommodation provider.

Former board roles include Deputy Chair of Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia and non-executive director of the YMCA NSW.  Frances-Anne is a previous Deputy CEO of Tourism Australia, where she was able to leverage valuable assets in a competitive global marketplace to deliver record growth in the Australian visitor economy.

She brings to the board a proven ability in developing and successfully implementing growth strategies through customer focus, innovation, driving efficiencies, embedding a progressive culture and leading transformational change.  She is passionate about delivering profit through putting customers and stakeholders at the heart of strategy.

Frances-Anne holds a BA Joint Honours Degree in Marketing and Hispanic Studies from Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.  She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a past mentee of their flagship Chairs Mentoring Program.

Mr Mitchell Taylor (New South Wales)
Mr Mitchell Taylor (New South Wales)

Mitchell Taylor is third-generation Managing Director and winemaker for Clare Valley family-winery, Taylors Wines. Mitchell worked in finance and stockbroking in both London and Sydney before joining Taylors Wines in 1988 and later becoming the Managing Director in 2000. 

Mitchell currently oversees all aspects of the business. As an experienced winemaker, Mitchell maintains a very hands-on role at the winery, supervising all winemaking activities to ensure the quality and consistency of all Taylors wine is maintained.

His commitment to the Australian wine industry extends to involvement in key industry associations, including his role as a founding and current director of Australia’s First Families of Wine, Chairman of the National Wine Foundation, Director of The Drinks Association and a member of the Wine Australia Marketing Advisory Group. Previous roles include former Director and Vice President of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Alcohol Beverages Australia, and a Founding and Past Chairman of YPO Sydney.

Mitchell is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mr Taylor chairs the Marketing Committee.

Mr Justin Brown (Australian Capital Territory)
Mr Justin Brown (Australian Capital Territory)
Justin Brown is a former senior Australian diplomat and trade negotiator. He served for three years as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with overall responsibility for trade and economic issues. In that role, he was Australia's chief negotiator in the CPTPP negotiations. Most recently, he was Australia's Ambassador to the European Union, NATO, Belgium and Luxembourg based in Brussels. Earlier in his career, he was involved in a number of trade negotiations at the multilateral (WTO) and bilateral levels. He has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of New England. 
 Mr John Lloyd (New South Wales)
Mr John Lloyd (New South Wales)
John Lloyd is the former CEO of Horticulture Innovation Australia/HAL, leading both organisations over a nine-year period of significant growth, change and transition. He is a current director of Meat & Livestock Australia, Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council and is a member of the governing council of Charles Sturt University. Having previously served on the boards of both Agribusiness Australia and Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, John has extensive experience with research, innovation and portfolio management within the primary industries sector, as well as a deep understanding of funding mechanisms and governance requirements. John’s career has spanned most parts of the Australian agribusiness sector with senior leadership positions including Managing Director Case IH/New Holland ANZ; General Manager Commercial Incitec Pivot; and General Manager Merchandise Wesfarmers Dalgety. More recently John has led a significant restructure of the research corporation for the $10 billion horticulture sector, creating new funding models that have catered for its longer-term strategic issues as well as accessing broader and non- traditional sources of investment. These issues include Asian export markets, biosecurity, health and nutrition, pollination, major pests, intensive farming systems and urban greening. John has a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of NSW as well as an MBA from Macquarie University, and lives on a small holding in Borenore NSW.

To ensure the highest levels of governance and probity Wine Australia engages an external chair for the Audit and Risk Committee. Mr Geoff Knuckey was appointed in January 2020.

Mr Geoff Knuckey
Mr Geoff Knuckey

Geoff has extensive experience as an Audit Committee member or Chair and is currently serving on audit committees for numerous government entities. He has extensive experience as a Director and serves on boards and audit committees of multiple private sector entities. Mr Knuckey has been a full-time company director and audit committee member since 2009 following a 32 year career with Ernst & Young specialising in Audit and Assurance Services in both the public and private sectors across a range of industries.

He has a Bachelor in Economics (ANU), is FCA qualified, a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Registered Company Auditor.

 


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This content is restricted to wine exporters and levy-payers. Some reports are available for purchase to non-levy payers/exporters.