About us

Mike Gidley obtained a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1981. He worked as a food scientist and then group leader at the Unilever Research Laboratories, Colworth House, UK from 1981 until 2003, when he moved to take up the position of Director of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences at The University of Queensland, Australia, until his retirement in 2022. The Centre is part of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation. He is also a former Chair of the National Nutrition Committee of the Australian Academy of Sciences.

Andrew Metcalfe AO FIPAA is the National President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia. He was a Commonwealth Government Departmental Secretary for three different departments over a period of twelve years, most recently (until his retirement in August 2023) as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. He was also Australia’s Director of Biosecurity.

Mr Metcalfe was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (2012) for “distinguished service to public sector leadership through contributions to Australia's international relations and to major public policy development and implementation in the areas of immigration, Australian citizenship, cultural diversity, and national security; and to the community”.

Hailing from Murra Warra in western Victoria, David Jochinke is a third-generation grain and livestock farmer from in Northwest Victoria. He was elected as President of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) in 2023, having previously served as Vice President of the NFF (2017-2023) and as President of the Victorian Farmers’ Federation (2016- 2020).

Ian Small's PhD at Edinburgh University (1988) was followed by a career with France's National Agronomy Research Institute (INRA) first as a postdoc and later as a tenured research scientist. He held the Vice-Director position at the Plant Genetics & Breeding Station in Versailles and the Plant Genomics Unit in Evry. In 2005 he was awarded a WA State Premier's Research Fellowship and moved to Perth to become the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (2006).

Dr. Justine Lacey is the Director of Responsible Innovation at CSIRO; a multidisciplinary research program that systematically and scientifically assesses the risks, benefits and uncertainties associated with future science and technology with the aim of ensuring our science and technology innovations deliver widespread benefits to society. Prior to this, Justine was a Research Group Leader at CSIRO Land & Water, and her own research has examined societal and ethical questions related to community trust and acceptance of a range of Australian industry sectors.

Luke Wilson is an experienced public sector leader and advocate. He was appointed Victoria’s first Cross Border Commissioner in October 2018, advocating for communities and businesses along each of Victoria’s state borders, position he held until December 2023.  Luke has worked in energy and transport access regulation with the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, in economic consulting with PwC, in policy analysis with the Commonwealth’s Industry/ Productivity Commission, and originally as a forester in Australia and overseas. Luke holds a Bachelor of Forest Science from the University of Melbourne; a Graduate Diploma in Economics from La Trobe University; a Graduate Diploma in Management from the Australian Catholic University and an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Professor Michelle Colgrave is the Deputy Director (Impact) in CSIRO Agriculture and Food. Prior to this, Michelle led the Future Protein Mission for CSIRO. Her scientific background is the application of proteomics, the study of proteins using mass spectrometry, to agriculture and food science to the benefit of human health - with a special focus on proteins involved in food intolerance and allergy as well as bioactive proteins that bring specific health benefits. Prof Colgrave is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science.

Richard Dickman is the CEO of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, where he previously served as a member of the advisory board. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Forest Science at the University of Melbourne and a Master of Science in Agriculture at the University of Sydney. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Richard has had an extensive international career in corporate agriculture and was formerly a member of the Bayer Australia Ltd management board and a Director of Cotton Grower Services Pty Ltd and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

Professor Stephen Simpson AC is Academic Director of the Charles Perkins Centre, and a Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, and Executive Director of Obesity Australia. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Queensland, he undertook his PhD at the University of London. Stephen is Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2007) and Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2013). In 2015, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia “for eminent service to biological and biomedical science”.