Current employment/positions:
I am a professional non-executive director and strategy consultant with special expertise in international marketing. My most recent full-time role as managing director of Tourism Australia Limited embraced the international marketing of Australia.
I began my working life as an agricultural scientist and I spent the early part of my career as a research agronomist and regional director of agriculture in Victoria. Subsequent leadership roles in the private sector have included global marketing and operations in the wine, food and building materials industries. I am currently a director of Horticulture Australia, Dexion, Acelero and Tarkine Wilderness.
Special responsibilities on the AWI board include chairing the remuneration and appointments committee and member of the intellectual property and commercialisation committee.
Q: What specific skills do you bring to the board?
B: I bring a working lifetime of relevant experience with 25 years of international marketing across many sectors and business cycles. The most recent experience was the successful global marketing of Brand Australia. In this challenge, we used offshore staff in targeted markets, market segmentation and partnership marketing with companies like Qantas and American Express to leverage Tourism Australia’s funds.
I believe this international market experience and knowledge is needed at AWI on a board previously dominated by people with wool production backgrounds. I also bring extensive experience as a company director in private and public sector companies since 1988.
Q: Why should growers trust you on your corporate track record?
B: As a professional company director, I bring relevant board experience and am a strong believer in leading practice corporate governance. I am keenly aware of responsibilities to levy payers and to other stakeholders like the government and the wider industry.
I am against politics and personal agendas in the boardroom at AWI and I also oppose conflicts of interest and lack of board solidarity. I aim to continue to work on these challenges to improve the functionality and effectiveness of the board.
This is one of the most critical elections for woolgrower shareholders. The AWI board needs a balance of experienced woolgrowers with industry knowledge, marketers, and professional directors who can bring relevant strategies, good governance and unity of purpose to the challenges facing the Australian wool industry.
I am motivated by the opportunity to help grow the demand for Australian merino wool by understanding what the consumer wants and delivering on this understanding. This will require strong innovation programs underpinned by knowing what retailers want and what consumers want to buy. It also requires an understanding of the supply chain and working with key players in win-win partnerships to leverage the marketing dollars available from woolgrower levies.
Q: What is your assessment of AWI and what would you change if anything?
B: I believe we need to give marketing the priority it deserves at AWI – otherwise there will be no industry. There are good stories to tell, excellent new products coming through, refreshed and relevant brands and branding strategies, and people in place in the key markets.
The challenge now is one of funding and execution, using the business to business marketing strategy that has been articulated. Funds are needed in
the markets to support the key account management programs. There also needs to be recognition that we need a menu of new products rather than one “killer” innovation.
I am impressed with the development of the current marketing strategy at AWI. It is underpinned by comprehensive consumer and trade research, which has highlighted the opportunity to create demand at the top end of the market in partnerships with people who drive the fashion industry. The implementation requires us to reconnect with retailers, excite manufacturers and inspire designers.
I believe that the health of AWI depends on the health of the industry – rather than the reverse. AWI needs to contribute some of the elements that enable a healthier industry – such as relevant on farm programs, alternatives to mulesing and most importantly, global innovation and marketing programs that increase the demand for merino wool.
Q: What is your definition of a conflict of interest at board level?
B: The number one duty of any company director is to act first and foremost in the interests of the organisation he or she is directing. Generally, a conflict of interest arises when a board member’s duty to his or her organisation clashes with duties, obligations or interests elsewhere such as business or workplace interests or the interests of his or her family or friends.
Q: What is your stance on mulesing?
B: In regard to mulesing, the debate really gets back to the market place. Individual growers will be able to make up their own minds about mulesing and the adoption of alternatives, but it will be the market place that determines how we need to respond to meet the needs of those who drive the fashion industry. AWI needs to continue to work with the industry to provide alternatives to mulesing.
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