Dairy NSW board and staff updates

Dairy NSW’s annual general meeting was held on 18 October. Andrew Smith, Dimitry Smith and Phil Ryan were returned to the board for three-year terms.

Tony Burnett has resigned after four years on the board. Tony’s knowledge of the dairy supply chain and broad industry contacts was a huge asset to the board, as well as his high level of commitment and input to board meetings and the strategic committee.

This leaves a two-year casual vacancy available if the board identifies a suitable candidate. A candidate with supply chain expertise would be valuable. For further information, get in touch with Dairy NSW Regional Manager Paul van Wel.

Jonathan Price moves to Lactalis

We were sorry to see Jonathan Price leave Dairy NSW recently. Jono has taken on the role of Supplier Relationship manager at Lactallis for Hunter and mid-coast regions. It has been great having Jono in the Dairy NSW team as well as his contributions as regional manager at DairyTas.

We are in the process of recruiting to replace Jono but the meantime, we will cover his activity across our team.

Welcome Ben! 

Some great news – we found just the right person to be a project lead for the Workforce Attraction project.

Ben Norton-Smith is from the United Kingdom and moved to Australia a couple of years ago. He has a great knowledge of dairy, working on farms as well as AI, fertiliser and stock agency work.

More recently he has been managing two roles. He is a project officer for the Skills in Ag and Hort Project with the National Farmers’ Federation. Ben is also the Executive Officer for AFAM, a training advisory body working ag industries to understand and communicate their vocational education and training needs and challenges.

Ben began with us on 31 October. His role is partly funded by Dairy NSW and partly by the New South Wales storm and flood grant. Ben’s primary responsibility will be all things south of Sydney; but given his strategic and project management skills, he will help shape the program for the state.