Max Roberts, Stephen O’Rourke and Len Stephens have been nominated by an industry committee comprising representatives from Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF) and the Australian Dairy Products Federation. The committee called for nominations in May and received 85 applications.

Incumbent Dairy Australia chairman Max Roberts has been dairy farming in the Bega Valley, in Southern New South Wales, since 1982. He is a director and deputy chairman of Bega Cheese and has held several other board positions including at the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme and the NSW Farmers Federation. Mr Roberts has been active in industry organisations as a former chairman of the NSW Farmers Dairy Section and former vice-president of ADF. Before becoming a dairy farmer, Max had a long career as an ABC journalist and broadcaster.

Stephen O’Rourke has been working for the Murray Goulburn Co-operative since 1987. His background in commerce and accounting has seen him hold such positions as company secretary, financial controller and finance director. Since 1998, Stephen has been the chief executive officer and managing director. He was previously a director of the Australian Dairy Corporation and is currently serving on Dairy Australia’s board.

Len Stephens is a scientist and manager with a diverse range of experience in agribusiness. After an early career in regional veterinary centres in Victoria, Dr Stephens became head of the Victorian Institute of Animal Science at Attwood. From there he moved into leadership roles at Meat Research Corporation and Meat & Livestock Australia where he managed all on-farm and live-export research and development. He has also served as the chief executive officer of Australian Wool Innovation and is presently managing director of The Seafood CRC.

Under Dairy Australia’s constitution, Group A members (dairy farmers) may also propose nominees. Nominations must have the support of at least 100 current Group A members and be received by Dairy Australia before the end of business on August 31.

Membership of Dairy Australia is free and open to any dairy farmer whose business pays the Dairy Service Levy. Farmers from over 6,000 dairy farms are members, representing more than 64 per cent of the industry.

Voting for directors will be held on Friday November 30 at Dairy Australia’s Annual General Meeting. Full voting details and proxy forms will be distributed to members in October.
 
The vacancies have arisen following the completion of three-year terms by Max Roberts, Steve O'Rourke and Barry Kitchen.  Dr Kitchen will retire at the AGM.
 
Nomination forms and a list of members are available from Dairy Australia’s registry manager, Stuart Madden or here.

For further information contact Sid Pickering on 03 9694 3894, or 0418 175 611, or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it