Our team

Ms Rowena McNally

LLB, FAICD, FIML, FRI

Ms McNally has more than 20 years’ experience as a board chair and director with extensive experience in regional Queensland.  She has held various roles in the sugar industry and many chair and board roles in the water and energy sectors.

Ms McNally’s previous involvement with the sugar industry includes several years as the Sugar Industry Commissioner and Chair of the Sugar Authority, as well as roles with Queensland Sugar Corporation.

She is the Chair of Mercy Community Services SEQ, Mercy Health and Aged Care CQ and a director of Mercy Community Services Nth Qld.  Ms McNally is the Chair of Isa Rodeo Limited and a director of Power and Water Corporation in the Northern Territory.

Ms McNally is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders and a Fellow of the Resolution Institute and a member of the Australian Water Association.

Mr Rowley Winten

B AgScience, GradDip Business Studies, MAICD

Rowley Winten is an international marketing professional with an agronomy background and has worked in Australia, Asia Pacific and Europe.

He has more than 40 years’ experience in agriculture across a diverse range of broadacre and intensive farming systems. He has held senior roles in research and development, as well as strategic marketing for a number of leading multinational crop protection companies.

Mr Winten has broad experience in marketing strategy, brand portfolio management, product development, business transformation and change management.

His current focus is on commercialising innovation to drive productivity improvement across cropping systems in Asia Pacific countries to benefit farmers and their communities.

Mr Winten has represented industry on a number of national committees.

Ms Rosemary Richards

B.Ag.Ec, MBA, GAICD

Ms Richards has more than 20 years’ experience in the food and agribusiness sectors, including considerable executive and board experience.

She has held various roles in broadacre cropping including board roles in the grains, cotton and the research and development sectors.

Ms Richards is Deputy Chair of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) and Chair of the Australian Oilseeds Federation.

She is a passionate communicator and industry advocate. Her experience in project management, trade policy and strategy development extends across all facets of agri and food sectors.

Ms Richards has extensive experience in the biotechnology sector, including regulatory frameworks, commercialisation, and advocacy.

Mr Chris Bosworth

As a sugarcane grower within the Herbert River district, Chris Bosworth brings more than 45 years’ experience and commitment to the sugarcane industry. Chris has held various board positions across the industry, representing growers locally and more broadly. As a current Director of Queensland CANEGROWERS Organisation (QCGO) and Chair and Director of CANEGROWERS Herbert River, Chris is committed to supporting SRA’s role as the industry’s peak research body.

Ms Donna Campagnolo

B.Sc.

Donna Campagnolo (B.Sc.) is a third-generation sugarcane farmer and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Queensland. With an extensive background in research, development, and extension, in addition to biosecurity within the sugar industry and the public sector. Donna’s experience has allowed her to develop a deep, practical understanding of legislative processes and procedures, particularly about Australia’s biosecurity potential risks. Significant roles on various industry and sporting committees provides Donna with a unique set of skills to drive the strategic direction of Sugar Research Australia.

Mr Gavin Whiteley

B.Ag.Ec. (Hons.), Assoc Dip. Farm Mgmt, CPA, FAICD, FARLF, JP (NSW)

Mr Whiteley is an experienced property, agribusiness and food sector executive and non-Executive Director.

He has an extensive background across the broader food and agribusiness supply chain, having held Executive roles in the agricultural property, grain, beef, cotton and chicken meat industries.

His roles have extended from research and development, corporate advisory and capital-raising work through the production, processing and distribution sectors.

Mr Whiteley is the Managing Director of The Micketymulga Group, a private Australian agribusiness and property investment, management and advisory business. He also Chairs several family Boards, primarily within the Australian agricultural sector.

He holds an honours degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of New England and an Associate Diploma in Farm Management. He is a CPA-qualified accountant, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Rural Leadership Program.

Dr Jeremy Burdon

BSC (Hons), PhD, Hon DSc, FAA, FTSE, MAICD

Dr Jeremy Burdon has an international reputation as a scientist (evolutionary biology), research manager and strategic planner.

In the early 2000s, he was involved in the sugar industry, guiding research relationships between CSIRO and BSES and as a Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology.

More recently, he served as a Director of Sugar Research Australia before stepping down in November 2022 and subsequently becoming the independent Chair of SRA's Research Funding Panel.

Dr Burdon has broad interests across all plant-based agricultural industries developed through a previous role as Chief of the Division of Plant Industry, CSIRO (2003-2012).

He has also served on the Board of Trustees of Bioversity International (a member of the CGIAR: 2009-2015), on the Board of the Grains Research & Development Corporation (2011-2017), as the Chair of the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, and on the Board of the Australian Pesticides & Veterinary Medicines Authority.

Dr Lynne McIntyre

Dr Lynne McIntyre is passionate about Australian agriculture and its importance to all Australians and to global food security. A plant geneticist by training, she has more than three decades of experience as a scientist and as a research manager and leader, specialising in crop improvement of Australia’s major crops.

Lynne has more than 25 years’ experience with the Australian sugarcane industry, as a CSIRO scientist and research manager/leader, including working with BSES Ltd and SRDC to establish DNA marker technology for sugarcane breeding.

In addition, Lynne has extensive experience on funding and planning committees, panels and advisory Boards, nationally and internationally. She has published 135+ research papers and is a journal editor for several international journals.

Lynne recently left CSIRO and is now an independent advisor.

Mr Philip Steel

B Applied Science (Agriculture), GradDip Business Studies, AssocDip Horticulture, GAICD

Phil has 40-years’ experience in agriculture. This includes more than 20 years working closely with CSIRO in product development and quality assurance for Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd in both domestic and international markets.
His product development role gave him extensive experience in assessing funding applications for agricultural research and development projects, ongoing governance of approved projects
Phil’s work has also involved strategic business planning, management and product commercialisation.

Mr Andrew Dougall

B.Sc, Grad Cert. (Cotton Production)

Mr Andrew Dougall is the Strategy Lead – Organics for Sustainability Victoria where he steers and implements the Victorian Organics Resource Recovery Strategy. He was formerly the Group Agronomist for MSF Sugar and has also held positions as Senior Agronomist with Maryborough Cane Productivity Services, Senior Farming Systems Agronomist with the (then) Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, and Cotton Research Agronomist with the NT Department of Primary Industries. He brings specialist agronomy and farming systems expertise to the SRA Research Funding Panel.

Mr Jeffrey Snoad

Mr Jeffrey Snoad grew up in a cane growing family and is a fourth-generation industry participant.

He has over 25 years of technical, management, and consulting experience in sugar manufacturing, including in the areas of operational management; factory performance, assessment and benchmarking; process system and equipment assessment and conceptual design; water and energy usage management and auditing; project management; maintenance; research and development; environment and natural resource management; and computer modelling of process mass and energy flows. Jeff was a member of the ASMC Technical Committee from 2011-2015.

He has been the author and co-author of numerous technical papers domestically and in international journals, and was a recipient of the ASSCT President’s Medal in 1997 and 2007.

Mr Shaun Coffey

Mr Coffey is an internationally acknowledged leader in science and innovation.

His interests in the sugar industry stem from the 1990s, when he was a Regional Director, then Director of Research and Extension, in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.

An agronomist by training, Mr Coffey has developed broad interests across science and technology through key leadership roles, such as Foundation Chief of the CSIRO Division of Livestock Industries (2002-2006) and as CEO of the NZ Crown entity, Industrial Research Ltd (2007-2013).

Mr Coffey serves on the Board of the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre, as Chair of the Agriculture and Food Forum of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and as Director of Capacity Building in the Crawford Fund for a Food Secure World.

Mr Hywel Cook

BE (Chem)

Hywel Cook has over 30 years of experience in the sugar industry. He has worked in refinery production, sugar mill production, general process engineering, sugar pricing and physical marketing, sugar cane growing, cane supply and business development.
Hywel worked for CSR, QSL and MSF Sugar (Mitr Phol), having work experiences across Australia and throughout East Asia.

• phone 0438 762 944
• email hcook@sugarresearch.com.au

Dr Jason Eglinton

BSc (Hons), PhD, AAICD

Dr Eglinton has over 20 years’ experience in applied R&D, variety development and commercialisation. He was previously Professor of Plant Breeding at the University of Adelaide leading the development and marketing of malting and feed barley varieties. The 12 varieties released during his tenure include the grains industry benchmarks Commander, Fathom and Compass, and his publication record includes over 50 journal papers and 200 conference papers in plant breeding and crop improvement.

Dr Eglinton has held a range of leadership roles serving on Boards and committees ranging from academic to commercial and agribusiness settings. Dr Eglinton is responsible for SRA plant breeding from validation of new traits and technology through to development and delivery of new commercial varieties.

• phone (07) 4056 4521
• email jeglinton@sugarresearch.com.au

Dr Tinashe Chiurugwi

Tinashe has research development and management experience from universities and multinational research organisations. His career has been equally split between postdoctoral research (in plant molecular genetics) and research administration.

Prior to joining SRA, Tinashe led the Research Partnerships and Development team at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at The University of Queensland.

Despite his Japanese sounding name, Tinashe hails from Zimbabwe. He has visited and worked in cities, towns and villages in Africa, Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

• phone 0475 042 284
• email tchiurugwi@sugarresearch.com.au

Rommel Balitactac

Rommel has worked in various companies where he was part of leadership and executive teams, taking charge of the legal function as legal manager, general counsel and company secretary beforejoining SRA. He has spent a significant part of his career in the IT/technology sector which included the management of the legal department of an Australian R&D subsidiary of a multinational Japanese electronics company. Rommel also has experience working in the resources, engineering and aviation sectors.

As Company Secretary & General Counsel, Rommel is responsible for SRA’s governance and providing legal counsel to the organisation.

Mrs Jane Trindall

Jane builds collaborative research and innovation programs in the food and agriculture value chain.

She led the first Australian agricultural-wide research collaboration, “Accelerating Precision to Decision Agriculture”.

Jane worked with a world-class University of Queensland multi-disciplinary research team and 18 food companies, food tech start-ups, contract manufacturers, research, innovation and commercialisation organisations to build a trailblazing program “F&B Accelerate”, co-investing $178 million into commercially driven research, scale-up infrastructure and workforce training for companies to capture the value of giant global export food markets.

Jane has  previously worked with the Australian Cotton Industry to create and translate innovations into impact for Australian cotton growers.

• phone 0447261014

Ms Bronwyn Venus

Bronwyn was a senior researcher for more than 30 years with organisations including CSIRO, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the University of Queensland.

As the Research Partnerships Manager with Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), she was responsible for negotiating contracts for >$300M research dollars and working with 400+ research staff across 14 Queensland sites, to increase industry engagement and design/deliver multimillion-dollar, cross-disciplinary, research programs.

• phone 0413 130 505
• location Indooroopilly

Dr Muyiwa Olayemi

B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD

Muyiwa Olayemi comes from a quantitative genetics and data analytic background, with extensive experience in statistical analysis of plant and livestock data.

Muyiwa’s role at SRA involves delivery of statistical and data analytical services to SRA research projects and trials. He applies various statistical and data analytic tools to the design of experiments, data visualisation and analysis, modelling complex problem using machine learning and predictive analytics to identify opportunities, discover solutions, and deliver actionable business insights.

Prior to joining SRA, Muyiwa worked as a quantitative geneticist in sheep, goat, pigs and dairy cattle genetic improvement and evaluation programs across Australia and New Zealand.

• phone (07) 3331 3352
• location Indooroopilly

Ms Cathy Mylrea

Bachelor of Environmental Science

Cathy has a strong agricultural background coupled with over 20 years’ experience in the private sector. She has worked predominantly in natural resource management (NRM), with a strong focus on collaborative partnerships. Most recently she has been the Program Manager for Burnett Mary Regional Group where she provided oversight across a range of strategic government investment focused on NRM, water quality and agriculture for the region. She has extensive experience in securing grant funding and management of complex funding programs.

Cathy has coordinated Queensland and Australian Government programs including Reef Rescue, Paddock to Reef, Reef Trust and projects funded through the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The Environmental Sustainability Scientist role will provide scientific expertise and deliver translational research on input use efficiencies and the industry’s environmental risks, particularly water quality. Initially the position will also be responsible for the overarching management and delivery of SRA’s current Great Barrier Reef Foundation project portfolio.

• location Meringa
• phone 07 4056 4511
• phone 0458 446 924

Dr Stephen Mudge

Dr Stephen Mudge has a background in plant molecular biology, with more than 20 years’ postdoctoral research experience. He has worked on both fundamental and applied research projects at CSIRO and The University of Queensland in Australia, as well as at HortResearch in New Zealand.

Prior to joining the Research Funding Unit, he had more than 12 years’ postdoctoral experience working on sugarcane, in the areas of molecular biology and biotechnology and more recently the microbiology of sugarcane.

• phone 0436 924 252

Mr Glen Park

DipAppSc(Agriculture)

Glen is the District Delivery Officer based in Ingham and servicing both the Herbert and Burdekin cane growing regions. His main role is to assist and engage with growers to explore practices that lead to improved productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

Glen has extensive experience establishing and maintaining sugarcane field trial. His career in the sugarcane industry began in 1982 as a sugarcane plant breeding technician at the Meringa Sugar Research Station. Since 1997 he has been responsible for the design and establishment of a wide range of sugarcane agronomic field trials located throughout the northern cane growing districts.

• phone 0428720930

Mr Armin Wessel

Armin originates from a European farming background. He gained firsthand irrigation experience working on cotton and grain farms on the Darling Downs. Armin then purchased his own farm and began operating irrigated cane farms in the Isis area and now in the Burdekin.

He has acquired a wide range of irrigation experience with different systems in different regions as well as extensive knowledge in soil health, nutrient management, and pesticide application. Armin focuses on maintaining or improving productivity whilst being conscious of the long term economic and environmental outcomes.

• phone 07 47838617
• phone 0436 937 555

Mr Terry Granshaw

Terry is well known in the Burdekin region, having worked for Burdekin Productivity Services for the last six years. As a senior extension officer Terry was influential in making the Smartcane BMP program and the soil health project successful in the Burdekin. Terry has also taken lead on other projects that involve harvesting, irrigation, and pests and disease.
Terry grew up on the family farm at Dalbeg and has 25 plus years of experience in all aspects of sugarcane farming from planting right through to contract harvesting, precision ag, irrigation and spraying.
As District Manager Terry will focus on improving productivity and profitability within the industry and the local community.

• phone (07) 4783 8619
• phone 0457 650 181
• location

Ms Lisa Devereaux

BAppSc (Hons); MTIM

Lisa Devereaux has over 20 years’ industry experience in the science and technology industries. She started her biotechnology career at the lab bench then successfully merged her science background with industry into business development, commercialisation, and project management.
As District Manager, Lisa is the key point of contact between SRA and its industry partners in the Southern District.
Previously Lisa worked for the CSIRO and a biopharmaceutical contract management company. She is an avid amateur beekeeper and is involved with programs to engaging young people into STEM. She is a currently an elected Board Member for Girl Guides Queensland.

• phone 0456 590 497

Mr Dylan Wedel

BEng (Hon), JP (Qual)

Dylan is a local cane farmer with a passion for problem solving and innovation. His career has previously been centred around the coal mining industry holding a variety of technical and operational roles where the focus was safety and productivity.

Dylan’s background as an engineer has given him the skills to critically analyse and optimise systems for maximum profit. As District Manager, Dylan will be assisting the local industry to improve productivity and profitability.

• phone 0490 029387

Ms Stephanie Duncan

Bachelor of Agribusiness

Stephanie is the District Delivery Officer based in Mackay. Her main role is to assist and engage with growers to explore practices that lead to improved productivity, sustainability, and water quality outcomes.

Stephanie completed a Bachelor of Agribusiness and is from a family-owned and operated cane and cattle farm in the Pioneer Valley.

Ms Emilie Fillols

Master’s degree in Plant and Environment protection

Emilie has been working as a researcher on weed management with SRA since 2008, first based in Mackay and then at Meringa. She has extensive experience in sugarcane weed management strategies, research methodologies, precision spraying and pesticide offsite impacts. She has been contributing to projects targeting to develop weed sensors for automated weed spot spraying. More recently she has been leading or collaborated on a range of projects to identify alternative cost effective weed and pest management options that have less impact on environmental water quality. Emilie also manages the routine screening of newly released sugarcane varieties for their potential sensitivity to knockdown herbicides.

Mr Matt Schembri

B.Eng. (Agricultural), PhD

Matt is an Project Officer based in Mackay. Matt’s role is to assist increased uptake and implementation of new and existing technologies in the sugar industry.

Matt has recently worked with natural resource management (NRM) organisations in Central Queensland, working with farmers on Best Management Practice (BMP) programs and practice change. He is a former Research Engineer with the Sugar Research Institute specialising in cane preparation, cane cleaning and harvesting.

• location Mackay
• phone 0422 800 670

Mr Steve Staunton

Steve has expertise in online NIR Cane Analysis System (CAS) – development of in-process NIR analyser for the analysis of prepared sugarcane, and CAS systems currently used in 14 Australian and five overseas sugar mills. SRA provides calibration and operational support to all users of the system. He has also researched the estimation of sugarcane composition using Ternary relationships – development of mathematical models using measured brix in juice to estimate the composition of sugarcane and determine its maturity status; these models are used for in-field testing of sugarcane maturity. He grew up on family owned sugarcane farms at Victoria Plains in Mackay supplying North Eton mill (no longer operating) and at Mena Creek in Innisfail supplying South Johnstone Mill.

• phone (07) 4056 4502

Dr Barry Salter

BSc (Hons), PhD

Barry is a research agronomist with nineteen years’ experience (post-PhD) in crop production research, project management, reporting, field and glasshouse experimentation, and extension of research outcomes to industry.

He has contributed to the development of the SIX EASY STEPS nutrient management program and the development and validation of modern sugarcane farming systems (fallow cropping, reduced tillage, controlled traffic, GCTB) that have been shown to improve soil condition and economic performance.

Barry conducted a PhD on suckering in sugarcane. He has previously held the position of Executive Manager Biosecurity and Production and is based at SRA Mackay.

• phone (07) 4963 6802

Dr Danielle Skocaj

Bachelor of Ag Science specialising in Rural Technology (Hons I); Doctorate of Philosophy

Danielle is experienced in sugarcane agronomy and nutrient management research, climate forecasting, project management, field experimentation, research translation and grower engagement.

She has contributed to the development of the SIX EASY STEPS nutrient management program. And conducted a PhD on using seasonal climate forecasting to guide nitrogen fertiliser application rates for sugarcane crops in the Wet Tropics.

Danielle enjoys collaborating in multi-disciplinary research projects that deliver tangible industry outcomes, working alongside industry partners to identify and solve local issues and mentoring new agricultural scientists and extension specialists.

• location Tully
• phone 0409 627 559

Mr Phil Lethbridge

B. App Sc (Biol); ITMasters

Phil is a Systems Analyst, Software Developer and Database Administrator with experience in C#, ASP.NET and SQL Server. He is now responsible for software and hardware in SRA’s Juice Laboratories and Cane Analysis Systems.

• phone (07) 4056 4504
• location Meringa

Mr Gavin Rodman

B.Sc. Environmental science, Dip. Business

Based at SRA’s Meringa Station, Gavin has been the extension leader on a number of adoption-focussed projects, developed in response to local needs. Through Gavin’s previous role as the Adoption Officer – Nutrient Management he was responsible for developing information and tools, providing training and support to growers and industry staff, and working with industry to increase the adoption of nutrient BMPs. Gavin is also a winner of the Youth Reef Champion award in 2018 for his work with growers in the Wet Tropics.

• location Meringa
• phone 0476 807 355

Mr Phil Patane

Bachelor of Agricultural Science

As well as being the District Manager for the Northern District, Phil is SRA’s Agricultural Machinery Specialist and has a strong focus on minimising harvesting losses, improving machine performance and increasing field efficiency. He has been heavily involved in a large number of harvesting trials since 2013. Phil was the co-author in the SRA Harvest Best Practice manual. He is leading the adoption component of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources Rural R&D for Profit project 'Advancing the sugar industry value chain'.

• location Ingham
• phone 0431 818 482

Dr Kevin Powell

BSc (Hons) Biology/Earth Sciences, MSc Agronomy, Post-Graduate Certificate - Climate Change for Primary Industries, Post- Graduate Diploma – Frontline Management, PhD Entomology.

Kevin Powell is an entomologist based in Meringa. Kevin’s primary focus is working on improving management strategies for economically important insect pests, both existing endemic and potential exotic threats, relevant to the Australian sugarcane industry. Prior to joining SRA, Kevin worked for Agriculture Victoria where his research focus was developing early detection systems and disinfestation protocols for biosecurity pests and screening for host -plant resistance. He has international experience in the Europe, Middle East, Asia and PNG. He specialises in root-feeding and sap-sucking insect pests of multiple crops.

• phone 0459 866 598
• location Meringa

Dr Heidi du Clou

PhD, BSc (Hons) Chemistry, BSc Chemistry cum laude

Dr Heidi du Clou is an analytical chemist with global (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia) experience in sugar milling, sugar research, quality assurance and management within R&D and accredited/commercial laboratories across diverse sectors (sugarcane, biosecurity, food). Throughout her 13-year career within the sugarcane industry, she has been involved in and led a variety of successful adaptive and strategic research projects covering areas of milling efficiency, sugar quality, product diversification and value addition. As Manager Industry Services Operations, she is responsible for overseeing the delivery of SRA’s current near infrared (NIR), chemistry and pathology services to industry, improving and modernising these services and developing new service offerings for the sustainability and profitability of the sugarcane industry.

• location Indooroopilly
• phone 07 33313325

Dr. Seona Casonato

Dr. Seona Casonato is a distinguished applied plant pathologist with an impressive track record spanning over two decades. Her extensive experience encompasses a wide array of crops, both annual and perennial, across Australia and New Zealand.

Dr. Casonato holds a Ph.D. in plant pathology and is passionate about diagnosing plant diseases, utilising both molecular and traditional methods. Her primary objective is to implement techniques that enhance production outcomes by effectively and efficiently managing pathogens.

Simon Clarke

Simon joined SRA as an environmental sustainability scientist in early 2023. He has a PhD in the geosciences and more than 20 years of experience as a research scientist. He has published over 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Collectively, these have been cited over 1200 times.

Simon brings to SRA a background in applied plant physiology and life cycle assessment. Before joining SRA, he worked as an environmental consultant for Australian agri-food and fibre industries to deliver positive outcomes for their businesses and the environment. He now develops and manages our growing portfolio of projects that deliver productivity improvements with environmental co-benefits.

Dr Felicity Atkin

BAppSc(Hons), PhD

Dr Felicity Atkin has over 23 years’ experience in sugarcane breeding. Early in her career Felicity was Southern Variety Officer in Bundaberg from 2001 and commenced her PhD in 2007 investigating the use of novel statistical techniques to improve parental breeding values from sugarcane family data.

Felicity currently oversees the Northern Variety Development Program and the SRA Cross Pollination Program (comprising field and photoperiod crossing, and parent management) producing sugarcane seed for all SRA Selection Programs.Recent successes include the development and commercial release of SRA26A in 2019, SRA28A in 2020 and SRA37A in 2022 to Northern sugarcane growers.

• phone 07 4056 4523
• location Meringa

Mr Roy Parfitt

MSc (Agric) Genetics

Roy joined SRA in 2010, emigrating from South Africa where he worked for the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI). His first role in SRA was plant breeder in the SmutBuster project, a program aimed at accelerated breeding of smut-resistant varieties. Since then, Roy has been involved in numerous projects aimed at improving the efficiency of breeding and selection.

Roy is now manager of the southern and NSW breeding and selection programs developing improved varieties for these regions

• phone 0457 541 559

Dr George Piperidis

PhD

Dr George Piperidis has over 25 years’ experience working in the sugarcane industry. He leads the variety development program for the Central region and oversees the sugar quality testing program for all new varieties released in Australia.

He has significant background experience in germplasm improvement and development through introgression of wild species, and variety exchanges with overseas breeding programs. He has also been responsible for Plant Breeder’s Rights protection of all new varieties released.

• phone 07 4963 6805

Mr Anthony Cattle

Diploma of Agriculture

Anthony began working in the sugarcane industry for BSES in 1995 at Meringa. Initially he worked seasonally for plant breeding, then in weevil borer and cane grub projects.
In 1998 Anthony moved to NSW to manage the NSW plant breeding operation, working closely with the Southern plant breeding team and the NSW industry.

• phone 0418 694 656

Dr Clair Bolton

PhD

Dr Clair Bolton has been working at BSES/SRA since 2008, starting in research projects in the laboratory at Indooroopilly.  Clair relocated to the Burdekin for six years for field work, with trials from Herbert to Mackay.  Clair started overseeing the commercial tissue culture program in 2017, before relocating back to Indooroopilly in 2019 to lead the tissue culture program for commercial supply and support for the breeding program.

Clair became a Qualified Person for PBR applications in 2020 and is involved in describing new sugarcane varieties.  Clair is also the regulatory officer for compliance at SRA.

• phone (07) 3331 3374

Ms Emily Deomano

BSc MSc

Emily has more than a decade of solid experience in data analysis and statistical computing for sugarcane and rice R&D.

She manages the statistical data analysis services to core variety development programs, disease screening programs and genomic research projects. For high-throughput data analyses, she has developed automated data science pipelines for data manipulation processes, evaluation of large sets of predictive models and extraction of insights for data-driven decisions.

• phone 07 3331 3304

Mr Christopher Tom

BSc

Chris started off working as a cytogenetic technician with SRA on a project aiming to enhance sugarcane varieties by exploiting Erianthus diversity. For the last two years, Chris has taken on the role of Variety Officer in the Plant Breeding program. His main responsibility is to manage the Final Assessment Trials planted on growers’ farms throughout the Central region to identify varieties with potential for release.

• phone 07 4963 6820

Dr Xianming Wei

PhD

Dr Wei has close to 30 years’ experience in plant breeding including 20 years working on sugarcane. Over his career, he has been particularly interested in improving selection accuracy of breeding programs by 1) using more information from new technologies such as DNA markers and UAV, and 2) making information more accurate such as accounting for site variability via ECa mapping. Currently he leads the variety development program in the Burdekin region, and supervises three groups all aiming at improving selection accuracy: data analysis for plant breeding and pathology trials; phenomics and genomic selection.

• phone 07 4963 6825

Mr Juan Briceno

BAgro, MAgrSc

Graduated as an Agronomist in 2002, JB had worked in field production, post-harvest processing and research of various tropical crops until 2007, when he focused his career in sugarcane production, bioenergy projects and life cycle assessments. After completing his master’s degree in agriculture science, JB joined SRA in 2019 as a Variety Officer for the Herbert district.

• phone 07 47768205

Dr Fengduo Hu

B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD (JCU)., PhD (UQ)

Dr Fengduo Hu comes from a wide agricultural science background. Before joining SRA (BSES Limited) in 2009, he was employed by CSIRO for over 10 years. He has over 20 years’ experience in introgression of exotic germplasm in sugarcane improvement, sugarcane breeding and the economic evaluation of sugarcane varieties. His research involves breeding sugarcane varieties, using a range of traditional breeding methods. Since 2016, he has been responsible for the Herbert selection program and the SRA introgression program (to broaden the genetic base of germplasm used as parents which is one key source of new variation in production traits and disease resistance in variety development).

• phone 07 4783 8624

Dr Yue (Jenny) Sun

B.Sc., PhD

Jenny Sun is a molecular biologist involved in research projects of herbicide tolerance, Red Rot disease, high-throughput DNA marker system and genome wide association mapping in sugarcane. Her current focus is on research/implementation of marker assistant selection (MAS) of disease resistant trait in SRA’s breeding programs.

• phone 07 3331 3371

Dr Shamsul Bhuiyan

BSc Ag (Hons), MSc (Plant Pathology), PhD (UQ)

Dr Shamsul Bhuiyan has been working with SRA for over 12 years. He leads the sugarcane disease screening program and the pathology service for the Southern Region sugar industry. He pioneered smut and nematode screening and research at SRA, and developed improved screening methods for sugarcane smut, red rot and nematodes. He has published over 70 scientific peer-reviewed papers and two book chapters.
He is the joint winner of the SRDC Team Innovation Award (2010) and the ASSCT President's Medal.

Dr Bhuiyan is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University. Prior to SRA, Dr Bhuiyan worked as a Senior Plant Pathologist with the NT Government.

• phone (07) 5434 5902
• location Woodford

Dr Nathalie Piperidis

PhD

Dr Piperidis is the world-leading expert in sugarcane cytogenetics. She also has extensive expertise in molecular marker and introgression breeding. She is recognised for her leading role internationally in the chromosome characterisation of Erianthus hybrids. Since 2005 she has been extremely motivated to gain a better understanding of the complex genome of sugarcane and to develop modern strategies to breed better cultivars combining disease resistances important to the Australian sugarcane industry.

In 2019 she developed a new innovative cytogenetic method in sugarcane called whole chromosome painting and for the first time unravelled the complex architecture of many sugarcane cultivars. Her publication record includes many journal and conference papers and book chapters. Since 2016 Dr Piperidis has been the organizer of the International Consortium for Sugarcane Biotechnology (ICSB) workshop at the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) Conference.

• phone (07) 4963 6813
• location Mackay

Dr Sijesh Natarajan

BTech, MBiotech, PhD

Sijesh has nearly 10 years’ research experience in sugarcane abiotic stress physiology and trait-yield relationships. His current focus is on applying phenomics, quantitative genetics, and machine learning approaches to identify novel traits for sugarcane crop improvement and to improve selection accuracy and efficiency in the variety development program.

• phone (07) 4783 8618
• location Burdekin

Dr Chuong Ngo

PhD

Chuong Ngo is a molecular biologist who has previously worked on herbicide tolerance GM sugarcane, chlorotic streak causal agent discovery, Ramu stunt and the leaf sheath biopsy (LSB) sampling method for ratoon stunting disease (RSD). He oversees the RSD molecular diagnostics and soil assay labs and is involved with some variety disease ratings. He is also currently part of the modernising diagnostics project that is upgrading diagnostics for several important diseases.

• phone (07) 3331 3309
• location Indooroopilly

Dr Lihan Zhao

B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD

Lihan is working on a project that aims to develop an automatic system for sugarcane in-vitro propagation. He is also involved in the project: iMapPESTS – Modernising sugarcane diagnostics.

• phone (07) 3331 3373
• location Indooroopilly

Mr Willian Archila

Bachelor Degree in Industrial Engineering; Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Management; Master in Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Management (Present)

Willian has over 15 years of experience in operational and strategic HSE functions, with senior experience in complex manufacturing, mining and mineral processing businesses.

As the HSE manager, he is responsible for partnering with operational teams and other functional stakeholders to continuously design and implement programs that improve SRA’s HSE culture and performance.

His approach to HSE combines: the development of co-design solutions that are practical and effective in preventing incidents; a disciplined project management approach and recognised change management skills; and a continuous improvement approach, developed through previous work and tertiary qualifications in Industrial Engineering.

• location Indooroopilly
• phone (07) 3331 3335

Mr Calli Silva

Calli is originally from Singapore and was transferred to Australia to establish the Australian operations of a UK based foreign bank. Calli is an experienced executive leader with extensive experiences from the financial services industry. This experience has seen Calli having dealt with various regulators in Australia (APRA, AUSTRAC, ASIC, OIAC).

Calli has worked on regulatory projects collaborating with all stakeholders of the organisation to achieve business and financial objectives. Demonstrated experiences include in promoting organisational wide strong risk, compliance and governance practices, with cross industry experience in strengthening and embedding robust three lines of defence risk models and recognised for raising an organisation’s risk and compliance cultures to maturity level.

Mr Ben Simpson

Bachelor of Business (Economics), Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology), Post Graduate Diploma of Psychology

Ben Simpson is responsible for performance monitoring and impact evaluation of SRA’s RD&A investments. Through his work Ben aims to drive performance, learning and continuous improvement within SRA.

Prior to his appointment with SRA, Ben led mental health services, and research, evaluation and innovation for a large not-for-profit organisation. During this time, Ben was involved in organisational development, impact evaluation, strategic and business planning, process design and project management.

• location Brisbane
• phone (07) 3331 3366

Jeff Loro

Jeff’s extensive background in the Agricultural, FMCG  and Mining industries – combined with his experience in collaborating with regional and corporate employees – position him as a valuable addition to our HR Team. His extensive experience within Human Resources spans Leadership Development, Talent & Succession Management, Industrial Relations and HR Systems.

Jeff has a firsthand experience and understanding of our industry from growing up in the Burdekin –where his extended family were sugarcane farmers in the region.