Cattle Council of Australia announces new board candidates 

The Cattle Council of Australia has announced five out of the six board candidates to be voted on during its annual general meeting on 18 November 2020.  

Directors from AgForce Queensland, Livestock SA, Victoria Farmer’s Federation and WA Farmers are all up for election, as are the Northern and Southern Independent Directors.  

The nominations for five of the six positions have now closed. For the sixth position (AgForce Director), however, nominations have been extended until the first week of November where the selection will be made during the AgForce AGM.  

All candidates are current members of the CCA Board.  

Directors from NSW Farmers, Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association, Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA and the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association are halfway through their two-year terms and will be up for reelection at the 2021 AGM. 

The following are the announced five candidates for the Cattle Council of Australia board: 

Gillian Fennell – Livestock SA Candidate 

Gillian Fennell was born and bred in North West Queensland, before moving to SA almost 17 years ago with her husband and his family.  

The Fennel family own and run a Lambina Station – a million-acre rangelands cattle station in the Far North of SA, where they run a herd of Charbray breeders. 

Fennel has been a representative on Livestock SA for over 4 years and has served on the Board of Cattle Council Australia since August 2019. 

She is a passionate supporter of regional and remote families and was President of the Remote & Isolated Children’s Exercise for more than 8 years. She is also a guest writer for The Gauge – an opinion column in Australian Community Media publications.  

Fennel is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Peter Star – Victoria Farmers’ Federation Candidate 

Peter Star runs a 1000 hectare beef farm in the Upper Murray Region of North East Victoria.  

Star has various extensive roles in the farming industry, including memberships in the National Wild Dog Action Plan Coordination Committee and VFF’s Livestock Council and Land Management Committee.  

He is also a member of the Talgarno Landcare Group and serves as the VFF representative on the CCA Board since 2018.  

Geoff Pearson – Western Australia Farmers’ Federation Candidate 

Geoff Pearson lives in South West of WA and is a third-generation cattle farmer.  

He started his career in the dairy industry, moving into all forms of beef cattle production including large scale breeding and backgrounding, feeding short fed and long fed 70-450 day product supplying domestic and international markets.  

He also operates live export holding facilities/depots supplying product to China, Israel, Indonesia and Vietnam.  

The business also processes up to 25,000 tonnes of grain annually, supplying its own feedlots and the domestic market.   

Pearson is currently on the WA Farmers Federation Livestock Council and Meat Committee Executive and the Live Export Industry Research Advisory Committee.   

Since 2014, he has been a member of Cattle Council Marketing, Market Access and Trade Committee, serving as its Char of Committee since 2017 

Alice Greenup – Independent North Candidate 

Alice Greenup is a graduate of the Company Directors’ Course, Australian Institute of Company Directors. She completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Animal Studies) at the University of Queensland in 1995.   

She worked as an Extension Officer for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries for eight years, educating farmers and beef producers about: breeding and genetics; nutrition; pasture management; beef cattle marketing; supply chains; sustainable soil management; and coordinating large scale education events. 

In 2000, she and her husband, Rick Greenup, started Greenup Pty Ltd. They now operate an extensive EU, grass-fed beef cattle herd of 6000 head in the North and South Burnett regions of Queensland. 

Since 2019, Greenup has been on the CCA’s Integrity Systems & Food Safety and the RMAC Industry Corporate Affairs Unit. She has also served as Director of the AgForce Cattle Board and Beef Australia.  

Olivia Lawson – Independent South Candidate 

Olivia Lawson grew up in South Gippsland, Victoria and completed a degree in Agricultural Science.  

For more than twenty years, she has operated a seed stock and grazing enterprise with her husband Tom in central Victoria.  

Her background includes working in agribusiness, export, finance and marketing. She enjoys working with commercial beef producers on driving profitability through genetic improvement and is passionate about sustainable agriculture and biological grazing systems. 

She is a strong advocate for the Australian beef industry, and capacity building through agricultural education. 

Since November 2018, Lawson has served as Southern Independent Director of the CCA Board. 

She has also been a member of the Animal Health, Welfare and Biosecurity Committee, Environment and Sustainability Committee, and Finance Audit and Risk Committee.