Ben Ryan

Committee Chair Ben Ryan is a born leader, striving to be at the forefront of sheep industry development. Together with his parents Robert and Ann and his wife Julianne, Ben runs a prime lamb and beef enterprise at Delamere, managing about 2000 ewes as a self-replacing flock, and 220 breeding cows. He has been an active member of the SA Lamb Development Team since its inception and has held leadership roles. Other achievements include working with industry to develop greater cooperation and understanding across sectors through roles in the SA Meat Alliance, and the Fleurieu Lamb Group.

Neville Quist

Neville Quist’s aim to add value to Australian wool has led to work on an international scale. In 1973, he established the fashion company Saville Row Pty Ltd, of which he is now Managing Director. Neville was nominated as Australia’s leading men’s-wear designer for five consecutive years. While working in Japan in the early 1990s, Neville developed knitting technology to produce superfine wool knitwear at commercial prices. This prompted a shift in the company’s knitting operations to China, using Australian wool spun in Italy. Neville has also left his mark on the knitwear, naming the label ‘Quist’. A unique marketing plan has been adopted for the label – Neville has built a swing-tag story line that traces the origin of the wool and the history of the region. He has been marketing product in the UK and Europe since 1995 and will be expanding the ‘Quist’ label through UK in 2006.

Lynton Arney

Strathalbyn stud owner Lynton Arney has achieved significant on-farm results in the past few years. His 500-hectare farm is concentrated on a Border Leicester Stud, which includes some East Friesians to increase maternal performance, and is now producing more than 300 rams annually. Lynton has used LAMBPLAN for genetic analysis since 1990, and was selected for the inaugural LAMBPLAN Advisory Committee and Australian Sheep Genetic Database committee. He was also a founding member of $uperBorder$, and was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 2001 to study Seedstock Production Systems with a focus on several animal breeding organisations.

Brian Bartsch

PIRSA Livestock Industries Group Manager Brian Bartsch has been in his position for the past five years. His key role is to lead the Livestock Industries Group and oversee livestock industries development programs operating within the team. Brian is a member of three Industry Development Boards relevant to livestock and has recently joined the South East Natural Resource Management Board to represent the interests of PIRSA in sustainable development in the region.

Simon Guerin

A professional woolclasser, Simon Guerin has a degree of Agriculture Science from Adelaide University, and manages a 12,655-hectare mixed farm on Eyre Peninsula. The property includes one of only four pastoral leases in the region. Simon worked for PIRSA for seven years in a farm business management role, and was involved in the property management planning team from its inception. He has since been involved with numerous other projects in a mentoring and management capacity. Simon is on the look @ Wool and Grain & Graze project advisory panels, as well as the Wool and Fibre Industry Development Board.

Sue Wheal

Producer Sue Wheal’s involvement in various family business enterprises has been helped by her in-depth industry knowledge. Sue directs Limestone Lamb Pty Ltd – a company that markets branded lamb into Adelaide, Sydney and the South East, and has studied staff management with Marks and Spencer in the UK. She is a member of the Meat Industry Development Board of South Australia, and the SA Lamb Development Team. Together with her husband Guy, Sue farms 1690 hectares in the Limestone Coast, producing prime lambs, wool, cattle, cropping, and farm forestry.

Michael McBride

Michael McBride has had a long involvement with the State’s pastoral areas, reflecting his roles as chair of the South Australian Pastoral Board and a pastoral farmer. On his Burra property, Michael runs a South African Meat Merino stud and farms one third of his Merino flock as a meat sheep enterprise. He also uses electronic identification for the ewe flocks to facilitate performance records. Because of the larger distances involved with operating a pastoral property, Michael has implemented innovative techniques to reduce labour time and vehicle costs for monitoring remote water pumps and tanks, and patented a UHF device in the mid 1990s.

Steven Read

Elders Wool General Manager Steven Read is passionate about increasing the efficiency of the global wool supply chain. His role takes him around the world to explore new possibilities for Australian wool, as well as managing Elders’ wool broking, wool buying, wool processing and wool trading entities. Starting out as a jackaroo in the Riverina, Steven has been involved in the wool industry over the past 20 years, and holds positions including the Director of Sheep CRC, board member of AWTA, and President of the Australian Council of Wool Exporters.

Michael Blake

With years of international marketing experience, Michael Blake is right at home as Marketing Manager - Wool at BWK Elders, the company’s exporting arm. Michael has a 20-year background in the wool top-making arena, encompassing wool buying, manufacturing and marketing throughout Europe. He grew up on an expansive sheep station in Argentina, and has a US degree in Sheep and Wool Science. His has worked in various areas of the wool industry in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, US, France, Italy and China.