TROY Setter – formerly chief operating officer at Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) - has joined rival Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) as COO.
AACo will not replace Mr Setter, deciding instead to reallocate the chief operating officer's responsibilities to existing staff in the leadership team.
CPC was bought by Terra Firma in 2009 and is one of Australia’s largest beef producers with approximately 360,000 head of cattle run on 19 properties covering 5.6 million hectares of land - almost 0.75 per cent of Australia’s land mass.
The company also holds a 50pc interest in a joint venture which owns and operates two cattle feedlots in Indonesia and a joint venture partnership in China. China’s demand for beef has trebled in the past 10 years, and in 2012 China became Australia’s fourth largest beef export customer.
Mr Setter said it was a great time to be joining CPC, as "the business is very well positioned and focused on taking advantage of increased global demand for beef".
According to the company's 2012 annual report, CPC exported 16,350 head of live cattle to Indonesia that year, which represented 6pc of the total live beef cattle exports to the country from Australia.
New CPC chief executive Keith Warren (appointed in August 2013), said Mr Setter had successfully led complex projects within the cattle industry.
"Troy’s operational skill will be invaluable as the company develops into an operations driven market-led beef company," Mr Warren said.
Mr Setter has more than two decades of experience in agribusiness, most recently executing a three-year strategic plan to restructure AACo’s operations. This plan covered new markets, assets management, and a genetic herd improvement strategy. He has previously held management positions at North Australian Cattle Pty Ltd, Killara Feedlot Pty Ltd, and Torrens Investments Pte, and began his career at Twynam Agricultural Group.