WoolProducers Australia has backed up Australian Wool Innovation's recommended board candidates ahead of this year's director elections while saying there's enough production experience among the existing members.
WoolProducers are supporting the recommendation of the Board Nomination Committee for incumbents Jock Laurie and Don Macdonald and new candidates Georgia Hack and Steven Read, and have also asked registered shareholders to consider Michael Field.
WoolProducers president Ed Storey said there was considerable grower knowledge on the board already and that making sure there was experience regarding other parts of the supply chain was vital.
"David Webster's been a woolgrower, Don Macdonald is a woolgrower, Jock Laurie's a woolgrower, Michelle Humphries is a woolgrower, James Morgan is a woolgrower," he said.
"Diverse skills are always welcome on a board and we feel that a number of the candidates have characteristics that represent that well.
"Steven Read, as the CEO of Michells, has an excellent knowledge of early stage processing, they've got some processing interests in China so he understands that supply chain well... they're skills that should he be elected would be very welcome and would be able to add real value to the wool industry in Australia from a R & D perspective.
"Jock Laurie has a wide, diverse business interests and lots of experience in a range of areas.
"Don Macdonald in addition to being a grower is a broker so he's got keen understanding of the requirements of exporters, understanding of how the wool selling process works and brings a lot of those skills to the table.
"Michael Field is a significant grower in this country, he is someone who has provided considerable assistance to a range of industry programs over the years... in addition to that he quite often direct markets some of his wool to Europe.
"And Georgia Hack has strong marketing experience."
Mr Storey said the other two candidates, Chick Olsson and Sydney Lawrie, had also made considerable contributions to the wool industry.
"All seven are pretty strong candidates, to be perfectly frank," he said.
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Mr Storey said in determining their recommendation WoolProducers undertook a rigorous process of seeking the views of each of the seven candidates on a range of issues.
"We were very pleased to see the candidate responses and we believe our industry is fortunate to have such a diverse field of quality candidates that have put themselves forward for election," he said.
"WoolProducers believes that all of these recommended candidates offer different perspectives and skills that will help position the industry into the future".
"In a post-pandemic world, we need to have an agile and responsive board to take our industry forward, not get bogged down in history and domestic politics whilst also operating in an accountable and transparent manner."
WoolProducers is also urging voters not to leave proxies undirected.
AWI has indicated that any undirected proxies will be used to vote for the election of Jock Laurie, Don Macdonald and Georgia Hack.
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