NSW farmer, glass ceiling breaker, and National Farmers' Federation president for six years, Fiona Simson, is the latest farm sector identity to win Rabobank's trans-Tasman leadership award.
Ms Simson, the first female leader to hold the NFF president's job, and prior that, the first woman to lead NSW Farmers, has been recognised for her advocacy efforts on behalf of Australia's agricultural sector.
Ms Simson is also the first woman to win Rabobank's top leadership award.
She became the first female leader in the NFF's 40-year history in 2016 after a stint in local government and heading NSW's peak farmer body from 2011 to 2015.
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The executive director of Landpro has been recognised as "outstanding up-and-coming industry talent".
Two new awards, honouring outstanding rural community initiatives in both countries - the Rabobank Community Leadership Awards - were also announced on Thursday.
Albury-based Boys to the Bush, a not-for-profit community organisation providing preventative and early intervention strategies for disengaged young males, and to NZ's Growing Future Farmers, a national training and development program providing career pathways for future farmers were the inaugural winners.
Rabobank Leadership Awards have been recognising the contribution of leaders from across Australia and NZ food and agribusiness sector since 1999.
The big leadership announcement went into a three-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, but returned with gusto this year at the Sydney Harbour Farm2Fork summit attended by about 1600 farmers, agribusiness leaders and others in the industry from across Australia and overseas.
Fiona is a powerful advocate and passionate rural and regional leader who has been a trailblazer.
- Peter Knoblanche, Rabobank
Rabobank regional manager Australia and New Zealand Peter Knoblanche paid tribute to Ms Simson's leadership role at NFF as "making one of the most fundamentally important contributions to leadership in the food and agribusiness sector".
As NFF president she played an instrumental role in the future growth and prosperity of Australia's agricultural sector.
"She is passionate about the power of a unified voice for agriculture and the role agriculture advocacy plays in a strong and vibrant future for regional Australia," he said.
"Fiona is a powerful advocate and passionate rural and regional leader who has been a trailblazer ... for the sector and for NFF."
These included the National Agricultural Leadership Program, the Young Farmers Council, the Australia-China Agricultural Youth Program and the Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program."
Ms Simson had driven NFF's Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program, which promotes talented women in agriculture and agribusiness.
Now in its sixth year, its 52 graduates have gone on to pursue high profile and impactful leadership positions and to be change-makers within their community.
On the road
Unable to attend the Rabobank event in person because she was in Europe meeting with farmers in the countdown to Australia's free trade deal with the European Union being resolved, Ms Simson's son, Tom, accepted the award on Ms Simson's behalf in Sydney.
In making their award decision, the independent judging panel of former award winners noted Ms Simson's was also an architect for the industry's 2030 Roadmap to reach $100 billion in farmgate output by 2030.
Ms Simson, from Premer on the Liverpool Plains, is also vice president of the NRMA, she chairs the recently established Future Food Systems Co-operative Research Centre and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, and has directorships on several other community-good organisations.
Back on the farm the Simson family runs Poll Hereford cattle and grows grain crops.
Rabobank's Leadership Award is presented to individuals who create sustainable growth and prosperity in the food and agribusiness sector and demonstrate wider commitments to society.
Previous recipients include Australian and NZ corporate agribusiness leaders Volker Kuntzsch, David Crombie, Sir Graeme Harrison, John Watson, Max Ould, John McLean, Nick Burton-Taylor, Robert Hill-Smith, Barry Irvin, as well as food scientists Dr Bruce Lee and Dr Jim Peacock, and farm industry representatives Mick Keogh and Jim Geltch.
Community award
Mr Knoblanche said the bank was pleased to mark the return of the Rabobank Leadership Awards by introducing its Community Leadership Award, with the Boys to the Bush program a fitting inaugural recipient.
"The Boys to the Bush program is an outstanding initiative, providing tangible, meaningful benefit to the rural community," he said.
The grassroots, non-profit program, offers preventive interventions for regional NSW and north east Victorian males aged between nine and 22.
It was established by three NSW high school teachers who had "watched too many boys from disadvantaged backgrounds slipping through society's cracks".
The program works closely with local businesses and grower groups to organise group and individual 'MENtor' youth visits, working bees and guided work experience to assist young men join the workforce and contribute to their local economy.
A $25,000 grant will be gifted to Boys to the Bush.
The organisation plans to invest the funds in a barbeque trailer, so it can participate in more rural and regional community events, and direct money to a new initiative - a bush camp for deaf or hearing-impaired youth.
Mr Knoblanche said the new award category would highlight community initiatives aligning with key themes at the centre of work being undertaken by the Rabo Client Councils and the Rabo Community Fund, launched in 2021 to invest in rural community sustainability.
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Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
