Agri-food specialist Jacqueline Wilson-Smith has been elected to MLA board.

MEAT and Livestock Australia members elected two directors to the MLA board last week.

During the AGM on 25 November, MLA members also elected a cattle producer representatives to the board selection committee.

Research scientist Manny Noakes received 95.57 percent of votes in favour of her re-election.

Professor Noakes is a research scientist in nutrition and health with over 30 years of R&D and nutrition communication experience. She has extensive knowledge in many fields of nutrition and health including the food regulatory system and functional food substantiation, and an in-depth knowledge of the role of red meat in human nutrition, MLA said.

Agri-food specialist Jacqueline Wilson-Smith received 95.95pc of votes in favour of her election to the MLA board. Jacqueline is an independent, agri-food specialist NED with extensive strategic marketing and export development experience. She brings design-led innovation, sustainability, consumer insight, creative marketing of products, global network capital, and an international perspective to the board room table, MLA said.

MLA members also voted on the election of one cattle producer representatives to the MLA Board Selection Committee.

The results were:

Julie McDonald elected as the cattle producer representative with 90.93pc of votes in favour.

Julie is the current CFO of MDH Pty Ltd and has been involved in the QLD northern beef industry for about 20 years. She has a working knowledge of the grass and grain fed markets, breeding, backgrounding and grain fed production systems, and has had exposure to the boxed beef market for about eight years, MLA said.

The role of the selection committee is to call for applications, review, interview and then report to members on the suitability of candidates for election to the MLA Board.

Extended biographies:

Manny Noakes

Qualifications: BSc, Dip Nut & Diet, PhD, GAICD

Professor Noakes is a research scientist in nutrition and health with over 30 years of R&D and nutrition communication experience. She has extensive knowledge in many fields of nutrition and health including the food regulatory system and functional food substantiation, and an in-depth knowledge of the role of red meat in human nutrition. She has also published research on diet and sustainability and challenged the environmental agenda from a food and health perspective. Professor Noakes was instrumental in the development of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet which positions red meat as part of a healthy diet for weight control. She was instrumental in the development and release of five editions of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet (TWD) which sold over 1 million copies in Australia and has been further commercialised to a successful online program. Professor Noakes currently runs her own nutrition consultancy and is a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia. Professor Noakes is a director of Meat & Livestock Australia Limited and a member of the Research & Development Investment Committee.

Previous roles:

Professor Noakes was formerly a Senior Principal Research Scientist and Director for the Nutrition and Health Program at CSIRO. In addition, she was also a member of the National Committee for Nutrition for the Australian Academy of Sciences as well as on its Expert Working Group Special Project: Nourishing Australia: A decadal plan for nutrition science.

Jacqueline Wilson-Smith

Qualifications: BCom, GAICD

Jacqueline is an independent, agri-food specialist NED with extensive strategic marketing and export development experience.

She brings design-led innovation, sustainability, consumer insight, creative marketing of products, global network capital, and an international perspective to the board room table. Since 1995, Jacqueline’s held global corporate roles with McCormick, Gourmet Garden, Mondelez, Constellation & the Hardy Wine Company. In 2019, Jacqueline founded the Sustainable Innovation Company, facilitating ideation workshops and strategic planning for Agri-Food clients within a sustainability framework. Clients include Agricultural Shows Australia, Agricultural Society of NSW (Beef Judging APP), Macadamias Australia, Central Highlands Development Corporations (CHDC) and Queensland Department of Agriculture. In addition, Jacqueline is Co-Founder and past immediate Chair of the Food Agribusiness Network (FAN) and a Non-Executive Director or Advisor on several boards and committees including Food Agility CRC, Traveller’s Choice, Agrifutures Ginger Advisory Panel (Chair), Rural Women’s Award & Alumni Committee and ImpaQt Investment Queensland. In 2017, Jacqueline was the Queensland recipient of the AgriFutures Rural Woman’s Award.

Julie McDonald

Julie is the current CFO of MDH Pty Ltd and has been involved in the QLD northern beef industry for approximately 20 years. She has a working knowledge of the grass and grain fed markets, breeding, backgrounding and grain fed production systems and has had exposure to the boxed beef market for approximately 8 years. Julie is a graduate of the AICD course, sits on 2 regional boards, and volunteers in NFP organisations in a governance capacity. She is the producer representative on the management committee for the MLA supported NB2 initiative and is involved with Ag sector mentoring programs. Julie is keen to contribute to the cattle industry at a governance level and believes her skills and experience would enable her to make a valuable contribution to the selection committee.