Master of Ceremonies –
Thomas Murrell
As an international business speaker, Tom Murrell has been recognised by his peers as a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) – one of only 464 people worldwide. He is internationally recognised as a media and marketing expert and has written 3 books - “Media Fundamentals; 8M’s Essential Media Kit”,“ How to Turn Your Big Marketing Idea into a Competitive Advantage” and “Web Marketing Essentials”. A former TV and radio personality, Tom is an inspiring, engaging and authentic keynote speaker with a passion for helping others harness their full potential.

Dr Nigel Brown
Dr Nigel Brown, from his first faltering footsteps to look at the goats chewing his father’s black-currant bushes in England, through large animal veterinary practice, overseas aid projects, two horse-back research expeditions in Mongolia, and now working for MLA/LiveCorp in the Middle East, is great-grandson of a vet who has worked with a wide variety of animals in conditions far from ordinary.
His experience with animals and water, issues at the heart of our livestock trade, is not restricted to playing with ducks in his bath. Other hazardous cases include being asked to resurrect an ex-goldfish for a very young client and inspecting a killer whale being transported from USA to Holland. When smugglers brought livestock across to Yemen from Africa at night he was the vet who inspected them for foot-and-mouth disease and Rinderpest, diagnosing both at the same time!
After qualifying as a vet from Liverpool, UK, Nigel worked in general UK veterinary practice before being awarded a Scholarship at the Tropical Centre in Edinburgh University for his Masters. Then came North Yemen in 1979 and the start of his love affair with the Middle East with special interests in animal husbandry, welfare and support for developing countries. Several years, and a few diseases later, Nigel was invited by London Zoo to return to Saudi for captive breeding of rare gazelles and oryx for release back into the wild. He also developed a mobile wildlife clinic to clean oiled birds after the first Gulf War with the UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals RSPCA.
Following two horseback expeditions in Mongolia and investigating camel production in Ethiopia, Nigel took another wild posting in Bombala, NSW, during the height of its drought!
He joined the MLA/LiveCorp joint-project in livestock exports in 2002 and will present some pertinent observations about this trade at the Conference.

Akira Isogawa
Akira Isogawa is one of Australia’s most celebrated designers. He has achieved international recognition for his exquisite contemporary designs, which are sought after in every major fashion capital throughout the world. Since 1998, Akira has shown his collections in Paris, where he presents Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter collections to international buyers each year. Akira continues to maintain a strong presence in Sydney, where he has shown collections at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week every year since 1996. In 1999, Akira was named Designer of the Year and Womenswear Designer of the Year at the Australian Fashion Industry Awards. In 2005 he was honoured by Australia Post and named an Australian Legend - his image appearing on a commemorative postage stamp. Born in Kyoto Japan, Akira moved to Australia in 1986 where he studied fashion design at the National Art School, drawing inspiration from contemporary Japanese design. Today, Akira’s designs are stocked by Barney’s Japan, where he makes appearances each year to accompany his latest collection. His work has been warmly received by fashion critics, drawing favourable reviews from leading figures such as Anna Piaggi and media including The New York Times and US Vogue. Akira’s designs are available globally, including Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, L’Eclaireur in Paris, Biffiin Milan and Browns of London.

John Mitchell
Former New Zealand All Blacks captain, John Mitchell, is now Western Force Super 14 head coach, based in Perth. Over the course of his outstanding global rugby career John has held the positions of Assistant Coach of the England rugby team and Head of the Waikato Chiefs in New Zealand for the Super 12 competition. In 2002 he became coach of the All Blacks, an appointment that concluded in 2003 following the World Cup. John is one of only three New Zealanders to have played for, captained and coached the All Blacks.

Dexter Kennedy
Dexter Richard Kennedy is a native of Ridgeway, South Carolina USA. Dexter received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. He’s a twenty five (25) year veteran in the textile industry. He began his textile career with Milliken and Company, the largest privately owned textile group in the United States producing fabrics for the automobile upholstery, industrial napery/drapery and apparel businesses. After a decade with Milliken, Dexter joined Sara Lee Knit Products, the textile division of the Sara Lee Corporation. With SLKP, Dexter help developed the women’s underwear brand of Hanes HerWay as well managing operations that produced Hanes Apparel and Champion Sportswear Apparel. In 1997, Dexter joined Texmaco Group, the largest textile/engineering group in Indonesia, where he is currently the chief executive officer for the Performance Fabric Business catering to major outdoor, sportswear and technical apparel brands around the globe.

Michael Lempriere
Michael Lempriere is President of the International Wool Textile Organisation, and Chairman of Lempriere (Australia) Pty Ltd.

Laurence Modiano
Laurence Modiano’s family company, G. Modiano Ltd., was founded in 1956 by his father, Jo Modiano, whose own father was a wool agent in Istanbul. Laurence Modiano is therefore the family’s third generation in the wool trade. The initial ‘G’ in the company name stands for Giuseppe, which means Joseph in Italian. Laurence grew up in London and spent his pre-university year (1984) as a trainee in their New Zealand office. After taking a degree in Modern Languages at the University of Durham he entered the London company on a full-time basis in 1989. He moved to Biella in 1992, in order to take charge of their Italian sales office, returning to London in 1995 as Sales Director for the Group. That same year the Modiano company purchased a majority share in a Czech combing mill (Nejdek Wool Combing), now owned outright, which they have completely modernized. It is overseen by his brother Michael. Capacity runs at almost 20,000 tons per year and in 2005 they added a superwash line.

Prof Christopher Findlay

Melissa Fletcher-Toovey
Melissa Fletcher-Toovey is the General Manager of Fletcher International (Western Australia). Fletcher International is a major sheep/lamb meat exporting business in Narrikup, Western Australia which now employs 470 people.

Chris Taylor
“The essence of good cooking is great local produce”
Chris Taylor has consistently supported the philosophy of using local produce and “letting the product speak for itself”.
He has committed himself to promoting the use of Western Australian produce overseas, locally, at Fraser’s Restaurant Kings Park, Bluewater Grill, Applecross and now through an association with Cable Beach Club Broome at the Club Restaurant also.
Chris continues to travel extensively nationally and internationally educating chefs and providores of the quality of produce available from Western Australia.
The WA Tourism Commission and the West Australian Government frequently employ Chris to promote the very best that WA has to offer through cooking classes, high profile dinners and gala events.

Rick Goodrich
Rick Goodrich is the current chairman of the Traprock Woolgrower Association (South East Queensland) and runs a large scale cattle and farming business in Northern New South Wales. He commenced full-time professional wool growing in 1993 following a professional sailing career that saw him compete in the 1987 Americas Cup in Fremantle and join Iain Murray’s Spirit of Australia challenge. Rick and his brother started the Primerino Group in early 2003 and successfully marketed the first bale of wool in history to break the elusive 12 micron barrier.

Cathy McGowan
A rural consultant, farmer and academic, Cathy McGowan is Principal of Catherine McGowan Consulting. Her experience includes researching effective services for rural communities, such as child care and the design of leadership and change management programs for agricultural industries. Cathy’s motto is “bloom where you are planted” and her vision for rural Australia is for vibrant and caring communities that are alive with opportunities. In the past, Cathy has been on a government advisory committee on the World Trade Organisation and President of Australian Women in Agriculture.

Cameron McMaster
Cameron McMaster was Breed director for the Dohne Merino Breed Society in South Africa from 1970 to 2000. Since its introduction to Australia and other countries, he has acted as consultant to the Australian Dohne Breeders Association. He is currently in private practice as a Sheep and Wool Consultant in South Africa. He has participated in numerous International Sheep Conferences, including the World Merino Conferences of 1990 and 1994.

Dr Jon Hickford
Jon Hickford has worked at Lincoln University since early 1989, teaching science and agriculture degree programmes. He is actively involved in the community in discussions on science, gene technology, agriculture and sheep breeding, and undertakes research in molecular genetics with emphasis on using gene marker technology to breed healthier livestock. His main research interest is in the molecular genetics of livestock including sheep, goats and cattle. He directs the operation of the Footrot Gene-Marker Test which was developed from some of their footrot research over the period 1989 to 1999. Jon Hickford has devoted considerable effort over the years to the development of educational resources in biotechnology, molecular biology and ethics for secondary school students.

Professor Philip Moore
Professor Moore has studied cell and matrix interactions in skin for 25 years. His research has included studies at the Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire, Paris, Medical Nobel Institute, Karolinska Inst., Stockholm and the Finsen Inst., Copenhagen, supported by the Ford Foundation, EMBO and Wellcome Trusts. Phil was a Queen Elizabeth Fellow at the ANU, then joined Macquarie University. At CSIRO, Animal Production, he became a Senior Principal Research Scientist. Phil was an AAS-Weizmann Fellow at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot and on the editorial board of Anticancer Research. His most recent appointment is as Professor at the School of Science, UWS, including a stint as Director of the Skin Technologies Research Centre (2002-5). The position involves teaching in postgraduate programs and is dedicated to research. He has published work on mechanisms of pattern and morphogenesis in skin, growth factors and inductive tissue interactions and gene therapy using cultured skin, and approximately 100 refereed publications.

Dr John Hewson
Dr John Hewson is Dean of Macquarie Graduate School of Management and Professor of Management. He is an economic and financial expert with experience in academia, business, government, media and the financial system. Formerly, he followed a political career including seven years as a ministerial advisor and a further eight years as the Member for Wentworth in the Federal Parliament. He was Shadow Finance Minister, Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Industry and Commerce as well as Leader of the Liberal Party and the Federal Coalition in Opposition for four years. Dr Hewson is a Director of a number of public and private companies and writes a weekly opinion column for the Australian Financial Review.

Dr Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery is currently Director of the South Australian Museum and was formerly Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University. He has made contributions of international significance to the fields of palaeontology, mammalogy and conservation and to the understanding of science in the broader community. He is the author of the best selling “The Future Eaters” which examines evolution of Australasian environments. He has promoted international conservation issues within Papua New Guinea and has received international acclaim for his work from both peers and professionals.

Michael Hussey
England supporters can't understand why Australia took so long to recognise Michael Hussey's Test claims. Bradmanesque in county cricket, Hussey was a less prolific and sturdier model in Australia and seemed likely to remain an unfulfilled international until the Langer-Hayden-Ponting triumvirate cracked after four years. A fractured rib to Justin Langer gave Hussey his break following 15,313 first-class runs, a record for an Australian before wearing baggy green, and during a barely believable Test introduction he accepted the apt nickname of Mr Cricket. He also owns the mark for the fastest player to 1000 Test runs after taking only 166 days to rub out the achievement of England's Andrew Strauss.
Like Justin Langer and Graeme Wood, his predecessors as left-handed Western Australian openers, Hussey is scrupulous at practice and has a tidy, compact style. Skilled off front foot and back, he is attractive to watch once set, which occurred regularly at Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Durham, where he has not simply got set but set about rewriting century-old record-books. Only the third man after Wally Hammond and Graeme Hick to amass three Championship triple-hundreds, he averaged 79 in the 2001 winter, 72 in 2002, 89 in 2003, 36 in 2004 and 76 in 2005. All the while he maintained an equally consistent but less enviable Pura Cup mark - 30 in 2000-01, 35 in 2001-02, 34 in 2002-03, 41 in 2003-04 and 55 in 2004-05.
Reinventing himself in one-day cricket as an agile fieldsman and innovative middle-order bat with cool head and loose wrists, Hussey underlined his credentials when picked in the limited-overs squad to tour New Zealand in 2005, and achieved more Bradmanesque figures when it took 29 matches for his average to drop below 100. After 11 years of first-class service his opening morning on the Test scene was a disappointment, ending with an extravagant attempted pull and a single, but he relaxed for his second match and made a deserving and attractive century.
Three more hundreds have followed, including a memorable 122 in the second Test against South Africa when he put on 107 for the last wicket with Glenn McGrath, and he currently averages in the 70s in Tests and ODIs. His calm outlook, strong team qualities and ability to perform outstandingly in most situations have already sparked debate about future leadership possibilities.
Michael Hussey is the vice Captain of the Retravision Western Warriors in his home state where he lives with his wife and two children. Michael is one of WA's most prolific run scorers in both Pura Cup and domestic one-day cricket. He took home the Fosters Australia Gold Cup for the first time as Western Australian cricketer of the year in 2006.

Charles Massy
Charles Massy formed the ‘Severn Park’ Merino stud near Cooma, NSW in 1976. He is the author of the book ‘The Australian Merino’ and numerous other articles on the Merino and the wool industry, and served on the Boards of AWRAP and the IWS from 1993-95. He has had extensive involvement in Australian and international wool processing and marketing since 1990. He is currently completing a major book on the history of the Australian wool industry, to be published by Random House in late 2006.

Ian McLachlan AO

Dr Len Stephens, CEO Chief Executive Officer

Len Stephens was appointed as CEO in April 2003, with the responsibility to lead the company in the delivery and commercialisation of its research, development and innovation on behalf of woolgrowers. Len has an extensive background in rural research and development and came to AWI after five years as General Manager for Livestock Production Innovation at Meat and Livestock Australia. Previously he held senior positions with the then Meat Research Corporation and Agriculture Victoria, including as foundation Director of the Victorian Institute of Animal Science. Len holds Australian tertiary qualifications in both Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences and was awarded Master of Science and Doctorate of Philosophy degrees from the University of Guelph, Canada.

Mark Rodda, National Wool Manager, Elders
Raised on a wheat/sheep property in South Australia, Mark began work with Elders in 1996. Wool business development, direct wool marketing and state management roles provided the basis for his current position as the National Wool Manager for Elders, and also Managing the company's derivatives trading business - Elders Risk Management.
Career highlights include establishing the Elders Global Wool Auctions in China for Australian, New Zealand, Uruguayn and South African wools, introducing competition to the exchange of ownership at wool auctions in Australia, integrating the Elders broking, handling, trading and processing businesses and guiding over 120 Australian wool producers through the rapidly developing Chinese textile industry. Mark is a board member of Australian Wool Handlers, the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers, the South Australian Wool Training and Advisory Group, Sheep CRC, AWI Project Advisory Panel and the Agribusiness Association of Australia.
Mark's formal education include a Degree in Agricultural Business, SFE derivatives trading license and a Masters Degree in Innovation and; Service Management.

Dr Mark Dolling
Dr Dolling is the Director for Animal Industries Development in the Western Australian Department of Agriculture. The role covers the strategic analysis of the Departments investment in animal industries including Beef, Dairy, Pig and Sheep meats and Wool. Prior to appointment to this role Mark has been the Program Manager for Sheep Industries and Pasture and prior to that the Program Manager for Wool industry development. Mark moved to Western Australia in Feb 2000 leaving the consulting business, Wool Elite Fibres and Textiles (WEFT) that he had established and operated for two years in Melbourne. Mark has worked on a range of privately funded research projects ranging from Alternative industrial methods of Cleaning of Wool, investigation of the role of Fibre Curvature in Spinning, and Painless alternatives to the Mules operation using cryogenics and radiotherapy. Prior to 1996 Mark worked for 11 years with Agriculture Victoria where he established the Fibre Quality Department at the Victorian Institute of Animal Science and undertook research on the role of fibre diameter variability and its impact next to skin comfort in collaboration with CSIRO.

Professor Phil Hynd
Professor Phil Hynd graduated with first class honours in Rural Science from University of New England. He completed a PhD in animal nutrition and physiology at Adelaide University and was the inaugural Davies Postdoctoral Fellow at Adelaide University in Beef Cattle Nutrition. Prof. Hynd was appointed Lecturer in Animal Nutrition at Adelaide University in 1984 and appointed Professor of Animal Science in 1997 and Director of the Roseworthy Campus in 2004. He is currently the Wool SubProgram Leader for the $50million National SheepGenomics Program. Research interests are in wool and skin science at all levels from fundamental cellular and molecular function to application of value to the sheep industry. His current interests are in finding an alternative to shearing, alternatives to mulesing, and epigenetic manipulation of the pregnant ewe to dramatically improve the fleece of her progeny.

Dr Peter Howe
BVSc(Hons) PhD MACVSc
Dr Peter Howe is a practicing veterinarian and research scientist. His research over the past 20 years has been focused on gene expression , aberrations of gene expression and birth defects. He is a research associate in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology , Faculty of Medicine , The University of Sydney. Dr Howe has used the merino as a model for his gene expression experiments. As a result he has developed great insights into the reasons for the failure of phenotypically sound rams to, at times, transmit their genetic traits to their progeny, particularly when assisted reproduction programs are used. This work is of profound importance in an industry whose survival depends on producing the quality fleeces that the end-user spinners and weavers demand.

Dr David Pethick
David Pethick has worked in the farm animal industries for the past 24 years after training in Agricultural Science at Adelaide University and gaining a doctorate from Cambridge University in the UK. He has worked as a university academic, researcher, teacher, and industry practitioner. Focusing on nutritional biochemistry of muscle and fat in sheep and cattle, some of his major work has involved investigations of exercise in sheep, consumer determined eating quality of beef and sheep meats and pregnancy toxaemia in sheep. He was awarded the International Meat Science Secretariat Millennium prize in 2000.

Julia Clarke
Julia Clarke is a wool producer with her husband James, in the pastoral areas of South Australia. She has also been a Committee member of the South Australian Wool Industry Development Board and an executive member of the Southern Rangelands Strategic Plan Board. Julia and her husband are active members of the Carrieton Bestprac Group. Julia holds a BA in journalism (Uni. SA).

Cameron White
Cameron White is the Studmaster of the Nepowie Poll Merino Stud, with annual ram sales of 500 - 600 rams. Joining around 10,000 Commercial Merino ewes with 2000 – 3000 Wether lambs going through the Prime Merino Lamb Alliance. They run 25,000 head of sheep, joining 13,000 ewes. Cameron is the inaugural member of PMLA and has been working on developing a profitable Merino feedlot system for the past 7 years. Cameron is married with 3 children, and has been farming in a family partnership at Nepoiwe for 25 years.

Mick Quinlivan