A ROBOTICS and software engineer looks likely to be the next chief executive of Grain Growers Ltd (GrainGrowers).
Alicia Garden has been acting in the role since Mark Allison stepped down to become Elders chief executive a month ago.
Mrs Garden, the former general manager – grower products and services, attended her first board meeting as acting chief executive last week.
She said she would act in the role until at least July and hoped to make the arrangement permanent.
The businesswoman and mother, 33, was “acquired” by GrainGrowers when the then chiefly NSW-based not-for-profit industry body bought her family’s business, Agrecon, in 2009.
Agrecon – the grain forecasting specialist – was run as an independent company until 2011 when Grain-Growers integrated the companies and BRI.
“I was brought to Sydney as the business manager to assist in the integration and long-term strategic company planning as positioning of grower focused products,” she said.
Based in Canberra, Agrecon was founded by Mrs Garden’s father, hydrologist Brian Button.
During her studies Mrs Garden was a receptionist in the business and became IT manager when she graduated from degrees in mechatronics engineering with a specialty in robotics, and software engineering, at Australian National University in 2001.
“Together with my father and Nufarm we developed our first commercially successful online system, Spraywise Decisions,” she said.
Spraywise helps farmers track and evaluate the best time to spray.
With a nine-month-old daughter, Neve, Mrs Garden is acutely aware of work-life balance, particularly given her commute between her Canberra office base and the head office at North Ryde in Sydney.
“My husband, Ben, is a sound engineer and musician, so we are fortunate his working arrangements are flexible and between us we are able to care for our daughter, and we have a good support network with help from our parents,” Mrs Garden said.
The industry body has been shifting focus over the past five years to become a national mouthpiece for growers and a pioneer of technology.
“GrainGrowers is trying to extend relevant decision tools to growers,” she said.
Mrs Garden said her technical background helped her understand the development of products and taking a commercial product to market, such as GrainVantage, which measures protein, moisture and oil content in whole grains and oil seeds.
She deflected potential criticism she needs more grower knowledge.
“Historically GrainGrowers CEOs are always from an agribusiness background,” she said.
“We have an elected board of mostly growers which is where we get that input from the industry.”
Mrs Garden said the organisation was keen to engage its 19,500 members.
“GrainGrowers is an approachable organisation that tries very hard to be a family internally and we treat our membership as part of that family,” she said.
“It’s taken four years but Mark (Allison who remains on the board as a non-executive director) did an excellent job of building the structure internally. The culture is positive.”
Mrs Garden said GrainGrowers was interested in “anything that directly impacts on profit” such as the recent Grain Trade Australia debate over testing weight.
“We brought most traders to the table and managed to get incremental increases over two seasons to 76 kilograms a hectolitre, which is a more managed outcome rather than taking a hit this year,” she said.
“We take an evidence-based and consultative approach, not an internal perspective.
“I’m passionate about dealing with the profitability, not the productivity of the growers; the bottom line.
“It’s all about farming smarter.”
