EXPERIENCED Australian company executive Simon Westaway has been appointed as the new chief executive officer of the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council.
Mr Westaway will join ALEC from Melbourne-based corporate advisory firm Hintons and Associates, with previous experience with BHB Billiton, Orica, Tourism Australia, Jetstar Airways and Medibank Private.
ALEC chairman Simon Crean said Mr Westaway had proven abilities as a senior executive in corporate affairs and strategy in the resources and mining, aviation, tourism and transport, health and government sectors.
“He is very well placed to make a significant contribution to the livestock export industry,” Mr Crean said.
He fills the vancancy created by the departure of Alison Penfold, whose four-and-a-half year tenure with ALEC finished last week.
“Alison leaves our organisation in much stronger shape to meet the significant opportunities and challenges facing our industry,” Mr Crean said.
“Alison has overseen fundamental changes in the way the livestock export business operates. We thank her for her legacy and she goes with our best wishes for the future.”
Mr Crean said Mr Westaway’s appointment came at a crucial time for the industry.
Most recently the live trade has been forced to deal with animal cruelty breaches in Vietnam.
“The live trade continues to be the subject of close scrutinity and questions continue to be asked about our commitment to transparency and improvement in animal welfare,” Mr Crean said.
“While we are very proud of Australia’s role in a sophisticated and professional global livestock supply chain, we acknowledge the system is not perfect. That’s why we are determined to be transparent in addressing the concerns of all stakeholders, finding common ground in solutions which support an ethical and economically viable live trade.”
Mr Crean said ALEC would continue to support and implement changes across the livestock export industry to better address community concerns about the welfare of livestock in the supply chain.
“ALEC has a crucial role to play in improving levels of engagement, transparency and accountability through projects such as the development of animal welfare indicators and improvements to the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS), especially via the Livestock Global Assurance Program (LGAP),” Mr Crean said.
“With this in mind, I am excited to be welcoming Mr Westaway to ALEC and look forward to working with him in progressing the interests of our industry as part of the ongoing mainstream policy discussion.”
Until Mr Westaway takes up his role with ALEC, the ALEC board has appointed Dr Peter Barnard as interim CEO. Dr Barnard is well known as a former general manager of Meat and Livestock Australia and has had a close association with the live trade for many years.