Food Agility CRC has announced its chief executive officer, Richard Norton, has resigned from his position, to be replaced internally by Dr Mick Schaefer and Professor David Lamb, effective from November 1, 2023.
Mr Norton will remain with Food Agility's network of partners in delivering innovative agrifood projects, and will lead a newly formed subsidiary, Food Agility Consultancy (FAC), as managing director.
Prior to his role as Food Agility CEO, Mr Norton has been head of Meat and Livestock Australia and general manager of retail at Elders.
He had been in the top Food Agility CRC post since taking up the reins on February 1, 2021, where, going into the role, a key focus was breaking down barriers around poor connectivity in regional Australia.
Dr Schaefer, chief operating officer, will step into the role of CEO, and Prof Lamb will add deputy CEO to his chief scientist role.
A statement released by the organisation said Dr Schaefer had a strong track record of successfully delivering projects and aligning stakeholders with a common vision.
As CEO, Dr Schaefer would continue the reporting obligations of the CRC and the management of more than $200 million in projects, to be completed within the next three years.
The statement also said Prof Lamb, who has built the Global Digital Farm and the profile of the Digital Agrifood Summit with Cheales Sturt University at Wagga Wagga, would concentrate his efforts on providing scientific oversight across both entities and creating new projects.
During the past two years, FACRC's project portfolio has grown significantly from $25m to more than $430m across 50 projects, backed by 80 funding partner across digital technology, data management, artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainability, and climate reporting.
