RDA Central West Podcast Series

Andrew was born in Wagga Wagga and raised in Maitland, where his father was the local mayor. He studied Economics and Law at Sydney University where he met his wife Christina. They have four children.

 

Prior to entering politics, Andrew set up a business with his brothers in Hong Kong before practicing as a barrister in Orange, NSW in the fields of civil litigation and family law.

 

Andrew’s foray in politics began in 2011, following his successful campaign to secure the NSW state seat of Orange for The Nationals. In 2015, he backed-up his 2011 result.

 

Andrew resigned from the NSW Legislative Assembly in 2016 and was elected to the House of Representatives the same year, for the seat of Calare, NSW. He has since been re-elected in 2019.

 

In January 2019, Andrew was appointed Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister and in February 2020, appointed Australia’s Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education, and Minister Assisting the Trade and Investment Minister.

In episode 43 of the Business Leaders Breakfast Sam is joined by Peter Bishop of Bishop Wagyu and Quality Genetics International. 

 

Peter’s 26 years in agriculture has enabled him to develop sustainable management practices in order to produce the highest quality Wagyu and Angus beef.

 

Peter completed the Australian Institute of Companies Directors course in 2008 and he has been a Director of the Hunter Local Land Services for 2 years, Mudgee Merriwa Rural Lands Protective Board and Director/Treasurer of the Australian Wagyu Association for 7 years.

 

More recently Peter was the Director of Farm Management for a large foreign Chinese company that operates several large properties in Queensland and NSW, responsible for 40 staff.

 

While Peter completed an Advanced Diploma of Farm Management at University of New England (Armidale) his father was actively involved with the Regional Development Australia Hunter board.

 

Peter and his family run a farm in Cowra farm where they continue their Wagyu passion.

Chair of RDA Central West, Ruth Fagan, joins Sam on Episode 42 of the Business Leaders Breakfast.

Ruth Fagan has extensive advisory board experience, in a State and regional capacity. She has been involved in a range of industries, including tourism, agriculture, planning and retail.Ruth is presently, a Councillor on Cowra Council and has been since 2004, a Board Member of Local Government NSW and Chair of Regional Development Australia Central West.Trained as a journalist and a resident of Cowra for 40 years, Ruth has worked as a journalist, Tourism Manager and operated a number of businesses in Cowra including a gift shop, a motel, a vineyard and a dress shop. She has been a state appointed member of the Joint Regional Planning Panel for the Western Region and a Board Member of Tourism NSW.She is a member of the Cowra Showground, Paceway and Race Course Trust, the Cowra Business Chamber, Cowra Special Needs Services Board, Chairman of the Cowra Festival of International Understanding and various local committees.Ruth holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from Charles Sturt University and is the Business Development Manager and partner of a real estate agency in Cowra.

Mayor of Cowra Shire Council, Bill West, is our guest on episode 41 of the Business Leaders Breakfast.

Councillor Bill West was first elected to Cowra Shire Council in 1999. He was voted Deputy Mayor in 2004 - 2005, Mayor in September 2008 and has been re-elected Mayor each term since then.Born and educated in Cowra, Cr West is a fifth generation farmer with a keen interest in public administration. He is passionate about conveying his community's needs and views to Council.Cr West is a strong voice and advocate for Central NSW. He is a past Chair of Centroc, and is currently the Portfolio Mayor for Regional Prosperity to the Central NSW Joint Organisation, a Board member of the Local Government NSW Local Water Utilities Policy Advisory Group and a member of the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s Town Water Risk Reduction Program Stakeholder Advisory Panel.At the local level, Cr West is Council’s representative on the Cowra Saleyards Committee and the Audit, Risk & Improvement Committee. He also represents Council on the Cowra Community Development Trust Committee, Cowra Health Council, Cowra Japanese Garden Board, Japanese Garden Maintenance Foundation, Lachlan Regional Transport Committee Inc and the Western Region Joint Regional Planning Panel.Cr West has a keen interest in sport and is a former Sydney Grade cricketer and is a life member of the Lachlan Cricket Council. He has been a member of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) since 1964, and is a past RFS Group and Brigade Captain. In recent years he was made an honorary member of the Country Women’s Association Cowra Evening Branch.

In Episode 40 of the Business Leaders Breakfast RDA Central West CEO, Sam Harma sits down to talk to Wayne Sunderland almost a year after he first appeared on the series. 

Wayne is the CEO of Central NSW Business HQ, but his career started in the Royal Australian Navy and then moved to the ATO.He worked as a business advisor for eight years before becoming the CEO of Business HQ and he is privileged to work with a talented team of advisors who cover 24 Local Government areas.Business HQ’s aim is to help small business start, grow and to reach their potential. Business HQ look at things from all angles to see things from many different perspectives to assist in developing a solution that fits all parties’ expectations and moves businesses forward in their endeavours.

 

W: https://www.bizhq.com.au/

Episode 38: Amy van de Van, Franchisee of Quest Orange

 

At only 29 years-old, Amy van de Ven has already ticked off a number of business achievements in her 11 years in the travel & accommodation industry.

 

In 2014, she was named Quest’s Business Development Executive Employee of the year and in 2017 was awarded The prestigious Quest Apartments Hotels Chairman’s Award.

 

In 2019, Amy ticked off her biggest achievement yet when she opened her first business; a Quest franchise located in Orange, NSW. This effort saw Amy become the youngest franchisee ever in the history of Quest.

 

Amy is consistently implementing initiatives to boost the morale and efficiency of Quest Orange and support those around her and in late 2020 Quest Orange was awarded the HM Awards Best Serviced apartment property.

In Episode 37 of the Business Leaders Breakfast Sam is joined by Hamish Munro, Founder and Director of Pairtree. 

Hamish is a fifth generation farmer from Cumnock and has always been interested in technology and innovation.

 

In 1999, he positioned the cattle enterprise to supply beef to the European chilled beef market. This included the installation of a laptop and RFID scanner within the Cattle yards and incorporating (the now National Livestock Id Scheme) RFID Life Time tracking tags.

 

In 2018, Hamish was asked by NSW DPI to assist in finalising the Farm Decision Technology project run between two research sites in Orange and Molong.

 

Hamish than initiated a new business called Pairtree Intelligence and applied for the NSWDPI GATE program to refine the offering of what Pairtree really was and how to take it to market.

 

In 2019, Pairtree was successful in applying to the largest and longest running Agtech accelerator in Melbourne, SproutX, which also provided some pre-seed capital to the business. Pairtree now has over 80 national integration partners that can supply data to the Pairtree platform and start to make the daily operations for farmers more streamlined and more productive.

 

W: https://pairtree.co/

The Business Leaders Breakfast is back for 2021 and kicking off the series is David Waddell in episode 36.

David Waddell is in his second year the CEO of OCC having previously held the position of Director of Development Services for a decade.David and his family moved to Orange in 2009 when he was Manager of GHD’s consulting practice in Orange.David is a Chartered Chemical Engineer and a Chartered Member of the Planning Institute of Australia. He worked on several high profile projects over his consulting career including the Sydney Desalination Project and Northwest Metro.He currently sits on the Orange 360 Tourism Board.

W: www.orange.nsw.gov.au

In the 35th and final episode of the Business Leaders Breakfast for 2020, Sam is joined by the Member for Barwon, Roy Butler MP.

After leaving school Roy enlisted in the Australian Army where he was posted to Brisbane in the reconnaissance sniper platoon.Upon leaving the army, he went on to work in the NSW prison system as a drug and alcohol counsellor and group psychotherapist, lead multidisciplinary allied health teams in the NSW disability sector and was the regional manager of the Western Region of the NSW Police force. Elected to the NSW Parliament in 2019, Roy now works tirelessly for the people of Barwon.

W: https://www.roybutler.com.au/

In episode 34 of the Business Leaders Breakfast Sam is joined by Cowra's Jordan Core.

Jordan is the President of the Cowra Business Chamber and Leader of the Cowra Business Hub. He is also the Branch Manager of the local NAB and is an experienced local business leader who is driven to achieve the best for his community.

W: www.cowrabusinesshub.comW: www.cowrabusinesschamber.com.au