| Brooke Howell, Yalumba Brooke is the Viticulturist/Technical Manager for Yalumba Family Winemaker’s company owned vineyards, where she has worked since December 2010. Brooke studied Viticulture at the University of Adelaide and also completed her Honours prior to commencing at Yalumba. Based in the Barossa Valley, Brooke oversees trial work and technical management of 800Ha of vineyards in both warm and cool climate South Australia at both a premium and commercial level. Brooke has presented trial work at grower seminars and AWITC workshops both at a company and regional level in order to encourage growers to adopt viticultural best practice. Other appointments: Chair Barossa Viticulture Technical Group Program Coordinator Barossa Future Leaders Program Member of industry reference group for Barossa Terroir Judge South Australia Pruning Championships |
| Dr Mark Krstic, AWRI Mark Krstic is the Managing Director of the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). Mark has accumulated over 25 years experience in the wine industry related research, development and extension in his various roles within the AWRI, GWRDC (now Wine Australia), Victorian Government and CSIRO. Mark currently Chairs the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference Inc. and is on the Board of the National Wine Foundation and the South Australian Genomics Centre. Mark is also a past President of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO), Adjunct Professor with Macquarie University and graduate of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia Wine Industry Future Leaders Program (2010). |
| Sam Bowman, Bowman Viticulture Duxton Vineyards is an Australian wine company producing 5% of the Australian grape crush. Based in the Murray Darling region the business owns and operates 2500 hectares of wine grapes and an 80,000t winery. The business formed in 2015 with the purchase of the 2000 hectares in a time of low inputs and ageing Winegrape infrastructure after the depression in grape pricing from 2009 onwards. I joined the business in 2018 as a consultant to improve the management practices after poor results in the 2017 and 2018 vintages. Since then, we have shifted the direction of the business to incorporate regenerative practices into the commercial sized vineyards and will present the results of the last 3 years at the seminar. The main theme is that a vineyard of any size (and especially the corporates with large land holdings) can achieve measurable positive financial results with a high input sustainable program that not only increases productivity but improves the land we are farming. |
| Melissa Brown, Gemtree Wines As viticulturist and co-owner of Gemtree Wines, Melissa oversees many components of the day-to-day running of the business as well as driving the regenerative agriculture philosophies of Gemtree. Melissa is a third generation McLaren Vale grape grower and along with her winemaker husband Mike, is the current custodian of the land she is entrusted with. Melissa is a firm believer of passing the land to the next generation in a better condition than it was handed to her. From introducing and leading the biodynamic practices in the vineyard to developing the Gemtree Ecotrail, which involved planting thousands of native trees and shrubs on the property, Melissa is a leader in her field and is sought after for advice and counsel on biodynamics, organics, sustainability and regenerative farming. |
| Hayley Purbrick, Tabhilk Hayley Purbrick is a proud fifth generation family member of one of the oldest wine-making families and carbon neutral wineries in Australia. With a background in DTC Marketing and Agriculture she is turning the historic Tahbilk vineyard into one of the most environmentally friendly in the country. Outside of the winery Hayley lives in Deniliquin and is an advocate for growing strong agricultural industries and thriving rural communities. In 2015 she founded social enterprise Big Sky Ideas to champion entrepreneurial spirit in rural Australia.In 2017 she was a Finalist of both the Regional Australia Institute Light Bulb Moments Competition and NSW/ACT Agrifutures Rural Woman of the Year. In 2019 she graduated from the Wine Australia Future Leaders Program.Hayley is a current member of the Australian Grape & Wine Sustainability Advisory Committee. |
| Professor Tim Cavagnaro, University of Adelaide Tim Cavagnaro is a Professor in Soil Ecology in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide. He is also Deputy Head of School (Learning and Teaching). Tim's research is guided by the question: How do we manage soil ecological processes to achieve agricultural and environmental sustainability in a time of significant environmental change? This includes work in two main areas: 1) Enhancing the capacity of plants to acquire nutrients via plant-microbe interactions, with an emphasis on achieving food security; and 2) Managing plant-based systems to mitigate and adapt to environmental change (soil carbon sequestration in particular). Tim's group develops and uses cutting edge techniques from across disciplines, and span scales from the molecular to landscape. Working across the science-policy interface is an important theme in his research. |
| Justine Cox, NSW Department of Primary Industries(DPI) Justine Cox is a soil scientist with a focus on soil health, especially in field horticultural production. She has investigated the impacts of biochar and compost on soil carbon, fertility and greenhouse gas emissions, in banana, blueberry and melon production, with assessments on crop yield and quality. |
| Dr Frioni, University Cattolica Piacenza Tommaso Frioni serves as Assistant Professor at the Department of Sustainable Crop Production (DIPROVES) at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore since July 2020. To this day, he has authored or co-authored 72 articles, 38 of which published on internationally peer-reviewed journals indexed in the SCOPUS database (465 citations, h-index = 12). His main research topics are: • Tree carbon partition and source/sink balance; • Tree ecophysiology; • Abiotic stress in viticulture; • Biostimulants, particle film technologies and grapevine eco-physiology; • • Grapevine biodiversity and new genetic resources |
| Dr. Mark Krasnow Director, Thoughtful Viticulture Ltd. Mark received his Ph.D. in Integrative Crop Plant Physiology in 2004 from UC Davis. He taught and worked as a postoc in California until moving to Hawke’s Bay in 2010 to lecture in Viticulture and carry out research at the eastern Institute of Technology. In 2015 Mark returned to New Zealand to establish his company, Thoughtful Viticulture Ltd., which conducts research projects for the New Zealand wine industry and individual clients. He is also a consultant, specialising in irrigation management. His research aims to reduce chemical inputs in the vineyard, increase vineyard efficiency, and improve wine quality. |
| Richard Leask, Leask Agri Richard Leask is a second-generation winegrower based in McLaren Vale, with twenty-five years’ experience. Presently, he is at the helm of Leask Agri a vineyard management and contracting company managing family-owned and client vineyards totalling 150ha. He with his brother Malcolm own boutique wine labels Hither and Yon and Old Jarvie, with both labels having a strong focus on showcasing alternative varieties. Richard has been a passionate advocate of biological farming for over a decade and is one of the founding chapter authors of the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia program. He is a 2017 graduate of the wine industry’s Future Leaders program run by Wine Australia. In 2019 he was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship to study regenerative agriculture systems across farming enterprises globally. |
| Joseph Marks, University of Adelaide My background is terrestrial ecology, with a specific interest in soil-plant interactions. Currently, I am undertaking a PhD investigating the influence of under-vine management on arbuscular mycorrhiza and soil organic carbon dynamics. Viewing vineyards as “agroecosystems” has allowed me to investigate under-vine interactions through the lens of practical and theoretical ecology. |
| Robert Poole, KPMG Robert joined KPMG in February 2017 and leads the Consumer and Retail (C&R) Sector within the Corporates Industry. C&R includes retail, food and beverage and agri-business. Rob previously held the role as National Lead Partner – Food & Agribusiness which saw him working across the agri-business and food supply chain to help businesses build profit and growth; solve complex problems and harness new ideas. He successfully built a strong food and agri-business practice from scratch and placed KPMG as the number one professional services firm in the Australian food and agri-business sector |
| Dr Mercy Olmstead, Gallo Family Vineyards Dr Olmstead has 17 years of horticultural and viticultural production experience, both in academia and industry. She started as the Extension Viticulture Specialist for Washington State University, before moving to the University of Florida where she was an Assistant, and then Associate Professor conducting research and extension activities in low-chill peach and winegrape production. Mercy then gained experience in strawberries as the Senior Production Research and Education Manager for the California Strawberry Commission before taking a position as a Viticulturist with Gallo Family Vineyards (E & J Gallo), where she has been for the past 2 years. She covers the northern Central Coast of California, where she oversees viticultural recommendations for 1,200 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Pinot gris, and Sauvignon blanc. She loves working outside in the vineyards and enjoys an occasional glass of wine. |
 | Ben Luker is the Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand for Wine Intelligence, the global leaders in consumer wine insights. His passion for the industry has seen him spend over a decade working in nearly every aspect of the wine industry, including the on-premise, independent retail, commercial sales, marketing and winemaking operations. Away from Wine Intelligence, he makes small scale wines out of Western Victoria under his Good Clean Fun label. |
