- AgChoice Associates
Pete is the AgChoice founder and is a former senior officer both in the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy.
Pete has held General Manager and Executive Director roles in a range of industries including agricultural R&D, tertiary education, mining and infrastructure.
He was previously head of global marketing and communications for Leighton Holdings’ subsidiary Thiess Pty Ltd (the world’s largest mining contractor and a major Australian infrastructure developer). Pete worked with the world′s leading online security company ISS (now IBM Network Security); he was the Senior Media Liaison Officer and Chief of Staff (Media) with Queensland Police Service during CHOGM.
Among other roles he is a former Executive Director of Charles Sturt University and for the three years of Australia’s wheat industry deregulation, he consulted to AWB (Constitutional Reform, Reputation Management and Grain Acquisition). He has advised BlueScope Steel (emissions trading) and Australia Post ( technology change management issues prior to their entry into digital services).
Along with John McQueen (see below) Pete was instrumental in securing a total of $500 million in two blocks of industry and government funding for Dairy Australia Ltd.
Pete worked inhouse in government and industry relations with Australia’s largest private irrigation company (Murray Irrigation) as it navigated a path through arguably the nation’s most highly-charged agricultural reform packages: the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
In August 2022 Pete travelled to Vietnam to meet with Vietnam government and industry to develop a digital Public Private Partnership solution to improve the farmgate returns for that nation’s 640,000 individual coffee farmers.
John McQueen is a veteran of over 30 years at the highest levels of Australian agriculture including two terms as senior agricultural advisor to Prime Ministers Gillard and Rudd.
John was chief of staff to the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water and was a major player in the political development of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
John has worked at the highest levels of the National Farmers Federation and has a well-earned a reputation as a trouble shooter, mediator and policy developer in Australian agriculture.
For more than 20 years John was CEO of Australian Dairy Farmers during which time he played a major role in policy development and the deregulation of the Australian dairy industry. He was instrumental in the design and operations of the dairy industry’s research, development and marketing company Dairy Australia.
John was an original member of the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s specialist rural division.