Steering Committee

Lisa is a grain grower and sheep producer from Wagga Wagga and an active participant in the agrifood innovation system.

Lisa holds several roles in informing agricultural research and development (R&D). She is the Chair of the Agrifutures Pasture Seeds Advisory Panel. She also sits on the Red Meat Panel for MLA and chairs SALRC (Southern Australia Livestock Research Council) for Southern NSW.
“We are all curious about what the future of agriculture might look like. We value the opportunity to get together in person to explore conversations that will shape forward thinking in agrifood.”

According to Lisa, R&D conversations must include growers and producers. “Without them we run the real risk that solutions are not targeted, useful, practical, adoptable, or achievable. As growers and producers, we face the uncertainty created by climate; the global pressures on our markets; and the limitations of our finite resources – water, soil, and landscape. We are an integral part of the ideas, the innovations, and the solutions.”

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws (University of Sydney); is a graduate of the AICD and a fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation.

Michael has over 25 years in food and agriculture, venture capital, environmental sustainability, carbon markets, social impact and law.

A seasoned investor and agriculture operator, he has been interviewed by numerous leading media publications including Bloomberg, The Economist, Financial Times, The Australian Financial Review, Asian Investor, DealStreetAsia and Agri Investor.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur and business advisor. Launching his first company at 21, which started a 15 year journey to launch four other businesses across a range of industries. His long term support of entrepreneurship and mentoring was recognised in 2020, as a winner in the InDaily 40 under 40 awards.

Michael’s curiosity for solving problems using technology led him to Agriculture and the food system, where he now leverages his skills, experience and network to help AgriFood Tech startups commercialise and scale their innovations to redesign the food system. Prior to joining SVG Ventures Thrive, Michael led AgriFood Tech at BDO Australia for 4 years, where he was an advisor to several Investors, Start-ups, Agribusinesses and Government Departments.

Michael is deeply engaged in the development of the AgriFood tech eco-system, working with various AgriFood tech events and programs, as well as being the co-organiser of the South Australian AgriTech Meetup Group. Michael’s thinking on redesigning the food system was featured in his TEDx talk, in which he detailed the potential of emerging technologies in agriculture to build a more sustainable and resilient food system.

Oli Madgett became a grower in McLaren Vale in 2015, and leads Perennial in Australia, working with the MLA and AgriFutures to scale soil carbon quantification and decarbonise agrifood supply chains. Oli runs the Adelaide AgriTech Meetup, which brings together a community of more than 1,500 developers, farmers and entrepreneurs interested in the agricultural technology space.

Shane joined Artesian in 2020 as Managing Director, South Australia, based in Adelaide – his responsibilities include VC investments and business development.
His previous experience in the PE/VC markets includes 3 years as Directeur Général/MD at Unigrains Developpement SA in Paris and 3 years as VP at AGR Partners in California.
Shane has also worked as Head of Legal, Risk & Governance at R.M Williams Agricultural Holdings in Sydney, as well as a lawyer at Baker & McKenzie and Linklaters.

Phil Morle is a partner at Main Sequence where he leads the Feed 10 billion People challenge. He’s passionate about delivering healthier people and a healthier planet, leading him to develop an interest in a number of adjacent areas such as decarbonisation, synthetic biology, new materials, and recycling. Since joining, he has led the firm’s company creation program called Venture Science, developing notable startups such as v2food, Samsara Eco and Eden Brew.

Sarah Nolet is an internationally recognized food systems innovation expert and co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, a high-support, high conviction, sector-specific agrifood tech venture firm. Sarah has been instrumental in building the early stage agtech ecosystem – from advising dozens of startups, designing accelerator programs and consulting to established agribusinesses, to helping industry, universities and government develop and implement forward-looking initiatives in food system innovation. Sarah is also the host of the AgTech…So What? podcast, telling stories of innovators building the food system of the future.

Sarah holds a Masters in System Design and Management from MIT, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University.

Brad is the Chief Executive Officer of Grain Producers SA, representing 4,500 grain growing businesses. He has experience in working with farmers through roles in politics and journalism, recently working as a Senior Adviser to South Australia’s past two Ministers for Primary Industries and Regional Development. He is also an award winning newspaper editor and journalist in regional South Australia. Brad has been very close to industry policy and decision-making over a number of years, which means he has a deep understanding of the key issues, from grassroots right through to broader-scale agribusiness and sector-wide issues. He was the former Government’s lead Ministerial Adviser on AgTech and played a significant role in helping establish AgTech Demonstration Farms, a South Australian AgTech Strategic Plan and creating AgTech Start-up Hubs. Brad has also played an instrumental role in creating AdvanceAg, an AgTech event in Adelaide focused on adoption of technology on-farm, of which AgriFutures Australia was a key supporter.

Dee-Ann is a farmer of Tea Tree Oil and other native Australian essential oil producing plants in far Northern NSW. She is also the Managing Director and founder of Down Under Enterprises (established in the United States in 2001), a wholesaler of native Australian essential oils. The product portfolio includes native Australian and New Zealand botanicals, and her customers are the “who’s who” of natural products as well as personal care multi-nationals, in North America, Europe, and throughout Asia.

Prior to Down Under Enterprises, Dee-Ann was a Management Consultant with Deloitte Consulting (Minneapolis, MN, USA), Vice President at Bankers Trust (Sydney) and a dealer at Macquarie Bank (Sydney).

Dee-Ann holds a Master of Commerce in Finance and Marketing (UNSW), an undergraduate degree in Economics (USYD), and an Associate Diploma in Applied Finance (Australian Securities Institute).

In 2021 and 2015 Dee-Ann was the recipient of the NSW Premier’s Award for Women in International Business. In 2016 Down Under received a Highly Commended at the NSW Premier’s Export Awards and in 2018 won the Agribusiness award.

Dee-Ann is the Vice President of Essential Oil Producers Association of Australia and the Deputy Chair of AgriFutures’ Tea Tree Oil Advisory Panel.

Penny and her husband Jason run a family sheep and cattle operation at Field in South Australia’s Limestone Coast region. In addition to producing beef and lamb, they run a seedstock beef cattle business. Penny also works off-farm delivering projects to the livestock industry and university teaching, with her expertise in the fields of agtech adoption, livestock genetics and farm business management. She also holds a number of board and advisory group roles including Chair of the Limestone Coast Landscape Board, Chair of the SA Cattle Industry Fund Board, a member of the Premier’s Climate Change Council and a member of the Minister for Primary Industries & Regions Agtech Advisory Group. Penny has recently completed her PhD studies investigating the adoption of app technology by farmers and has a small agtech startup business with fellow Field farmer, Joanne Williams.

Passionate about the environment, Shifka Seigel from the Israel Australia Chamber of Commerce leads all agricultural activities and dedicates her time to connecting people in the Agtech and Foodtech space.
A young entrepreneur herself, Shifka was born and raised in upstate New York with a green thumb. An inquisitive mind, go-getter attitude and ability to listen, has gained her deep insights into the world of agriculture, where her opinion and knowledge on plant and animal science, and agriculture and food technology has allowed her to work with some of the world’s leading agriculture government departments, companies and vc’s.
Shifka spends her free time enjoying outdoor activities with her 10 year old son Moshe and their 11 year old cannani dog, Bambi. She also volunteers for various environmental social initiatives both in Israel and abroad and is currently studying to become an agronomist.

Justin is the Founder and Executive Chairman of “AgTech” startup, AgriWebb: the world’s leading farm software with over 20m livestock across 150m acres & over $50Bn in agricultural global assets.
Justin also founded, scaled & sold three companies including two asset management platforms based on artificial intelligence & machine learning: exiting the businesses to Macquarie in 2007 & Westpac in 2010.
Justin subsequently founded, built, and sold PacWealth Capital; a $4Bn South Pacific advisory firm before exiting the business and serving as a Director and Head of Division in Australia for BlackRock.
Justin holds Board seats for BitWise Agriculture, Tonnerre Investments and he is an Independent Investment Advisor to International Acquisition Partners in Dallas TX.
Away from the desk, Justin competed internationally in rowing for Harvard, Oxford & Australia.
Justin earned a BA with Honours in Economics and Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and holds an MBA with distinction from Oxford University where he was the OBA Scholar.

Peter is the founder of Agritech New Zealand and currently Convenor of the 2035 Oceania Summit. Peter sits on the Western Growers Innovation & Technology Centre Global Advisory Board and provides advice to a number of emerging agrifood tech ecosystems.
Peter is also a co-founder of Tauranga-based technology incubator, WNT Ventures. He’s a limited partner and has invested in several early-stage New Zealand startups.
Peter has sat on the evokeAG. steering committee since 2018 and was delighted to join the growAG. steering committee, prior to its establishment phase.
Peter is committed to strengthening the trans-Tasman opportunity through increased collaborative and partnership opportunities.