Mick Cattanach - Managing Director

B.Bus (Ag Commerce), MAICD

Mick is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Emerald.  He was a founding Executive Director and continues to hold significant ownership interest in the company.  Mick has over 18 years experience in corporate agribusiness and primary production and has overseen grain marketing and wool production activities for several businesses.  He has also held senior trading positions with DR Johnston and US food group ConAgra Inc during the 1990s.

Clifford Ashby – Chief Financial Officer

Clifford joined Emerald in 2011 leading Emerald’s finance, accounting, merger and acquisition and administrative functions.  With more than 25 years of CEO and financial management experience, Clifford has a successful track record of managing companies for sustainable business expansion. Prior to Emerald Clifford spent the last 20 years in the Australian agribusiness sector most recently as Managing Director of ASX listed company Clean Seas Tuna Limited (CSS). 

Ashley Roff – Legal Counsel & Company Secretary

Ashley has over 10 years of experience in the grains industry as a company secretary and general counsel. He joined SACBH in 2000 and had legal oversight of the conversion of the co-operative to become  AusBulk Ltd. He has played major roles in a number of significant corporate actions during the last decade including the takeover by AusBulk of Joe White Maltings, the merger of AusBulk and ABB Grain Ltd, the abolition of the ABB Grain dual share class structure, due diligence on the failed ABB Grain/AWB merger and the takeover of ABB Grain by Viterra. In 2007 Ashley was named Chartered Secretaries Australia national Corporate Governance Professional of the Year for a company outside the ASX Top 100, based on his work with the ABB Grain board establishing a robust corporate governance framework. He was the founding Chair of the National Grower Register. Ashley is Emerald’s company secretary and legal counsel and he is based out of Sturt Grain’s Adelaide.

Colin Wakefield – General Manager, Corporate Administration

CPA, B. Admin (Accounting)

Colin joined Emerald as General Manager, Finance in 2008.  With more than 20 years experience in senior accounting and management roles, Colin has held senior positions with Elders IXL, Pioneer Sugar Ltd and CEC Group Ltd.  Throughout his career he has held director roles for a number of companies and has actively been involved in successful alliances in a variety of industries.

Murray de Jong – Group General Manager, West Coast Region

LLB, B. Com (Econ), MBA

Murray currently manages the Emerald’s Western Australian distribution activities based in Perth.  This includes the oversight of grain accumulation and working with key consumer, alliance partners and customers in the state.

Prior to his association with Emerald that commenced in 2007, Murray was a solicitor at Hall & Wilcox Lawyers.  Murray’s area of expertise is commercial and property law. His experience includes an extended period in Europe working on secondment to APN Funds Management and assisting in the development of its European Property Trusts.

Rowan Mitchell – General Manager, Commodity Administration

B. App Sci (Ag)

Rowan joined Emerald in 2004 and has been integral to the development of the company’s systems.  In his role as General Manager, Commodity Administration, Rowan is responsible for all middle office operational functions for Emerald and JV companies.

Rowan has more than 25 years experience at listed and unlisted Australian corporations.  He has extensive experience in commodity management and administration, after holding senior roles with the Victorian Oats Growers Pool, Elders IXL and AWB Limited.  Rowan’s experience is in contract administration, systems development, shipping and logistics.

John Warda – Group General Manager - Operations and Supply Chain

John commenced with Emerald in early 2011 as the Group General Manager, Operations and Supply Chain.  John has had an extensive career in the Australian Grains industry which has spanned over 38 years, the majority of which were spent in senior management and Executive roles in supply chain, logistics and operations. Most notably, John held the role of Executive Manager Group Operations with publicly listed ABB Grain which involved managing all the operations for the ABB Group of companies. This not only included its storage and handling and supply chain activities, but also overseeing the Company’s malting arm, Joe White Maltings, and the Containerisation division, ProGrain.    

During ABB Grain’s merger with Viterra in 2009, John held a pivotal role in communicating the benefits to growers and staff and continued in a transitionary Executive Corporate services role until April 2009 before taking up a consultancy role prior to joining Emerald. John’s industry experience sees him currently holding a Director’s role on the board of ICHCA Australia. 

Brian Dalitz – General Manager, Trading and Marketing

Brian joined Emerald as the Manager of Risk & Pricing in 2010, managing Emerald’s commodity pricing and hedging for the trading division and the pool, along with macro strategy and analysis.  In 2011 Brian’s role was broadened to oversee also trading and marketing activities across the Emerald Group of companies.

He has over 20 years’ experience in trading markets and managing risk, the previous 9 years were at Louis Dreyfus Commodities managing the grain and wool trading divisions, and prior to this, spent 10 years trading financial markets with Merrill Lynch in Sydney, attaining ‘Registered Representative’ status on ASX & Chicago Futures Exchanges.

Katsu Minami – General Manager, Sales and Marketing

Katsu has extensive commercial and marketing experience in the agribusiness and grains markets. Coming from the role of ‘Head of Agriproducts & Grains’ for Sumitomo Australia, and a key driver of Sumitomo Corporations successful acquisition of Agribusiness assets in Australia, including EGA, ABA & Summit Fertilizers.  Katsu is responsible for leading Emerald’s sales and marketing strategies and penetration into East Asian markets and wider Sumitomo global customers.

Chris Kochanski – General Manager, Wheat

Chris joined Emerald in 2008 with particular responsibility for managing Emerald’s wheat book, which includes sales and hedging strategy. He also coordinates analysis of domestic and international grain markets, and determines the implications on Emerald’s pools and customers.After a varied business career in other sectors, Chris started in the grains industry in 2000 as a seed and grain merchant in Moree, northern New South Wales. Following four years as a country merchant, he spent a further four years in the grain processing sector as a grain buyer and the New South Wales supply manager for Weston Milling in Sydney, where he had responsibility for the management of the procurement and pricing strategy of the New South Wales mills.

Christian Norgard – General Manager, Coarse Grains & Oilseeds

Christian has extensive Australian and International grains trading and marketing experience, with a long term tenor at the AWB, and most recently as the ‘Global Barley Trading Manager’ at MaltEurop. Christian is responsible for coordinating and managing the Barley, Sorghum, Oilseed, and Pulse books, adding valuable experience and leadership to Emerald’s Trading operation.

Malcolm McMahon – General Manager, Merchandising

Dip. Bus Mgmt, AMP (Monash), FAICD

Malcolm joined Emerald as General Manager, Merchandising in 2005. He currently manages front-office operational functions and key consumer relationships.  Malcolm holds more than 35 years experience at listed Australian and International agribusiness corporations, including global exposure to commodity trading, finance and accumulation activities.

Malcolm’s executive career has included senior management and trading roles with Riverina Stockfeeds, Cargill, AWB Ltd, Grainco and Elders.   Malcolm has previously held Non-Executive Chairman and Director roles in agribusiness and logistics companies, including Plantech, Seedmark, Pulse Australia, ABA and Bulk Terminals Australia.

Rob Proud – Group General Manager, East Coast Region           

B. Agri (Marketing)

After spending four years heading up Emerald’s West Coast region, Rob accepted the role as Group General Manager, East Coast Region and now resides in Melbourne. Rob is responsible for managing the delivery of Emerald marketing products throughout the East Coast.

Prior to joining Emerald in 2007, Rob had over 10 years experience in grain trading and marketing, including pool management with Grain Pool of WA (part of CBH Group) and United Farmers Cooperative.  Rob was the Chairman of Oilseeds WA and a Board member of Dowerin Events Management Inc., which owns and runs WA’s largest agricultural field day – the Dowerin Machinery field day.

Tim Burrow – General Manager, Sturt Grain and EP Grain

Assoc. Dip. Farm Management (Roseworthy), Grad. Dip. Systems Agriculture (Uni Western Sydney)

Tim has been integral to the substantial growth of the EP Grain business and has been leading the team as General Manager since inception. In 2011 Tim accepted the role as General Manager of Sturt Grain based in Adelaide.  He is currently also continuing his role as  General Manager for EP Grain.

Prior to joining EP Grain, Tim worked primarily in chemicals and seed-processing sectors as a manager with Monsanto and manager of Chemtura’s Australian and New Zealand operations.  Tim has significant involvement in the development of minimum tillage and on-farm seed processing throughout Australia.

Ben Fleay – Managing Director, SQP

B. Ag Sc.

Ben is the Managing Director of SQP, a role has held since commencement of the joint venture with Emerald in 2007.  From 2003 to 2007 Ben was the General Manager of SQP Cooperative Ltd., where he was responsible for growing the business to 120,000 tonnes of grain and substantial growth to the company turnover.

Prior to joining the SQP cooperative, Ben worked in the Australian Cotton industry as a senior agronomist for Lachlan Farming and Twynam Pastoral Co.

Simon Wishart – General Manager, SAG

Simon is the General Manager of Southern Ag Grain (SAG) based in Wagga, having been an employee of the business since it started in 2009.  Simon’s 17 years in the grain industry started out working at GrainCorp Operations in 1993 to 1999 managing local silos throughout southern and central NSW.  In 2000 he moved to Sydney to manage all of Weston Milling and Weston Animal Nutrition’s road and rail logistics for NSW before taking on Purchasing Manager for Weston Animal Nutrition for the entire east coast.

Tom Howard – General Manager, Philp Brodie Grains

Tom joined the PBG team in October 2010 following a nine year period working abroad, most recently in Dublin as Commercial Director of a Top 50 Irish Company.  In April 2011 Tom was appointed General Manager of PBG, working closely alongside Peter Brodie to ensure that the high level of localised growers service PBG has always offered remains well into the future.

Tom has always had a very close involvement in the Australian grains industry and spent five years managing the grower owned Walgett Co-Operative during the period where annual tonnages grew from 250,000mt to 750,000mt.  During this time Tom also played a key role in the development and operation of a 250,000mt grain handling and export packing facility, the establishment of a dedicated Research Company and the creation key JV’s for the exporting of grains.