Leading Harvest Appoints Inaugural Australian Advisory Board

Leading Harvest Australia, the local arm of a global non-profit advancing sustainable agriculture through an independently audited ESG framework, has officially appointed its inaugural local Advisory Board. The board brings together a powerhouse of experts in sustainability, agriculture, finance, and environmental stewardship to support Leading Harvest’s mission of transforming ESG performance in Australia’s food and fibre sector.

Chaired by Dr Sasha Courville – a leading climate and sustainability expert with roles spanning consultancy, board leadership, and practitioner education – the newly formed board will provide strategic guidance to support Leading Harvest’s continued growth and impact across the region. Its collective expertise spans agricultural production, global supply chains, ESG investment, and policy – reflecting the complexity of sustainability challenges facing the sector.

“We’re so proud to have assembled such an exceptional Advisory Board. Their calibre speaks volumes about how serious Leading Harvest is about delivering real, on-the-ground solutions in Australia. These experts bring deep industry insight that will help guide our growth in the region, support our members, and ensure we remain a truly practical and outcomes-driven organisation – not just another framework or audit,” said Claire Kneller, General Manager of Leading Harvest Australia.

The Advisory Board will play a critical role in guiding Leading Harvest’s efforts to expand its footprint across Australian agriculture – from half a million to five million hectares of land under stewardship – while helping shift the sector’s climate trajectory and build stronger recognition of Leading Harvest’s audit ESG framework among major retailers and supply chain partners.

Advisory Board Members:

• Dr Sasha Courville (Chair): Business advisor, educator and Chair of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative. Former Chief Impact Officer at Bank Australia, Executive Social Impact at NAB, Executive Director at ISEAL and Commissioner for International Agricultural Research. Sasha brings over 25 years’ experience in driving systems change at the intersection of business, government, research and civil society.
• Tony Eyres (Deputy Chair): Founder of professional services firms, Harvest Capital Partners and Rounding Up, and former State Director of the Liberal National Party in QLD. Tony brings over 30 years’ experience spanning business, financial and investment management, deep agriculture and food sector knowledge (incl. farming systems and tech adoption), and senior advisory roles, including with Austrade facilitating foreign direct investment into Australia. Tony currently consults on natural capital as a Senior Principal with global firm, Stantec, based in Brisbane.
• Patrick Hutchinson is a nationally recognised leader with more than 25 years of senior experience across red meat, poultry, seafood, agrifood tech, and international trade. Patrick has advised Australian and global clients on ESG frameworks, stakeholder engagement, market access strategy, and industry transformation. He is Chair of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework and the AgriTrade Forum of the Australia China Business Council, and a former CEO of the Australian Meat Industry Council. Patrick has played leading roles in trade policy negotiation, Free Trade Agreements, and major bilateral agricultural initiatives across Asia, North America, and the Middle East.
• Andrew Phipps: current executive at Hay Australia and former executive at Queensland Sugar Ltd, with a background in finance. Andrew brings extensive experience fostering stakeholder relationships across the agricultural value chain – from the farmgate to the boardroom – with a particular focus on export markets in Southeast Asia, a key region for Australian agriculture.
• Jo Saleeba: Is the Global Head of Sustainability & Impact at New Forests (including subsidiary New Agriculture), and previously Head of Responsible Investment at HESTA and CEO at the Investor Group on Climate Change. Jo brings deep expertise in aligning investment strategy with environmental and social impact to drive long-term value creation.

Already firmly embedded in the Australian agricultural landscape, Leading Harvest partners with some of the country’s largest producers and investors – including PSP Investments, Australian Food and Fibre, GO.FARM, Warakirri Asset Management, Stahmann Webster, Manulife, Altora Ag, Southern Premium Vineyards, and Manta Farms. Globally, Leading Harvest also works with major industry players such as Nestlé and Cobram Estate.

All members of the Advisory Board will come together in person at the upcoming Leading Harvest Summit, taking place this October in Brisbane. The Summit will convene leaders across agriculture, investment, retail, and sustainability for a day of insight, discussion, and collaboration. Key speakers will include Connor FitzGerald (FMG), Tristan Kitchener (Kitchener Partners), Matthew Evans, Richard Sampson Genest (Stahmann Webster), Danny Thomas (LAWD), Hugh Killen (Impact Ag), and Josie Zilm (NAB).

“With the guidance of our Advisory Board and the momentum building ahead of our Summit in October, we’re looking forward to deepening industry engagement and continuing to champion practical, measurable sustainability outcomes across Australian agriculture,” Kneller added.

About Leading Harvest

Leading Harvest is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the sustainability of global agriculture. Its flagship Farmland Management Standard provides a rigorous, third-party audited framework for sustainable farming, ensuring transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement across the agricultural supply chain.