Support for
Growth

Reporting to the Board of Apple and Pear Australia, Philip has ultimate accountability for the strategy, direction, governance, and performance of APAL and its subsidiaries. As CEO, Phil has constitutional responsibility to APAL’s members and a broader industry responsibility to all Australian apple and pear growers. Philip is a Director of Pink Lady Australia, a Director of Pink Lady Development, a Director of Coregeo Limited (UK), and a member of the Sakata/Coregeo joint venture Strategic Investment Group. Philip brings a strong commercial understanding and growing background to APAL. He is familiar with the apple and pear industry, as both an APAL Director and an industry member. He comes from a growing family and knows the challenges and opportunities of the industry. Philip has 18 years’ experience in a fifth-generation integrated fruit business with responsibility from orchard quality to export sales and marketing. Philip has worked in marketing with Pacific Brands Food Group and Nestlé Dairy Products, managing a number of iconic Australian brands. More recently, he was Managing Director of his family business, Turnbull Estate Pty Ltd, an online gift retail and real estate gifting solutions business. Philip became the APAL Director for pears in 2006, Independent Director for APAL in 2015 and APAL CEO in 2016

Andrew is responsible for APAL’s domestic and global commercial interests, including Coregeo Limited UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of APAL. Andrew is a Director of Pink Lady Development, a Director of Coregeo Limited (UK), and a member of the Sakata/Coregeo joint venture Strategic Investment Group. Andrew sits on a number of domestic and global governing bodies and is the current Chair of the Global Pink Lady Steerco and a member of the HIA Strategic Marketing Panel. Andrew joined APAL in 2017. Prior to joining, Andrew was General Manager of Group Procurement and Shared Services at Murray Goulburn. In conjunction with this role, Andrew was also acting CEO China in 2015 for twelve months and was a member of the Executive Leadership Team. Other previous roles of relevance include CEO Asia for Detpak Packaging (based in Singapore), Executive Director National Foods Asia (based in Singapore) and Managing Director of a youth Advertising and PR agency based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Andrew also worked with Japanese Trading firm Mitsui and Co and was a Management Consultant focused on performance and strategy, most notably with Ernst & Young.

Reporting to the CEO, Beth has accountability for all APAL’s financial and legal affairs, Board, and company governance. Her team are accountable for financial planning, annual budgets, and financial reporting for APAL and related entities. They are also responsible for global Pink Lady® licensing, trade volume reporting, and collection of royalties. Beth joined APAL in 2017 and is a finance professional with experience across various disciplines in both professional practice and industry. She holds a Masters of Applied Finance from Macquarie University, a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Former roles include CFO at Patties Foods Limited and Associate Director of Mergers  and Acquisitions at EY.

Jeremy’s role includes managing APAL’s government relations. He works closely with growers throughout Australia to advocate their priorities to government, including ministers, members of parliament, advisors, government agencies, and industry associations at both the state and federal level. Jeremy joined APAL in 2018 and has 25 years’ experience in media, government, and stakeholder engagement, including working as head of function for top-20 publicly listed companies Foster’s (Carlton & United Breweries) & St. George Bank. He was also head of Asia Pacific communications for Visa, based in Singapore. Earlier in his career, Jeremy was industry and science advisor to a Federal Minister, and lands advisor to the NSW Minister, as well as former board member of the Australian Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman (2002–07), and the Australian Association of National Advertisers (2012–16). He has a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in economics) from the University of NSW.

Reporting to the CEO, Justin is responsible for leading the industry services team, which is APAL’s key conduit to industry, covering growers, packers, marketers, state associations, and other regional stakeholders. A key deliverable in this area is the recognised Future Orchards program, a 10-year program that delivers in orchard education and best practice transfer to industry. In addition, Justin has direct responsibility to deliver the newly created Export Readiness program, a key project to reinvigorate Australia’s approach to exporting Apples and Pears back to the 30% of industry volume it once achieved from current lows of 2–3%. This program will employ regional officers who will work closely with growers and packers to ensure continuous improvement in meeting export protocols, as well as utilising the international Pink Lady network to connect and educate overseas buyers with the right Australian exporters. With over a decade of experience in commercial operations management and consulting across both FMCG and retail, Justin brings invaluable business acumen to this position and will play a key role in accelerating our export plans for both apples and pears, and lifting overall Industry profitability.

Jenny has a long history of building successful collaborative projects in international trade. She has an ability to draw together the needs of industry and government agencies to produce tangible export outcomes for horticulture stakeholders. Jenny holds a Masters Applied Anthropology & Participatory Development, as well as a Bachelor Liberal Studies (Hon). Throughout her career, Jenny has held senior trade roles at Trade & Investment Queensland, Austrade, and Hort Innovation. Jenny has successfully completed trade-related projects for a range of horticulture industries such as AusVeg, Avocados Australia, Berries Australia and is currently the Head of Trade at APAL.

Reporting to the Head of Communications and Media, Alison is responsible for delivery of the levy-funded National Apple and Pear Industry Communications Program, which keeps growers up to date on the latest industry, R&D, and marketing developments. This includes creating and commissioning content for, editing, and producing the quarterly flagship Australian Fruitgrower magazine as well as keeping industry abreast of levy investment outcomes and working with the communications team on content for both the website and the weekly digital newsletter Industry Juice. Alison also oversees the development and maintenance of APAL's extensive member database underpinning industry and APAL communications. Alison comes from a farming family and joined APAL in 2014 after 10 years at the Victorian agricultural publication Stock & Land. She has 30 years’ experience in rural and regional media and communications both in Australia and the UK. Alison holds a Bachelor of Agriculture Science and a Masters in International Journalism.

Reporting to the CFO, Alvin’s role includes financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting. Alvin is responsible for the management of relationships with Pink Lady® Master licensees/managers, coordinating and reviewing volume reporting in order to analyse and monitor for compliance and conducting licensee/sublicensee desk and site audits. Alvin is also a member of the Pink Lady® Data Project team focused on collecting and analysing data needs to assist the Global steerco in making informed decisions. Alvin joined APAL in June 2017 to assist us in bringing together a number of strategic systems projects to underpin our commercial division and improve our accounting systems. Alvin is responsible for managing key inputs for the various models and supporting the commercial and finance teams through deep financial analysis. Alvin holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Accounting Sciences and is a member of the South African Institute of Charted Accountants.

Reporting to the COO, Amy’s role provides oversight and direction to the APAL legal function, along with responsibility for delivering group initiatives of strategic significance and value which grow and develop APAL’s commercial and business interests. She also acts as Territory Manager for Japan. Amy joined APAL in August 2017. She previously worked for the leading international law firm, Allens, in both their Melbourne and Singapore offices. She has also worked as Senior Legal Counsel for a Victorian government department. Amy holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne and undertook a combined Law/Arts degree at Monash University. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Reporting to the COO, Andrew has accountability for the quality, food safety, and innovation of Pink Lady^® apples across 13 growing countries. Andrew is also Pink Lady^® Territory Manager for the Middle East and Oceania. The role includes the management of new Cripps Pink mutations, both those currently under Pink Lady^® brand and further mutations that have the potential to be. Andrew is the Commercialisation Manager for new pear varieties ANP-0131 (Rico^®) and ANP-0118 (Lanya^®), under arrangement with the Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, including responsibility for the global planting growth of these varieties. Andrew leads domestic innovation programmes to increase consumption, in close connection with the major retailers. Andrew joined APAL in 2016 and brings 17 years of experience as a fruit technical professional across global production and supply chains of apples and pears, avocado, kiwifruit, grapes, and citrus. Andrew holds a Masters of Science degree in Plant Physiology, specialising in avocado production, complementing a B.Sc in Plant Science. Andrew is well known in the Australian fruit industries, having worked as Product Technologist (Apples) for Coles supermarkets.

Craig develops the strategic direction for APAL’s portfolio of brands, which currently includes Kalei^®, RS103-110, Rico^®, Lanya^®, JOYA^®, Goulburn River Gold^®, Joya^® and Pink Lady^®. He manages brand portfolio development and implementation for all APAL managed brands and products, including website development, digital assets, and brand guidelines. He chairs the Global Pink Lady^® Brand Project team to provide brand strategy leadership across the global Pink Lady^® business, and maintains consistent on-brand representation of Pink Lady^® across all markets. He directs Regional Managers in South East Asia and the Americas to ensure regional objectives are met through appointment of regional/country-based agencies, engaging with retailers, collecting consumer insights and tailoring campaigns to suit the market. He project manages new variety commercialisation programs (including Kalei^®, RS103-110, ANP0118 (Lanya^®), ANP0131 (Rico^®) varieties), works with the DAF breeding program, local nurseries and growers, international nurseries, and growers predominantly in the USA and Europe. Craig was previously the Operations Manager for Fairtrade Australia New Zealand from 2011–15, responsible for product certification and sustainable supply chain development, the National Business Manager for Heinz from 2009–11 responsible for FMCG Retail Sales Management, and the Marketing Manager of Heinz from 2007–09 responsible for FMCG Frozen Vegetable Category brand development and project management. Prior to that, he was the Senior Brand Manager for Fosters-CUB from 2004–07 responsible for Beer portfolio management, coming from various brand-management roles with FMCG Simplot, Goodman Fielder, and SC Johnson.

Tom joined APAL in December 2020. Formerly the APFIP Operations Manager, the absorption and redefining of the activities of APFIP within Industry Services of APAL led to Tom being employed as the Variety Development Manager, reporting to Industry Services & Export Manager. Tom is responsible for the oversight of variety and rootstock evaluation and development services, establishment of rootstock demonstration sites across the growing regions and the maintenance of variety and rootstock repository facility at Cambridge, providing a secure virus-free hosting service to industry and variety owners.  Tom is a fifth-generation fruit grower who was actively involved in the Tasmanian industry before completing the Nuffield Scholarship in 2009 and moving to the fresh produce supply chain sector with Valleyfresh (Melbourne). He holds a Bachelor of Business from Marcus Oldham College and Grad Cert Business from UTAS. 

Lauren’s primary role is managing all industry related data. She is responsible for collecting and leveraging industry data to facilitate data driven decision making for senior leaders and growers. Lauren joined APAL in February 2022 in a focused role to disseminate data and provide insights that can be utilised by industry stakeholders to improve the productivity and sustainability of the industry. Earlier in her career, Lauren was a consumer insights manager across multiple industries, she has a Master of Business Administration and a Data Science degree from Monash University.

Reporting to the COO and based in Singapore, Jason leads the global Pink Lady® business. In this newly created role, Jason and his team work closely with our network of international partners and licensees, to invest and develop the Pink Lady® brand in our core markets as well as accelerate growth in our new and emerging  markets.  Jason joined APAL in February 2022 after a 20-year career with Heineken International.  His tenure at Heineken spanned numerous global and regional commercial leadership roles in Sales and Trade Marketing across Europe, Africa Middle East and Asia, most recently as head of Customer Marketing in Heineken’s second largest international market, Vietnam.  He holds a Masters in EU Law from Université de Droit et d'Economie Aix-Marseille and a Bachelors in International Affairs from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Reporting to the CFO, Jon’s role includes financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting, treasury and oversight of the internal control environment of the APAL Group. Jon joined in May 2021 to complement the growth experienced by APAL and continue the necessary financial systems improvement initiatives. Jon holds a Bachelor in Commerce and Finance and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Jon’s background includes 5 years in  Audit & Assurance at Grant Thornton, delivering a successful IPO of a rapidly growing tech company and Global Finance Manager at Australia’s 2nd largest Wine group 

Matt joined APAL in April 2021. Reporting directly to the Financial Planning and Analysis Manager, Matt is responsible for gathering and analysing data and visual communication of industry statistics; liaising with importers and exporters for volume reporting and monitoring global shipments of Pink Lady; and managing data systems, data collection and analysis processes.  Matt previously worked as a data analyst in market research, and is currently studying a Bachelor of Analytics at RMIT.