Our Board
The Board is established and governed under the Wine Australia Act 2013 and its actions are guided by its Board Charter. It has a Chair and between five and seven directors. On 28 September 2024, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon Julie Collins MP, announced the appointment of five non-executive directors to the Wine Australia Board to serve a three-year term from 1 October 2024.
Minister Collins appointed the new Board members following an extensive selection process undertaken by an independent selection committee, which was appointed by industry body Australian Grape & Wine.
They join incumbent Chair, Dr Michele Allan AO in supporting Wine Australia to empower the success of the Australian grape and wine sector.
The Directors are:
- Dr Angeline Achariya, Victoria
- Ms Roslyn Baker, Queensland
- Mr Andrew Kay, South Australia
- Ms Elizabeth Riley, New South Wales
- Ms Peta Slack-Smith, Victoria.
For more information, read our media release.
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Chair
Michele is an experienced non-executive director and has a strong understanding of agribusiness, public policy and regulation within food and agriculture industries, R&D portfolio structure and management, enterprise risk management and science and innovation.
Michele currently chairs Apple and Pear Australia Limited, Defence CRC Trusted Autonomous Systems, the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre and is Chancellor of Charles Sturt University. She is also a director of CSIRO, Smart Sat CRC, Dairy Food Safety Victoria, MJ Chicken and CRC Food Agility.
She has previously held chair positions with Meat & Livestock Australia and the Wheat Industry Advisory Taskforce and was a director of Wine Australia and the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation. Other prior board roles include Tasmanian Irrigation, Innovation and Science Australia, Forest and Wood Products Australia, William Angliss Institute, Callaghan Innovation (NZ) and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.
Michele held executive roles with Amcor Limited, Kraft Foods, Bonlac Foods Limited, ICI, Tasmanian Bioinformatics Centre of Excellence Tasmania, Johnson and Johnson and Nestle.
Michele has a Bachelor of Applied Science from University of Technology Sydney, Master of Management of Technology from Melbourne University, Master Commercial Law Deakin University and Doctorate from RMIT. She is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.
To ensure the highest levels of governance and probity Wine Australia engages an external chair for the Audit and Risk Committee. Mr Geoff Knuckey was appointed in January 2020.
Geoff has extensive experience as an Audit Committee member or Chair and is currently serving on audit committees for numerous government entities. He has extensive experience as a Director and serves on boards and audit committees of multiple private sector entities. Mr Knuckey has been a full-time company director and audit committee member since 2009 following a 32 year career with Ernst & Young specialising in Audit and Assurance Services in both the public and private sectors across a range of industries.
He has a Bachelor in Economics (ANU), is FCA qualified, a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Registered Company Auditor.