Adelaide McDonald, Trent Thorne and Elisha Parker announced as new Beef Australia directors

Over 700 Beef Australia members from across the Australia voted in the new directors, who together with eight existing directors will make up the 2024 Board.

All helming from outback Queensland, the new directors are beef cattle enterprise MDH Pty Ltd director, Adelaide McDonald, agribusiness lawyer, Trent Thorne, and co-founder of Cattlesales.com.au, Alisha Parker.

Bryce Camm will continue his tenure in the chair position of Beef Australia for the next three years with the remaining executive positions remaining the same Russell Hughes and Grant Cassidy as Vice Chairmen, Kay Becker as Secretary and Richard Brosnan as Treasurer.

"It's an honour and privilege to be voted again into this position to continue to build on the growth and success of Beef Australia into 2024," Mr Camm said.

Stepping down from the board for 2024 is retiring director Ken Murphy, who has been involved with Beef Australia since its inception in 1988.

Chairman Bryce Camm was the first to lead the praise for the years of service Ken provided of volunteer service to the event.

"Ken has been an invaluable contributor to the event over his long history with Beef Australia and on behalf of the board we sincerely thank him for his service," he said.

"As a token of his service we are awarding Ken Life Membership of Beef Australia and we know he will continue to remain a loyal friend of Beef Australia for years to come."

Along with the new director announcement, new CEO Simon Irwin began with Beef Australia last week, marking a new era for the organisation leading into Beef 2024.

Beef 2024 will be held in Rockhampton from Sunday May 5 - Saturday May 11, 2024.

Adelaide has a longstanding connection with the Australian beef industry and brings a combination of corporate, financial and industry expertise to the board. Adelaide currently serves as director of MDH Pty Ltd, her family beef cattle enterprise, one of the largest in Australia, running 175,000 head of cattle across 13 stations in Queensland. She has held the position of Commercial Manager of the Super Butcher, one of Brisbane's best known meat retailers. In additional to her beef industry knowledge and experience, Adelaide is a respected financial services professional with a background in corporate finance, accounting, mergers & Acquisitions, and strategy. Currently Adelaide holds the role of Director within the KPMG Mergers and Acquisitions practice. Adelaide has previously held roles with BDO, Wilsons HTM Investment Group and is currently a non-executive director with VGI Global Investments Ltd Group, a listed investment company on ASX.

Trent is the co-leader of McCullough Robertson Lawyers Food and Agribusiness group and a recognised and committed legal specialist for the agricultural sector with over 18 years' experience acting for food and agribusiness clients in a wide range of commercial matters, including complex commercial disputes, corporate & regulatory matters, negotiations, alternative dispute resolution and major pastoral property transactions. Trent is a current director of the AAM Investment Group, Rural Aid Limited and the Immediate Past President of the Queensland Rural Press Club and was a member of the Beef Australia 2021 Symposium and Seminars Committee and was the MC for the Beef 2021 Symposium.

Elisha is an AgForce Cattle Board Director since 2020 and a member Truth in Labelling working group and Communication & Advocacy Committee and her accomplishments and background including 2020 Queensland Finalist of AgriFutures Rural Women's Award, 2020/2021 Advancing Beef Leaders Program, 2019 NAB Agribusiness Cattle Council Rising Champion, Cattle Council of Australia Industry Systems & Food Safety (ISFS) Consultative 2020 Committee Member (Independent), Co-founder and executive QLD Food Future Inc (facilitators of the A True Story campaign), Chair MLA Beef Up Next Generation Forum 2012, Director and Board Member Future Farmers Network 2012 to 2014, Winner 2012 Queensland Red Meat Awards Emerging Leader and a volunteer on several Beef Australia committees since 2012.

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