Our board
QRIDA's Board of Directors are formally accountable to the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Minister for Manufacturing and Minister for Rural and Regional Development for the performance of the organisation.
Board of Directors
It is the Board's role under the Act to ensure QRIDA performs its functions in an appropriate, effective and efficient way. The following is a complete list of QRIDA's Board of Directors.
Chairperson - John Corbett
John Corbett is a company director and consultant with over 30 years’ experience in agriculture and agribusiness sectors gained through board, banking and consulting roles. John's professional experience covers corporate finance, strategic planning, business planning, business operations, governance, and financial analysis. He is a Chairman of Philip Yates Family Holdings Pty Ltd / Gentech Seeds Pty Ltd (Pioneer Seeds Australia) and Blue Harvest Group Pty Ltd (vertically integrated aquaculture + processing + seafood sales and marketing business). John is also an adviser to the Boards of Norco Co-operative Limited and De Motu Cordis Pty Ltd (a medtech company).
John is a past Chair of the Infrastructure Association of Queensland and past board member of the Queensland Urban Land Development Authority. He's also past foundation director of Hassad Australia Pty Ltd, where he helped invest and manage more than $500 million into the Australian agriculture sector.
During a 23-year banking career, John occupied senior corporate banking and infrastructure project finance roles with ANZ Bank and Suncorp Metway. John has advanced strategic, business analysis and negotiation skills combined with extensive practical experience and has been a past regular speaker and contributor to national agriculture and infrastructure conferences.
Director - Drew Ellem
Drew Ellem was appointed Acting Deputy Treasurer of the Agency Performance Investment Group in September 2018. In this role, Drew is responsible for commercial, fiscal and environmental advice on the state's economic portfolios and Treasury's investment policy and industry programs.
Prior to this appointment, Drew was the Assistant Under Treasurer within the Agency Performance Group. In this role, Drew had responsibility for providing fiscal and policy advice across a range of portfolio areas including transport, tourism, environment and science and state development. His responsibilities also included management of the government's banking and other financial services contracts.
Director - Scott Spencer
Joining the QRIDA Board in 2020, Scott Spencer is currently a Commissioner on the Australian Fisheries Management Commission and has held the position of Deputy Director-General of Fisheries and Forestry at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, as well as Director-General of the Department of Natural Resources and Water, and served as the Chair of the Biosecurity Queensland Ministerial Advisory Council and Sunwater Limited.
Scott previously held roles and appointments at the Office of the Cabinet, Murray Darling Basin Commission and Committee, Standing Committee on Natural Resource Management and the Queensland Dairy Authority among others. Scott brings extensive experience in strategic policy development and implementation and knowledge of management of natural resources, Australia’s water resources and primary industries. Scott holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons).
Director - Belinda Turner
Belinda was appointed to the QRAA board in 2015 (prior to the organisation name change to QRIDA in 2017) and was appointed Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee in 2020.
Belinda is the Commercial Manager of Daybreak Cropping, a national broadacre dryland cropping business managed by Warakirri Asset Management. She previously held senior finance and management roles in the Australian offices of global agricultural commodity trading houses COFCO International and Nidera as well as various board positions in the rural and regional for-purpose space. Belinda has an Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School, a Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies) from the University of Sydney and is a Chartered Accountant. Originally from Inverell in Northern NSW, she maintains an involvement in her family’s mixed farming enterprise.
Director - Paul Walmsley
Paul Walmsley is General Manager, Rural Economic Development within the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Paul’s team connects industry opportunity through place-based economic development facilitation.
Supporting economic development through a close working relationship with industry, Paul’s focus is providing support to the government’s reef water quality agenda and economic services. This work also holds a key role in disaster response.
Joining the QRIDA Board of Directors in November 2021, Paul is widely experienced in senior executive roles across the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and has extensive knowledge of agriculture industry policy and stakeholders.
Director - Dr Elizabeth Woods
Joining the QRIDA Board of Directors in September 2024, Dr Elizabeth (Beth) Woods OAM is currently Chair of the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) as well as Chair of the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences Council, a Commissioner for International Agricultural Research at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, and a member of the Steering Committee for the Marine National Facility managed by CSIRO.
Beth was a QRAA Board Director from 2012 to 2015 (prior to the 2017 name change from QRAA to QRIDA) and also Director-General of Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries where she led development initiatives to deliver innovative, productive and sustainable agriculture and fisheries.
Beth holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics.
