Scott Perkins
Chairman

Scott grew up on a sheep property near Winton in Queensland and in Townsville. He was educated by correspondence, at boarding school in Charters Towers and in Townsville. During a 21 year army career he served in many parts of Australia as well as in Malaysia, the UK, Germany and the US, rising to the rank of Major. He left the Army to take up a position as General Manager of a Correctional Centre which, in addition to the normal range of activities, included a large dairy and irrigated pasture. Scott completed an MBA while working both part and full time with AgTour before taking up the position of Manager of Mackay Canegrowers Ltd, a membership based organisation serving some 1000 sugar cane growers in the Mackay and Sarina areas. He commenced as CEO of the Northern Territory Resources Council in May 2008. He was appointed Chairman of the AgTour Board in April 2004 and continued in the role with Quadrant Australia when it was formed from AgTour and ANF Agritours. Scott brings a wealth of experience in management, strategy and administration to the Quadrant team.

Graeme Mitchell
Managing Director

Graeme has over 30 years experience working in the agribusiness sector, with particular emphasis in the beef cattle sector. Following some years working on cattle stations in north western Queensland, Graeme was employed for 11 years with the NSW Department of Agriculture as a beef cattle advisor and this was followed by 16 years as the Chief Executive Officer of the Shorthorn Society of Australia. In that time Graeme represented the beef industry on many committees and has made numerous presentations at conferences worldwide. Graeme has been a director of ANF Agritours since its inception and following the merger of ANF Agritours and AgTour in July 2006, Graeme has assumed the role of Managing Director Quadrant Australia. Graeme brings specialist skills in the areas of event management, trade mission organisation and delivery and in providing specialist consultancy in agriculture, particularly in the beef cattle sector. Graeme holds a science degree in wool and pastoral science.

Peter Lloyd
Executive Director

Born and raised in country, New South Wales, Peter established ANF Agritours in 1989 and since that time has been actively working in the business. The Lloyd family has had rural business interests in regional Australia for four generations and have been involved in the travel and tourism industries since the 1920s. They were one of the first companies in Australia to operate inbound and outbound agricultural study tours. Peter has over 30 years experience in international and regional airline management, retail and corporate travel, inbound and outbound specialist tour development, conference, event and trade mission planning and development, strategic planning and marketing of regional tourism, as well as tourism education and training. He has consulted on rural and regional development, agritourism and nature based tourism and is the author of a major regional ecotourism strategy plan. In addition to tourism, Peter brings extensive business experience, including board membership of a regional investment bank, World Heritage Advisory Committee, regional tourism organisations and management of non-profit community organisations. He holds a business degree (marketing and finance) from the University of New England and is a qualified land economist. Peter has travelled extensively and led study tours and trade missions to over 30 countries on 6 continents.

Ian Shannon
Director

Born and educated in the Netherlands , Kees began his working career with the Curacao Trading Company in Amsterdam . At the age of 24 he emigrated to Australia and immediately became involved in agriculture, ultimately managing a large Merino wool, prime lambs, beef breeding/fattening and cropping property in the Central West of N.S.W. Kees has obtained an Advanced Diploma of Farm Management (Orange Agricultural College now part of the Charles Sturt University) and has developed strong interests in Landcare and production/sustainability balance. Having been a Tour Leader with AgTour Australia since 1997 Kees now is able to combine his international background, skills in Australian Agriculture and language capabilities (English, Dutch, Spanish, German, and French) to provide Quadrant Australia with a unique resource for the benefit of international visitors.

Georgina grew up on a mixed farming and grazing property near Quirindi, however in recent years it has concentrated mainly on farming with the focus being on Corn, Soybean, Sorghum and Barley. On completion of her HSC she attended Williams Business College where she successfully completed her Advanced Certificate in Travel and Tourism. Georgina has 14 years experience in the travel industry where she has worked for Harvey World Travel in Narrabri, Jetset Travel in Coffs Harbour and Tamworth and with American Express Travel in Armidale where she gained the title of assistant manager. Part of this time has also been spent in the airline industry where she worked in the administration department of Qantaslink. She has also done check in for Qantaslink in Narrabri, Tamworth and Armidale. Travel is obviously one of her passions with Scotland being her favourite destination, however she has also travelled to the UK and Ireland, Europe, Vietnam, Bali, Singapore, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. She looks forward to one day getting to Africa and China. Georgina started with Quadrant Australia in 2004 to introduce leisure travel to the company’s already successful departments of Group Tours and Conference & Event Management. The introduction of leisure travel has opened the door to holiday travel for the general public and also a convenient way for people to include additional travel when participating in one of our group tours, whether it is an Alaskan Cruise, Safari in Africa or self drive touring through Europe.

Originally from Armidale NSW, Cindy moved to Coffs Harbour at the beginning of 2004 to undertake a Bachelor of Business in Hotel & Resort Management at Southern Cross University, during her studies she began taking an interest in the event management area of tourism, in July 2006 Cindy moved back to her home town and joined the Quadrant team as an intern, upon completing her university studies at the end of 2006, Cindy moved up to Brisbane to become a full time Project Manager with Quadrant, where her main role is the coordination of inbound groups.

Barbara is a fully qualified travel consultant with many years experience advising corporate and leisure clients on International and Australian destinations, airfares and tours. After growing up on the family sheep (fine wool) property in Victoria’s North Eastern Ranges Barbara found a love of the travel industry through regular holidays in the ski fields. She travelled to the Whitsunday region in North Queensland and secured a job at Hayman Island Resort , which was the beginning of an association with the region for many years. Barbara was invited onto the founding committee of the Whitsunday Tourism Association, participating in Australia wide tourism promotions for the members. At the time Barbara was partner/ manager of a travel agency and souvenir shop. After moving to Brisbane she held the role of Sales and Marketing Manager for South Molle Island Resort working out of the Ansett Ailines sales office, which owned the resort. When the resort was sold to a hotel chain, Barbara was lucky enough to gain additional beautiful resorts to promote including Reef House in Palm Cove, The Point at Mission Beach, Coral Sea Resort in Airlie Beach and Seven Spirit Bay in Arnhem Land NT. With experience in agriculture and the travel and airline industries, Barbara is excited to be able to use this combination as a Project Manager with Quadrant. She has travelled internationally and has a particular interest in France where she has family.

Kerry has been working in the tourism industry for over 15 years. She started her time in retail travel in regional NSW before moving to Sydney to further her career. Over the next 10 years she held a number of different roles within the industry including corporate travel account manager and management roles with the Western Australian Tourism Commission and the Northern Territory Travel Centres. Kerry took a keen interest in marketing, conference and events in 1994 which saw her take up the role of Marketing and Event Manager for Ansett Australia. In 1997, she decided it was time for a change in pace and returned to the New England region where she managed the travel account for the University of New England. After some time, Kerry realised that her enthusiasm for the tourism industry could be passed on through up and coming students and so she pursued a teaching role at TAFE NSW where she currently teaches part-time in retail travel, tourism operations and event management. Kerry started with Quadrant Australia in June 2007 and currently works part-time as Project Manager. She brings a wealth of experience both from her time in the tourism industry and from her extensive travel within Australia and internationally.

Originally trained as a primary teacher, Moira has over 20 years experience in the travel and tourism industries both within Australia and overseas. Moira worked for a large UK based tour wholesaler for 12 years in a variety of managerial positions including Product Manager for French Life (a motoring holiday program utilising country cottages in rural France) and as Tours and Groups Controller, responsible for the company’s European coach touring program. Following her return to Australia in 1988, Moira spent seven years as Marketing Manager with the National Wool Museum in Geelong and during this time expanded the museum’s tourism profile significantly which resulted in a number of state tourism awards for excellence in heritage and cultural tourism. In 1996, she established a tourism program and taught tourism at the Gordon Institute of TAFE in Geelong. In 1998 she spent a year working for Beneteau Vicsail in Sydney then moved to Armidale in 1999 and spent almost four years in the position of Tourism Manager before joining the team at ANF Agritours (now Quadrant Australia). Moira has extensive knowledge of regional Australia and is a past board member of the Victorian Tourism Operators Association and the New England North West Regional Tourism Association. She also served as the Tourism New South Wales appointee to the state reference group for the Visitor Information Centre Network.

With an upbringing in the Hunter Valley and several years on a sheep and beef property, Paula has over 11 years experience in the tourism industry, including a Degree in Environmental Management & Tourism. Paula began her career as Project Manager for the NSW Council of Tourist Associations (including the accreditation of NSW Visitor Centre’s) and the Darling Harbour Business Association based in Sydney. Paula went on to work with Sydney Olympic Park on tourism and visitor projects before deciding to return to the country, where Paula became the Executive Officer of the Australian Cotton Exhibition Centre at Narrabri. She then went on to become Travel Consultant & Tour Director for Northern Highland Travel, involving developing Australia-wide travel itineraries and directing coach tours throughout Australia. She then moved to Tamworth where she managed the Conference & Events for Tourism Tamworth, including writing bid submissions, event support and event marketing. After this Paula and her husband travelled overseas for 12 months and returned in March 2008 when she began working with Quadrant Australia. Paula has travelled extensively throughout Australia and overseas in the past 8 years, having travelled to 26 countries world-wide. Paula is excited to be combining tourism and travel with agriculture and the environment through Quadrant Australia.

Our Professional Consultants
The following people lend their expertise to Quadrant Australia on a consultative basis:

Ian brings 27 years of broad knowledge and agribusiness experience to Quadrant Australia. A graduate of Wagga Agricultural College , he is an accredited agribusiness consultant specialising in marketing, training, and product and business development. He is also a trainer for Agsafe and ChemCert and conducts farm chemical handling & OH&S courses throughout NSW and Southern Qld. Ian has worked for multi-national companies such as Elanco, retail distribution companies such as IAMA (now Landmark) as well as seven years as sales and marketing manager for Australia & New Zealand for specialist companies developing innovative soil, plant and animal nutrition technologies. His broad knowledge of the livestock, horticultural, and broad acre cropping industries as well as a vast number of agricultural contacts throughout Australia is a great asset to Quadrant.

Jonathan Eccles has been involved in Australian horticulture for over 35 years. He has worked in many aspects of horticultural production, research & development, supply chain management, marketing and communications and has an extensive knowledge of Australian horticulture. Jonathan worked with the NSW Department of Agriculture (now NSW Department of Primary Industries) for over 12 years firstly as a horticulturist on research facilities working in citrus, vines and temperate fruit research and extension projects. He became a district extension horticulturist located in the Sydney metropolitan area for seven years, working initially in the fruit, nursery and cutflower industries before specialising in vegetables. For three years, he was the department’s specialist for vegetables and ornamentals with state wide responsibilities for developing and overseeing research and extension programs in these industries. He worked with the Horticultural Research & Development Corporation and Horticulture Australia Ltd for nearly 13 years as senior program manager developing, coordinating and managing fruits, nuts, vegetables and amenity horticultural industries research and marketing programs. He has also worked with many of Australia’s leading horticultural companies in identifying new research opportunities and developing projects that provided useful business solutions. Jonathan has travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, North America, New Zealand as well as within Australia. He has been active in developing international relationships with horticultural industries and research organisations in New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA. He has also led or participated in a number of tours to New Zealand, Europe, USA and China.

After graduating from Wagga Wagga Agricultural College, Ian worked as a Farm Manager on grazing properties in the Central and Northern Tablelands of New South Wales for a decade. He subsequently joined the State Bank and pursued his career in Rural Finance and Valuation and after 15 years entered private practice as an Agribusiness and Valuation Consultant in Bathurst. He has worked extensively throughout New South Wales.  As a Tour Manager, Ian provides AgTourQuadrant Australia with a wealth of Agricultural expertise and is a valuable member of the team.

Graham has recently retired as a third generation sugar mill chief engineer, and has an extensive knowledge of the Australian sugar industry. Based in the intensive sugar cane region of Mossman in Far North Queensland, Graham brings to AgTourQuadrant Australia a professional understanding of this highly efficient industry.

After graduating from the Queensland Agricultural College , gaining a diploma Animal Husbandry majoring in nutrition, he gained experience on cattle properties in Central Western Queensland. His early years as a stock agent then led to the position as senior advisor in beef cattle husbandry with the Qld Dept. of Primary Industries. His experience in pasture nutrition led to the position of Managing Director with Rumevite Pty Ltd (Aust). Bruce has fed stock in many of the large holdings in the northern areas of QLD and NT. This has led to involvement in animal nutrition in the feedlot industry since 1985. He has until recently was National Technical Manager with Champion Liquid Foods Pty Ltd a new liquid feed company established early in 2000 to service the cattle, sheep and feedlot industries.

Bruce looks after Quadrant Australia's information technology requirements including database programming, web development, system administration and brochure production. He has an extensive background with over 20 years IT experience within military, government and private enterprise organisations and has an Arts Degree(Military Studies) and a Graduate Diploma (Information Systems).

Terri has maintained Quadrant/AgTour's accounts and bookkeeping since 2003. With 20 years in the banking industry, followed by 6 years working as an accounting professional, Terri has a broad range of experience to bring to Quadrant Australia . She maintains the Quickbooks accounting package in all areas of invoicing, accounts payable and receivable, and payroll. She has degrees in both Information Technology and Business (Accounting).