Board
Riverine Plains is overseen by a voluntary board of Member and Independent Directors
About the Board
Riverine Plains is overseen by a voluntary board of Member Directors and Independent Directors, which meets monthly at the group’s Mulwala office.
Board members
Member Directors
Chair: Ian Trevethan, Howlong
Deputy Chair: Fiona Marshall, Mulwala
Treasurer: Murray Scholz, Culcairn
Public Officer: John Bruce, Barooga
Melissa Brown, Miepoll
Independent Directors
Alison Penfold
Brondwen MacLean
About the Member Directors
Fiona Marshall (Deputy Chair)
Fiona farms with her husband Craig in the Rennie area, north of Mulwala. They are broadacre, dryland grain growers also operating a prime lamb enterprise. They have been farming together for 26 years and hope their children will be fourth generation farmers in this area.
Fiona is a life-long learner with a background in applied science and education. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the NFF Diversity in Ag Leadership Program and the Grains Social Leadership Program. Fiona has served on the GRDC Southern Panel and is passionate about building capacity within the grains industry from the laboratory to the farm, to the end user and all in between.
Fiona strives to improve the profile and profitability of Australian agriculture with a particular focus on women in the industry.
Murray Scholz (Treasurer)
Murray Scholz is the owner and manager of his family farming business producing grain, oilseeds, beef, and lamb in the Eastern Riverina. He has been a member of Riverine Plains for over 15 years.
Murray is an experienced Board Director with over 10 years of commercial and not for profit experience in strategic direction, financial management, corporate governance and communication strategy in commercial agricultural business, capacity building, and research. He has served as a director of Nuffield Australia, of Queensland Crop Research and Holbrook Landcare. He is currently a director of Regional Development Australia Murray Region and Riverine Plains Farming Systems Group. He sits on the NSW Rural Assistance Authority Disaster Assistance Grants Appeals Panel. He also sat on the Industry Advisory Panel of the Graham Centre (Charles Sturt University & NSW DPI) and GRDC Southern NSW Grower Network.
In 2008 Murray undertook a Nuffield scholarship, looking at the impact of genetically modified, herbicide tolerant crops on weed management.
Murray is a nationally recognised innovator, and his experience in agriculture has led him to present at conferences in Canada, India, and Japan. In Australia he has presented at government, industry and university conferences including ABARES National Outlook Conference, Australian Farm Institute conferences, and GRDC updates. Topics have included weed management, technology in agriculture, adapting farming systems in a changing environment, and strategic decision making. His business has been featured on ABC’s Landline and Bush Telegraph.
Murray is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and completed The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP Texas A&M).
Melissa Brown
Melissa Brown has been a committee member since 2018 and is one of the inaugural Member directors of Riverine Plains. She is a partner in a family run mixed farming business, Moorilim Pastoral Company, based near Murchison, Victoria. Melissa is currently employed by BASF Agricultural Solutions as the Technical Development Manager for Broadacre crops and has extensive field trial experience and understanding of agronomic systems across Australia. Melissa has a Bachelor of Agriculture from Dookie College and is a Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Alumni. She is passionate about improving her community and promoting agriculture as a career pathway for the next generation.
More Member Director profiles coming soon…
About the Independent Directors
Alison Penfold
Alison has extensive experience in issues management, reputational risk, stakeholder engagement, policy development and communications.
Alison’s expertise has seen her work in a variety of influential roles in government and opposition, the corporate sector and representing industry. She was the CEO of the Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council from 2012 to 2016, Government Relations Manager for the Woolworths Group and most recently Chief of Staff to the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, the Hon David Littleproud MP.
Alison currently works with a company that helps global and ASX100 companies, industries and organisations to address their most pressing challenges and earn a social licence to operate.
Brondwen MacLean
Brondwen MacLean is a Director of Pivotal Management Consulting. Until her retirement in July 2019 she was General Manager of Research Programs at the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and in all had spent over 20 years at GRDC in various parts of the business, including Senior Manager of Breeding Programs.
Brondwen served as Executive Manager on all three of GRDC’s Regional Panels. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has been a mentor is several programs including NFF’s Diversity in Agricultural Leadership Program. Since retiring Brondwen has consulted for the CRC for Developing Northern Australia, undertaken company governance and structural reviews, for both the public and private sector and has assisted AgriFutures Australia (AgriFutures) in their establishment of the growAG platform and more broadly across the business. Brondwen was an interim Director for Rice Breeding Australia, a newly established company focussed on delivering better (focus on water use efficiency) rice varieties for Australian growers. Currently Brondwen is undertaking a number of consultancies in areas of biosecurity, governance and structural reforms.
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