Power players: Meet regional Australia’s 100 movers and shakers
From billionaire farmers to corporate chiefs, meet the 100 most powerful people shaping rural Australia's future in 2025.
The power players of rural and regional Australia are a diverse and surprising bunch.
Some are more accustomed to the corridors of power in Canberra or the boardrooms of Collins St than the main streets of Cooma or Charleville.
They come from every corner of influence: bushies and billionaires, politicians and pastoralists, innovators and investors.
Some work the land, others shape the laws, control the supply chain or direct the capital that keeps the wheels turning.
Together, they influence the daily lives of millions of Australians outside our capital cities — and more often than not, those within them.
In 2025, their reach stretches from the paddocks to the parliament, from the shearing shed to the shipping dock. Some make headlines, others prefer to work quietly behind the scenes, but all leave a mark on how regional Australia grows, trades and thrives.
This is AgJournal’s line-up of the great and powerful for the year ahead — the names to know, the forces to watch and the stories behind why they matter.
THE AGENDA SETTERS
Anthony Albanese
Prime Minister
In the weeks before the May 2025 election, Anthony Albanese and his cabinet were quietly confident of winning a second term. But even the truest of Labor true believers didn’t see one of the biggest electoral victories in Australian history on the horizon. Eclipsing even the political popularity of Silver Bodgie himself, Bob Hawke, Mr Albanese won a hefty 94 seats in the 150 seat House of Representatives. But of that 94, few were truly regional — the numbers were run up the board by an absolute schlacking of the Coalition in urban Australia. So will the Man from Marrickville reach out to the voters beyond the suburban belt when his parliamentary majority is all-conquering? Rural watchers are looking to what further work the PM achieves on drought relief, trade and regional infrastructure in his second term.
Don Farrell
Federal Trade Minister
Donald Trump famously published The Art of the Deal back in his 1980s heyday as a property developer. It would not be surprising if another political Donald — Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell — has a dog-eared paperback in his well-travelled briefcase. The South Australian senator and vineyard owner is arguably the most powerful agricultural figure in cabinet in this new world of tariffs and trade barriers. While the American President has created some trans-Pacific headaches for Senator Farrell, there’s also some surprising spin-offs. The European Union’s drawn-out trade negotiations with Australia over agricultural naming and other regulations has gone from the slow lane into a new gear as Brussels seeks new friends away from an isolationist Washington DC.
Mick Keogh
ACCC deputy chairman
When inaugural Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels wrote about his life as the nation’s consumer watchdog, he titled his autobiography: Tough Customer. Mick Keogh hasn’t reached the ACCC pinnacle yet but in his role as the watchdog’s second-in-command, he’s had to make a number of tough calls in the agricultural space at a time of economic transformation. From 2003 to 2018, he was executive director of the Australian Farm Institute before making the move to the ACCC seven years ago. Since then, the rollout of the mandatory dairy code of conduct has consumed plenty of his time as has supermarket competition and its impact on primary producers as well as consolidation of the troubled dairy processing sector. The most recent agri call in his inbox has been Elders proposed $475m takeover of Delta Agribusiness. The ACCC has flagged concerns the deal would substantially lessen competition in farming regions across Australia.
David Jochinke
National Farmers’ Federation president
The Man from Murra Warra, David Jochinke built a profile for agri-advocacy as president of the Victorian Farmers Federation before the switch to Canberra — the first VFF leader to also serve as National Farmers’ Federation president. Taking over the reins from the media savvy Fiona Simson, the Wimmera farmer made waves in his first weeks in the job by taking aim at the Albanese government and then agriculture minister Murray Watt in particular. Mr Jochinke has since led the Keep Farmers Farming campaign and led a rally on Canberra to send a message to federal powerbrokers over everything from live export bans to rising red tape. Stepping down in October, whoever DJ’s successor is will face both internal issues with the recent resignation of NFF chief executive Troy Williams after four months as well as external dramas with international trade.
Sussan Ley
Federal Opposition Leader
Will Sussan Ley be Australia’s answer to Margaret Thatcher or Liz Truss? Taking over the reins of the Liberal Party at its lowest ebb, it’s fair to say the Albury-based MP has more of a mountain to climb than either Maggie or Liz had during their tumultuous time in British politics. Like the Iron Lady, Australia’s first female opposition leader has gained her party’s top job at a time when it’s desperately in need of electoral relevance. While the Liberals, and particularly the Nationals, held most of regional Australia at the 2025 election, getting the centre-right message across to suburban Australia has never been more challenging. How does Ms Ley balance the climate concerns of wealthy voters in beachside Sydney and Melbourne while maintaining the Coalition’s hold of rural constituencies angered by the rollout of billions in electricity infrastructure over their farmland? The former aerial stock mustering pilot has some turbulent times ahead.
Tony Mahar
Energy Infrastructure Commissioner
After more than eight years as National Farmers’ Federation chief executive, Tony Mahar went from the visitor side of the bureaucratic desk to the public service swivel chair. His 2024 appointment as Australia’s Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, replaced interim tsar John Sheldon, who kept the commissioner seat warm following the retirement of inaugural appointee Andrew Dyer. Mr Dyer made the position his own — originally working as National Wind Farm Commissioner when the role was established in October 2015 as an independent voice to the federal government reporting on the impact of wind turbines to the environment and human health. Mr Dyer’s role was expanded three years later to include large-scale solar farms and underwent another redesign in 2021 when the federal government announced the remit would be expanded to focus on the rollout of major new energy transmission projects. Mr Mahar’s appointment means he now has to strike the right balance between farmer concerns and the ever-growing list of renewable projects that dot the regional Australian landscape.
Murray Watt
Federal Water Minister
Quick with a quip, Murray Watt has held more than his fair share of portfolios since the Albanese Government came to power in 2022. Originally balancing agriculture and emergency management, the Queensland senator then shifted to the tricky area of workplace relations. Following Labor’s 2025 victory, the Prime Minister clearly sees the former Brisbane lawyer as something of a troubleshooter, switching his responsibilities yet again from employment to environment and water. Taking over the role from Tanya Plibersek, the Murray-Darling Basin and the issue of water buybacks reinserts Senator Watt into the orbit of agriculture and potentially another tussle with the National Farmers’ Federation.
ALSO
Natalie Collard — Farmers for Climate Action CEO
Julie Collins — Federal Agriculture Minister
Tania Constable — Minerals Council of Australia CEO
Will Evans — Cattle Council CEO
Tracey Hayes — Royal Flying Doctor Service chair
Tanya Jolly — Country Women’s Association (NSW) president
Catherine King — Federal Regional Development Minister
Andrew McConville — Murray Darling Basin Authority CEO
David Littleproud — Nationals leader
Cathy McGowan — Agrifutures chair
Jock Laurie — Australian Wool Innovation chairman
Hamish McIntyre — National Farmers’ Federation
John McKillop — Red Meat Advisory Council chair
Fiona Simson — World Farmers Organisation vice president
Liz Ritchie — Regional Australia Institute CEO
Georgie Somerset — National Farmers’ Federation
THE LAND BARONS
Marc Drouin
PSP Investments global head of natural resources
Public Sector Pension Fund Investments senior managing director, real assets and global head of natural resources investment (Canada)
With a total Australian agricultural investment portfolio worth more than $8 billion, Canada’s goliath pension fund PSP Investments, is by far the largest investor in the nation’s farming sector.
At the helm is Marc Drouin, who oversees PSP Investments’ Australian agricultural vehicles including cropping giant Altora Ag, which runs 45 properties across 153,000 hectares of Queensland, NSW, and South Australia, plus Australian Food and Fibre which is run by the Robinson family, whose investments include Auscott Limited.
PSP also owns Aurora Dairies, which comprises more than 50 farms running 40,000-plus cows to produce 253 million litres of milk, plus major walnut, pecan, macadamia and almond producer Stahmann Webster.
Adam Giles
Hancock Agriculture/S Kidman and Co CEO
The former chief minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, now serves as Gina Rinehart’s agricultural lieutenant, leading her two enterprises to now be worth more than $2 billion.
S. Kidman & Co, a historic Australian cattle company, has dramatically reshaped its landholdings in recent years, offloading 10 iconic outback stations, covering a combined 6.7 million hectares and marking a shift in strategy.
Giles has led this charge with Kidman recently making their first property acquisition for 20 years with the purchase of 7000ha Jindabyne station north of Inverell, which was quickly followed by a $75m deal for the 5003ha Wirribilla, near Walcha.
David Harris
Australian Agricultural Company CEO
Running Australia’s oldest continuously operating company, AACo, David Harris oversees the nation’s largest beef herd of 455,000 cattle across 6.5 million hectares in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
The ASX-listed company has total assets of $2.4 billion, including property assets valued at $1.5 billion, including 19-owned cattle stations, four leased stations, two owned feedlots, two owned farms and one leased farm.
Harris was appointed AACo CEO in September 2022 after joining the company in 2016.
This year AACo posted an operating profit of $58.4 million, up 14 per cent year on year. Its total revenue increased 15 per cent to $387.9 million.
The company has paid a dividend since 2008.
Kristina Hermanson
Nuveen Natural Capital head of Asia Pacific and Africa
Considered the third largest agricultural investor in Australia with $2.5 billion in assets, Nuveen Natural Capital, backed by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF), holds a serious stake in the nation’s farming sector.
Born and raised on a dairy farm in the American state of Wisconsin, Kristina Hermanson oversees an Australian agricultural platform that includes 350,000 hectares in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia combined.
This includes Nuveen’s 66 Australian farms, of which, 60 are operated under the tenant model, handing the keys of production back to local farm and asset managers.
Peter Hughes
Hughes Pastoral Group/Georgina Pastoral Co
Regarded as Australia’s Wagyu cattle king, Peter Hughes with wife Jane and family have established one of the largest privately owned Wagyu beef herds in the world, spanning almost 4 million hectares.
Based on the 160,000-hectare Tierawoomba station, 100km inland from Mackay in central Queensland, the Hughes’ and family have created a quiet expansion over the past two decades.
The Hughes’ also made the astute call to experiment crossbreeding with Japan’s pampered black Wagyu cattle breed way back in 1992.
Since then their two associated cattle companies, Hughes Pastoral and Georgina Pastoral, have risen to be a superpower in Australia’s beef industry including a recent $66m purchase of the 33,959ha Taylors Plains property at Mungallala in southwest Queensland.
Liam Lenaghan
GO.FARM managing director
Founded in 2013 by Liam Lenaghan, with backing from Costa Asset Management, GO. FARM has grown into one of Australia’s most prominent agricultural investors and developers.
The company specialises in transforming under-utilised farmland into high-performing, irrigated horticultural assets in southern Australia, laying claim to a $1.5 billion portfolio at present.
A former Ballarat country boy and trained agronomist, Lenaghan’s GO. FARM also secured a $200 million co-investment from Qantas Super to support the regeneration and development of their landholdings.
Last year the company acquired the 3300ha Eurambeen Station and Grandview properties west of Ballarat while also launching the $300m Responsible Agriculture Fund to pursue new land transformation projects independently of its existing investor base.
Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello
Crown Point Pastoral Company
Together this pair of mates have built Australia’s largest pastoral empire by mass, spanning more than 9.2 million hectares through the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.
The former horse trainers and owners have purchased 13 stations and grazing properties over the past decade and half, curating a swath of landholdings larger than Tasmania and more than twice the size of Switzerland.
Three years ago they were revealed as the buyers of four stations, totalling 3.26 million hectares, from billionaire mining giant Gina Rinehart’s S.Kidman & Co including Ruby Plains and Sturt Creek stations in WA and Innamincka Station and Macumba Station in SA.
Liz O’Leary
Macquarie Asset Management global chair of agriculture and natural assets
At the helm of Macquarie Asset Management’s Australia agricultural investment arm is Liz O’Leary, responsible for the second largest portfolio of farming assets, by value, in the country.
With more than $4 billion of investments nationally, including the country’s largest cotton farm- the 93,700ha Cubbie Station, near Dirranbandi in southern Queensland, Cowal Agriculture near Emerald, broadacre cropping business Viridis Ag and multistate enterprise Vitalharvest, acquired in 2021 for $357.35 million.
Macquarie also owns and operates the 4.48 million-hectare Paraway Pastoral Company, but recently announced their intentions to divest the sheep and beef enterprise, where it could be worth well in excess of $2.5 billion.
ALSO
David Bryant — Rural Funds Management CEO
Garry Edwards — AAM Investments CEO
Guy Hands — Consolidated Pastoral
Peter Harris — PJ Harris and Sons
Mick Hewitt — Hewitt Cattle CEO
Michael Hintze — MH Premium Farms
Paul Holmes a Court — Heytesbury Pastoral
Li Ka-Shing — CK Life Sciences
Hugh Killen — Impact Ag Australia CEO
Allan Myers — Dunkeld Pastoral Company
Joe Robertson — Australian Food and Fibre CEO
Perich family — Leppington Pastoral Company
THE TOP END OF TOWN
Mark Allison
Elders CEO
Elders boss Mark Allison is shaping up for what could well be one of the biggest years of his career as the rural services giant advances its proposed $475 million takeover of Delta Agribusiness — a deal years in the making but now under scrutiny from the competition watchdog. The ACCC has warned the acquisition could substantially lessen competition in several key farming regions, making the outcome a defining moment for the 185-year-old agribusiness. Allison, who has led Elders since 2014, had planned to retire in 2023 but shelved those plans after the board’s global search failed to find a stronger candidate. He has now committed to staying until at least 2026.
Amanda Bardwell
Woolworths CEO
At just 14, Amanda Bardwell’s working life began on her feet in a small food store on the outskirts of Brisbane. Three decades later, she is in the hot seat as boss of Woolworths Group — Australia’s largest supermarket chain — a role she assumed in September last year. Bardwell took the reins at a challenging time for the retailer, with Woolworths losing market share to rival Coles, facing the fallout from a two-week strike that wiped $240 million from sales, and navigating cost-of-living pressures faced by budget-conscious shoppers. Bardwell has pledged to carefully consider recent ACCC recommendations aimed at improving supermarket pricing transparency and supplier relationships.
Gina Rinehart
Hancock Prospecting/Hancock Agriculture
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart makes the power-list cut not only for her dominance in mining but for her fast-growing agricultural interests. Hancock oversees the nation’s largest private resources company, the success of which has fuelled major investments beyond iron ore, including stakes in lithium producers Azure Minerals and Liontown Resources, and the purchase of iconic Australian brands Driza-Bone and Rossi Boots. Rinehart is also one of the country’s largest private landholders through her majority ownership of S. Kidman & Co and
Hancock Agriculture.
Wagner family
Wagner Corporation
No list of regional Australian powerhouses is complete without the Wagner family of southeast Queensland — a name synonymous with ambition, innovation and major infrastructure delivery. From their origins in Queensland in 1856, the Wagners have built a business empire spanning construction materials, property, infrastructure and sustainable development. Founded in 1989, Wagner Corporation, chaired by John Wagner, has driven landmark projects including the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport — Australia’s first privately funded public airport — and the adjoining Wellcamp Business Park, now home to the Qantas Group Pilot Academy and the state’s largest fresh food export hub.
Leah Weckert
Coles CEO
Two years into her role as chief executive of Coles Group, Leah Weckert has steered the supermarket giant through intense political and regulatory scrutiny. Appointed in May 2023, the first woman to lead a major Australian supermarket chain has drawn on more than a decade in senior roles at Coles to defend its place in a “very vigorous” retail market, while signalling a willingness to improve supplier relationships. She has backed greater transparency for fresh produce growers, including clearer contract terms, earlier certainty on orders and limits on unilateral changes to agreements. Operationally, Weckert has overseen three automated distribution and fulfilment centres and maintained sales growth despite cost-of-living pressures.
ALSO
Vicki Brady — Telstra CEO
Joe Chiczewski — McDonald’s Australia CEO
Sherry Duhe — Newcrest Mining CEO
Nicola Forrest — Harvest Road
Twiggy Forrest — Fortescue Metals executive chairman
Kevin Gallagher — Santos CEO
Andrew Harding — Aurizon CEO
Mike Henry — BHP Billiton CEO
Neville Howell — Regional Express CEO
Vanessa Hudson — Qantas CEO
Greg Hunt — Nufarm managing director
Thomas Knudsen — Toll Group executive chairman
Dino Otranto — Fortescue CEO
Vikas Rambal — Perdaman chairman
Stephen Rue — Optus CEO
Rob Scott — Wesfarmers managing director
Paul Scurrah — Pacific National CEO
Jakob Stausholm — Rio Tinto CEO
David Williams — Kidder Williams chairman
THE FOOD PRODUCERS
David Bortolussi
a2 milk CEO
Renewed growth and global expansion have been the central themes of David Bortolussi tenure as chief executive of The a2 Milk Company since February 2021. In the first half of last financial year, the company posted a 10.1 per cent lift in revenue to NZ$893.8 million, beating market expectations and buoyed by strong demand in China and the US. Under Bortolussi’s leadership, a2 Milk declared its maiden dividend and upgraded full-year revenue guidance to low- to mid-double-digit growth. China remains the centrepiece of its strategy, with a 7.7 per cent market share in the world’s largest infant formula category, but expansion is accelerating in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Brent Eastwood
JBS Foods Australia CEO
Plates don’t come much fuller than Brent Eastwood’s, who is at the helm of Australia’s largest meat and food processing company, with operations spanning beef, lamb, pork and aquaculture. Under his leadership, JBS runs one of the country’s most extensive processing and feedlot networks, supported by advanced production facilities and a major value-added business supplying retail-ready products across domestic and export markets. The company’s operations extend from Queensland to Tasmania, employing thousands. JBS Pork, expanded through the 2021 acquisition of Rivalea, is a leading pork producer and processor, while Huon Aquaculture is Australia’s second-largest producer of Atlantic Salmon..
Roger Fletcher
Fletcher’s International managing director
Roger Fletcher, with an estimated net worth of $1.09 billion, is a towering figure in Australian agriculture, having transformed his family’s Dubbo NSW-based operation into a global meat export powerhouse. As founder and head of Fletcher International Exports, he built one of the nation’s most integrated lamb and sheep meat processing businesses, complete with its own freight train to move product to port. The company operates two state-of-the-art plants in Dubbo NSW and near Albany WA, with a combined capacity to process more than 90,000 sheep and lambs a week. The Fletcher Group also controls more than 110,000 hectares across NSW and Western Australia.
Barry Irvin
Bega Group executive chairman
Barry Irvin, executive chairman of Bega Group, has led the company since 2000, transforming it from a small regional dairy into one of Australia’s largest dairy and food businesses. And he’s not done yet. In 2025, Irvin has overseen some of Bega’s most strategic decisions in years. In May, Bega announced the phased closure of its northern Victorian Strathmerton site, consolidating processing and packaging operations into the Bega Valley by mid-2026 — a move affecting about 300 staff. Two months later, the company confirmed it was seeking informal ACCC clearance to acquire Fonterra’s Australian assets, citing national interest considerations under foreign investment rules.
Robert Spurway
Graincorp CEO
Robert Spurway has guided the ASX-listed Graincorp agribusiness through a period of growth, diversification and heightened global market volatility since taking the reins in March 2020. GrainCorp is the largest grain storage and handling business on Australia’s east coast and the leading edible oil processor and oilseed crusher in Australia and New Zealand, with operations spanning domestic and international markets. Spurway was in the headlines recently when he presented to the federal government’s Economic Reform Roundtable on how agriculture can underpin national economic resilience. He highlighted key priorities including establishing a domestic renewable fuels industry using local feedstocks and upgrading regional freight infrastructure to reduce supply chain bottlenecks.
Marc Werner
Costa Group CEO
Marc Werner took the helm at Costa Group in March 2024 during its transition from ASX listing to private ownership by Paine Schwartz Partners, Driscoll’s Inc. and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation. Costa is Australia’s largest horticultural company and a leading global grower, packer and marketer of fresh produce. Its operations span more than 7000 planted hectares, 40 hectares of glasshouse facilities and three mushroom production sites in Australia, as well as farms in China and Morocco. Costa’s core categories include berries, citrus, grapes, avocados, tomatoes and mushrooms, with premium brands exported to more than 20 countries.
ALS0
Edward Alexander — Inghams Australia CEO
Will Barton — Gundagai Meat Processors CEO
David Blackmore — Blackmore Wagyu
Tom Bull — Kinross Lamb
John Camilleri — Baiada Poultry/Steggles CEO
Wayne Crofts — V&V Walsh/Craig Moyston Group CEO
Darren DeBortoli — De Bortoli Wines managing director
Scott de Bruin — De Bruin Group/Mayura Wagyu managing director
Sam Fischer — Treasury Wine Estates incoming CEO
Peter Gago — Penfolds chief winemaker
Peter Greenham — Greenham Australia managing director
Dick Honan — Manildra Group chairman
Miles Hurrell — Fonterra Oceania CEO
Anthony Lee — Australian Country Choice CEO
David Mattiske — Viterra CEO
Ben Macnamara — CBH Group CEO
Andrew McDonald — Bindaree Beef CEO
Rob McGavin — Cobram Estate chairman
Dean McKenna — Midfield Group general manager
Mark Ryan — Tassal Holdings CEO
Raquel Said — Nutri-V chief executive
Lino Saputo Jr.— Saputo executive chairman
Paul Serra — SunRice Group CEO
David Surveyor — Select Harvests CEO
Darren Thomas — Thomas Foods CEO
Charles von der Heyde — Huon Aquaculture CEO
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