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The proponents of the company have all spent many years involved in Australia’s Rural industries, particularly in the Murray Darling Basin from the several different perspectives important to success of this venture; either as investors and managers of large private investments in the basin, as past policy makers at Commonwealth and State Level, as researchers or as project planners. Most have been involved in the studies that established the feasibility of this concept.
	Perry Gunner B. Ag Sc. Chairman; Mr Gunner has an established record raising investment funds for agriculture and agricultural processing ventures. He is currently Chair of ABB Grain limited. Among his many successes was the launching and establishing of Jacobs Creek as the worlds highest volume wine label following involvement in a management buyout of Orlando from Reckitt and Colman. Mr Gunner retired from Orlando as Executive Chairman of Orlando Wyndham in 1999 and is currently on the Board of McGuigan Simeon Wines, So Natural Foods. He was also a founding Director of Coorong Dairies, the largest supplier of milk to National Foods. Coorong Dairies involved the investment of some $10 million to establish the largest single pasture dairy herd in the world in sand country near the mouth of the Murray. This venture has established the practical feasibility of investing on a significant scale for productive land use change in degraded areas of the Murray Darling Basin and is a model Government has seen for state and private cooperation in the Murray River corridor.
	John Leake M. Ag Sc. Managing Director; Mr Leake has a career of some 34 years as consultant and project manager of rural development projects in some 32 countries for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the UN Group, the Global Environmental Facility, the Mekong River Commission and many Governments and private investors. He has conducted reviews of Government salinity programs from Commonwealth through State and Local Government levels, has also coordinated joint Government private research into plant based solutions to land degradation issues in all mainland states over some eight years. He was a panel speaker at the 2002 Adelaide Festival of Ideas on the subject “Salt of the Earth – Salt, water and the limits to growth.” He lead the team to study private investment into land and water repair funded by a the joint Commonwealth and SA Centre for Natural Resource Management, which has lead to the formation of this company.
	Peter Cosier B.Sc., Dip U.R.P. Director; Mr Cosier has professional qualifications in science, specialising in natural resource management and town planning. Peter was the Policy Adviser to the Commonwealth Environment Minister, Senator Robert Hill for 6 years between 1996 and 2001, responsible for the Natural Heritage Trust, biodiversity conservation programs, native vegetation and water reforms. He has recently completed a contract as the Deputy Director General in the NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources, heading the Office of Knowledge, Science and Information. Peter is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists which have produced blueprints that have influenced national water reforms and which led to major institutional reforms in landscape conservation across NSW.
	Dennis Mutton B.Sc (For) Hons, Grad Dip Mgt, and JP Director; Mr Mutton is an independent consultant in natural resource management, leadership development and strategic management of research and development. He is also a Director of a number of boards both in the private and public sectors. These include Chair of the Natural Resources Management Council of S.A., the Regional Communities Council of S.A., The Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, Bio Innovation SA and EDN Pty Ltd. He is also a Board Member of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Ltd., the Governor’s Leadership Foundation and Operation Flinders Foundation. He has recently retired after a long and distinguished career in the South Australian Public sector and industry. His most recent position was as Chief Executive of Primary Industries and Resources S.A. and prior to that Chief Executive of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the South Australian Woods and Forests Department. Dennis Mutton also held positions as Deputy President and Commissioner of the Murray Darling Basin Commission.
	Ian Kowalick BSc (Hons) B.Ec. Director; Ian Kowalick is a Director and consultant with over 30 years experience in both the private sector and government. From 1995 to 2000 he was the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in South Australia. During that time he was involved important public policy issues including inter government negotiations in important areas of water, environmental policy and resource management, especially issues concerning the Murray Darling system and ground water management. He has been a consultant to large resource companies on environmental, land use and remediation strategies and provides strategic and financial consulting to clients that include governments, universities, industry organizations and private and public companies. Ian has worked about half his career in senior public sector roles and in the private sector has been Managing Director of an investment fund, worked for an international consulting firm in the resources sector and spend three years on the workout and sale of the former State Bank of SA. He is currently Chairman of the Playford Capital Fund.
	Mike Young M.Ag.Sc, B.Ec. Special Advisor; Mike directs CSIRO Land and Water’s Policy and Economic Research Unit, is an Adjunct Professor with the University of New England and, also, the Charles Sturt University, and is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Mike has played a key role in helping Australian Governments to identify cost-effective ways to enhance environmental flows in the River Murray and in the design and implementation of the National Land and Water Resources Audit. He specialises in the design of natural resource policies and has played a key role in developing many of the ideas that underpin the Natural Water Initiative and water reform processes underway in both the urban and rural sector. Mike sits on the SA Government’s Sustainability Roundtable, the Market-Based Instrument Working Group that has oversight of Government Programs seeking to use market-based instruments to improve natural resource management, restore biodiversity and manage dry-land salinity more effectively.