Donald Coles

I recently sold my second seed company, Valley Seeds, and now act as a Principal for The Context Network, a US based, international consulting company specialising in agriculture value chains.

I have spent most of my career working in Agribusiness and retailing. I have been a director of three companies, two seed companies and one small farming company. I have also been non-executive director of three industry related boards including President of the Australian Seed Federation and served on many committees for RIRDC’s such as the GRDC and currently Horticulture Innovation.

I was recognised by the global seed industry and elected President of the peak body which is the International Seed Federation (ISF). ISF has over 60 country association members who represent over 7,500 seed companies and many multinational seed company members such as Bayer, Syngenta and Corteva.

I am a graduate of Marcus Oldham College, hold a Master of Business Administration and have just completed the director’s course with the Australian Institute of Company Directors. I grew up on the family farm at Yarck, in NE Victoria where we operated a performance tested Angus herd, Merino and cross bred sheep and a pasture and lawn seed production enterprise. I currently run a small farm at Terip Terip in the Strathbogie ranges.

I was the founder of a wheat breeding start-up which attracted investment from five Australian listed companies; Nurfam, Landmark (when owned by Wesfarmers), Graincorp, Ausbulk and CBH.

I also have significant experience and close ties to the Australian supermarket retail sector. I took our market share of home garden lawn seed from 12% to around 60%, mostly through retail chain stores.