Bob McKay, Managing Director
Bob grew up on his family’s sheep, cattle, grains and cotton farm at Warren, NSW, and has devoted much of his working life to the farm and farming community.
Bob founded Agfarm in 1992, and during the next eight years, established the company as a successful and highly innovative agribusiness.
In August 2000, Bob was recruited to take up the role of General Manager, AWB (Australia) Limited. Bob led a team of 15 people, and managed AWB’s domestic grain trading activities and exports of non-wheat grains.
Bob was then appointed General Manager, Grower Services Division (August 2001-November 2003). He headed up a team of 60 people, and was responsible for the national management of all grain acquisition activities and grower servicing functions. During this time Bob transformed the Grower Services Division into a sales and customer focused business that worked with passion and diligence to consistently exceed their year-on-year sales targets.
Bob returned to Agfarm in 2003 to set up a local office in Moree (NSW). After 12 months in Moree, he expanded Agfarm's operations into Western Australia and Victoria.
In 2008, Bob established Clear Commodities with technology partners in Melbourne. Clear Commodities is an online grain exchange, which facilitates price discovery as well as providing clearing and payment guarantees to both buyers and sellers. Clear Commodities was operational in time for the 2008 harvest.
Bob has a commitment to new technologies and developing these in ways that create more value for clients, business partners and staff and is at the forefront of grain brokering services nationally.
Emma Weston, Director
A former lawyer and management consultant, Emma is the Managing Director of NZ based fertiliser and resource company, Featherston Resources Limited. Emma has had a long career in agribusiness at various management levels as well as in her capacity as legal counsel for the former Australian Wheat Board (AWB). Emma managed legal affairs for AWB’s treasury, harvest finance, grower services, corporate affairs, grain technology and internal services divisions for three years before moving into a variety of senior management positions at AWB. In her last role at AWB, Emma managed the AWB national pool distributions, the national grower service centre, all grower communications and the AWB grower website as well as coordinating the financial and rural services team strategy and quarterly performance reporting.
After leaving AWB in 2004, Emma undertook a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the Australian Graduate School of Management and consulted to major agribusinesses both in Australia and overseas specialising in grower services strategies, sales and marketing planning and execution, grower communications and agri-retail distribution. In 2006, Emma joined Agfarm Pty Ltd to assist with the establishment of its internal services, grower communications and technology business units and the national expansion of its broker network.
Based in Sydney, Australia, Emma and her family own and operate a grain farm in Central West NSW. Emma is a non-executive director of Agfarm Pty Ltd as well as a member of the Advisory Board of leading soil and land management consultancy and an executive director of Featherston Resources Limited. Emma is also the co-founder and a former director of the CLEAR Group, an online physical grain exchange and commodities clearing house.
John Maher, Director
Appointed to Ruralco Holdings Limited in October 2006, John is responsible for the parent company and branded entities that form the largest network of independently owned stores and regional companies in agribusiness and real estate throughout Australia. He is a Director of most Ruralco Holdings subsidiary companies, including Agfarm, Roberts Limited, CRT and CRT Financial Services.
Prior to joining Ruralco, John was the Group General Manager of one of the country's largest agribusinesses involved in the distribution of rural supplies as well as the logistics, marketing and sale of livestock and wool and the provision of services relating to finance, insurance, agronomy, real estate, grain acquisition and grain marketing. He has also held senior positions in organisations involved in the international marketing of Australian agricultural commodities and rural consultancy.
Glenn Findlay, Director
Glenn is responsible for corporate strategy and planning, and business development. He is also responsible for the Group's information technology infrastructure and application systems.
A chartered accountant with over 20 years experience, Glenn has held various senior commercial and financial positions across a number of industries including textile manufacturing, consumer goods manufacturing and agribusiness. Glenn joined Ruralco in October 2006 having spent the previous seven years in senior roles with a major national agribusiness.