The Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia (RGA) today announced the appointment of Dean Logan as its new executive director.
The announcement follows the resignation of Ruth Wade who will be leaving the organisation at the end of the month.
Ms Wade has worked for seven years in the Australian rice industry and has made an enormous contribution to its vitality and potential for the future.
RGA president, Les Gordon, said Ms Wade had provided outstanding leadership to the industry and would be missed.
“Ruth’s undeniable passion for the rice industry, her talent for educating the media, our community and government stakeholders, and her commitment to fostering leadership among growers will be her legacy,” Mr Gordon said.
“At the same time as we farewell Ruth we want to extend a very warm welcome to Dean Logan, who joins the RGA with a tremendous amount of public policy experience at a state and federal level across a variety of industries and issues, including water, investment, environment and the community.
Mr Logan has led organisations and industry groups including Small to Medium Enterprise Australia Limited (SMEA) and the Australian Marine Alliance (AMA).
“Dean will work closely with our growers, other industry bodies and peak advocacy groups to promote the rice industry’s interests and those of agriculture more broadly," Mr Gordon said.
"His focus for the year ahead will be continuing the work started by Ruth to share knowledge about the industry with key stakeholders, ensure future innovation and evolution through research and development and work especially on our ongoing contribution to the water policy debate.”
Mr Logan said he was looking forward to addressing issues including water policy, R&D and extension programs and building industry capacity.