After 13 years at the helm, wool broker's chief Chris Wilcox to retire

Mr Wilcox will retire from April 30.

Council president Rowan Woods said Mr Wilcox had been a driving force on many issues the industry has faced during his time as executive director.

These issues have included the National Wool Declaration including the introduction of the NWD in 2008 and AWEX's triennial reviews of the NWD and supporting the uptake of the NWD.

"Chris also supported the board in developing its policies regarding the management of flystrike and the council's more recent policy supporting the mandatory use of anaesthetic and analgesic when mulesing.

A former chief economist with The Woolmark Company, Mr Wilcox will be replaced by Paul Deane who starts on May 3.

Mr Deane is an agricultural economist who also worked at The Woolmark Company plus also the ANZ Bank and Victoria's Agriculture Department (as did Mr Wilcox).

Mr Deane is today working as a lecturer in agricultural economics and agribusiness at the University of Melbourne.

More reading: Increase in consumer demand needed to lift wool prices.

Mr Wilcox also worked with other industry organisations during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 to ensure the continuation of wool auctions and took part in the the annual review of the Wool Selling Program as well as pushing for more selling weeks each year.

Mr Woods said Mr Wilcox had been instrumental in raising the profile of the national council.

"I have enjoyed my time with NCWSBA enormously and have found it tremendously rewarding," Mr Wilcox said.

"While I have worked in the Australian wool industry since 1992, my 13 years with NCWSBA has, without doubt, been my favourite time."

The association represents the majority of Australian wool brokers, with members accounting for more than 80 per cent of wool sold at auction in Australia in 2019/20.

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