After eight years, Murray Dairy has farewelled its chief executive officer and regional manager Jenny Wilson.
During this time, Jenny has brought a comprehensive theoretical and practical knowledge that has contributed to Murray Dairy’s ongoing success.
She has assisted the Murray Dairy team in building productive relationships across the industry and has become an exemplary leader.
A key focus of Jenny’s leadership since 2015 has been collaboration and partnerships. As a result, Murray Dairy has leveraged significant external funding for strategic projects specifically designed to address the challenges and opportunities in the Murray region.
This includes the delivery of major investments in the Murray region such as the Accelerating Change Project (refocused under Jenny’s leadership), the Murray Region’s Future Focus Strategy, Fodder for the Future, Workforce Attraction, Building Better Regions and New Generation Skills for the Dairy Industry projects.
The latest investment, C4Milk Murray Region Cropping-Forages Investment, is a major partnership between Murray Dairy, the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Dairy Australia and the Gardiner Foundation.
This is an example of local delivery and direction of investment directly as part of a National Feedbase Program.
Jenny also led Murray Dairy and the broader industry through some extremely challenging times, including drought and dry conditions, wet conditions and flooding, fires, milk price crash, COVID-19 and ongoing water policy reform.
During Jenny’s tenure, the Murray Dairy team has expanded. Her focus on people and development has seen many employees and farmers progress within their industry, and it’s her mentorship and guidance that has led to substantial contributions of many to the dairy, local community and the broader agricultural industry.
Jenny has made many ongoing strong professional relationships and friendships, and we all look forward to working with her in new role as community development general manager at Gardiner Dairy Foundation.
Outgoing Murray Dairy chair Andy Tyler said it has been a privilege to work with Jenny.
“Jenny’s leadership and passion for dairy in this region will be hard to replace, and we wish her all the best as she takes up a new role at Gardiner Foundation,” he said.
With the departure of Jenny, the Murray Dairy board and Dairy Australia have worked together on a new approach to the role.
In the meantime, Amy Fay and Lachlan Barnes will step into respective roles of executive officer to the Murray Dairy Board and regional manager.
This will allow time, stability and support for the Murray team and maintains corporate knowledge with the recently revamped Murray Dairy Board.
Lachlan said he was sad to see Jenny go after working alongside her for so long.
“However, I couldn’t be taking over the regional manager’s portion of the role under better circumstances,” he said.
“Jenny has created a great culture and strong team. Under her leadership, Murray Dairy has built a strong reputation among local dairy farmers.”