New Chair and Directors for InterGrain

Karlie Mucjanko has been appointed Chair of InterGrain, a leading Australian cereal breeding company, along with two new directors – Tracy Lefroy and Bob Mullins.

Karlie joined the InterGrain board in 2019 and brings extensive experience in agriculture and business strategy to the role.

She is a director of several other agricultural organisations and was a senior executive at CBH Group for many years.

Karlie succeeds Ian Brown, who has been on the InterGrain board since 2014 and served as Chair for the past 6 years.

″I am excited to step into the role of chair and continue to build on InterGrain’s successes in delivering value in the Australian grains industry,″ said Karlie.

″InterGrain owes a great debt of gratitude to Ian for his years of service as Chair,″ said Karlie.

″He has been instrumental in driving the company’s growth and success, and we will continue to build on the strong foundation he has laid.″

New directors, Tracy Lefroy and Bob Mullins, join Chris Bazley, Julie Cox and Ms Mucjanko on the InterGrain board.

Tracy Lefroy is a respected grower, businesswoman and community leader-based Moora, Western Australia.

She understands the needs of grain producers and is a highly connected across Australia.

Bob Mullins is a seasoned agribusiness executive with extensive experience in agriculture and the plant science industry.

He brings a wealth of international scientific knowledge and commercial expertise to the board.

″We are thrilled to have Tracy and Bob join our board,″ said Karlie.

″Both bring unique perspectives and expertise that will help us to continue to innovate and grow as a company.

″It is an exciting time for our new Directors to be part of the dynamic direction InterGrain is moving in with promising opportunities for expansion and innovation,″ said Karlie.

″As a grain grower I understand the importance of competitive crop varieties and am thrilled to be able to shape the direction and strategy of InterGrain to continue to deliver grower value,″ said Tracy Lefroy.

″I am looking forward to working with a world-class plant breeding company that is rapidly adopting new breeding technologies and delivering real benefits to the grains industry,″ said Bob Mullins.

InterGrain board (L-R) Tracy Lefroy, Chris Bazley, Karlie Mucjanko, Bob Mullins (Julie Cox absent)

Karlie Mucjanko – InterGrain Chair

Karlie is a strategic communications specialist with experience in managing brands and reputations, complex stakeholder relationships and communications.

She has 20 years’ experience spanning industry advocacy, marketing & public relations, publishing and research and development.

Karlie joined Australia’s largest agribusiness, the CBH Group in 2005 where she subsequently spent almost a decade as General Manager Grower and External Relations working directly with grain growing producers, their rural communities and CBH’s many other stakeholders.

Karlie has established a communications consultancy, is currently the Deputy Chair of the Western Australian Regional Development Trust, a Director of Fremantle Ports, serves as a Board member of the Guildford Grammar School Foundation and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Tracy Lefroy – InterGrain Board Director

Tracy Lefroy joins the InterGrain board in 2023 as a Director, building on her extensive experience in advocacy and policy development in the grains industry and broader regional development context.

Tracy is an independent, creative and successful businesswoman operating from the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. As a self-starter, she founded and divested an award-winning business, is the co-owner and business manager of broadacre diversified farming enterprise and holds leadership and executive positions on boards and local government.

A former agribusiness analyst, communications manager and freelance agricultural journalist, Tracy is highly networked and connected across Australia. She has lived experience of regional and rural communities and a high-level of capability in negotiating and partnering with a broad range of stakeholders, including all levels of Government.

Tracy is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Director of Cranmore Farming Partnership, President of the Shire of Moora, a member of GrainGrowers’ National Policy Group, sits on the National Farmers Federation Telecommunications and Social Policy Committee, and is a member of the Grains Industry of WA Wheat Council.

Bob Mullins – InterGrain Board Director

Bob’s extensive international career as a senior executive in high-tech seeds businesses and experience as a director will help him to contribute to InterGrain’s board and business.

Bob comes from a wheat-farming background in North Western NSW and has always worked across the technical – commercial interface of plant-based agribusiness. He began his career as a plant breeder with CSR Ltd in Queensland before moving to R&D leadership in the sugar industry, then to a plant biotech start-up, and finally to Syngenta Seeds.  Based at times in Asia, North America, and Australia, he held country, regional and global commercial and marketing leadership roles in Syngenta.

Bob also brings wide experience as a company director, more recently serving as a non-executive director for New Edge Microbials Pty. Ltd., Future Food Systems Ltd, and Horticulture Innovation Australia Ltd.  He chairs a number of research, commercialisation and investment committees for these boards.