Australia
July 22, 2009
Mark Tucek is the new CEO of the
Council of Grain Grower Organisations (COGGO).
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Bindi
Bindi grain grower and COGGO Chairman, Bruce Piper,
with new COGGO CEO, Mark Tucek |
From August 18, he replaces
inaugural COGGO CEO, Geoff Smith, who in April announced his
intention to retire once a suitable replacement was found.
Announcing the appointment, Bindi Bindi grain grower and COGGO
Chairman, Bruce Piper, said that an exhaustive outsourced
executive recruitment process highly recommended Mr Tucek, a
former Grain Pool and CBH manager.
Established in 1997 and now with about 2000 WA members, COGGO is
a public company covering approximately half the state’s grain
growers, who voluntarily contribute 0.5 per cent of net
farm-gate value of production for investment in plant breeding
and associated research and development through COGGO.
COGGO supports several grower groups in WA, partners the Grains
Research and Development Corporation in Canola Breeders WA,
partners Australian Grain Technologies in a WA wheat breeding
venture, AGT-Western Australia and owns COGGO Seeds.
All COGGO Board members are grain growers: Bruce Piper, Bindi
Bindi, Aiden Obst, Mingenew, Bruce Eyres, Kulin, Christopher
Roberts, Esperance, Steven Rowe, Mullewa, John Carstairs,
Perenjori and Gerard Paganoni, Broomehill.
Mr Piper said Mr Tucek’s appointment signalled an exciting new
era for COGGO and would build on Geoff Smith’s eight years in
the role, which helped grow COGGO into Australia’s most
successful grain grower voluntary funded plant breeding
organisation.
“Equipped with our maturing strategic stakeholdings across
cereals, legumes and oilseeds, all aimed at investing in and
developing varieties that perform and benefit COGGO members,
Mark will work closely with our Australian and overseas
partners.
“In doing this, he’ll ensure he leverages maximum value from
breeding technologies that make a real difference to growers’
pockets, in terms of higher yields and better disease and pest
resistance, for example,” Mr Piper said.
A 1989 agricultural science honours graduate from The University
of Western Australia, Mr Tucek has been Environmental
Development Co-ordinator with City of Joondalup for the last
year.
During more than 12 years with CBH/Grain Pool, he held
management positions across research and development, business
development and product development and was also very involved
in managing grain related R&D programs.
He supervised Grain Pool technical programs and concurrently
served 10 years as Executive Officer to the Grains Research
Committee, a now defunct grower-run committee that allocated WA
grower levies to state specific grains R&D and which had a role
in COGGO’s formation and early development.
Earlier in his professional career, he was a technical officer
and research officer with the WA Department of Agriculture,
working mainly with crop performance modeling.
Mr Tucek said he appreciated and understood that COGGO’s prime
objective was delivering new, improved varieties to WA growers.
“As such, COGGO’s basic marketing objective is to supply growers
with the right new cultivars, at the right price, at the right
time and in the right places.
“I bring to the role of COGGO CEO a breadth of marketing
experience across the spectrum of the supply chain, which I will
draw on to keep these marketing objectives front and centre in
everything I do,” Mr Tucek said. |
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