Jason Strong
MLA Managing Director, MAICD
Jason Strong is the appointed Managing Director of Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd and Chair of MLA Doner Company Limited. He is also a director of AUS-MEAT Limited and Red Meat Traceability Systems Pty Ltd.
With more than 30 years’ red meat and livestock experience, knowledge, and connections from farm through to the end consumer in both domestic and international markets, Jason is a well-recognised and respected senior executive. He has extensive skills in commercial and industry business management and administration, supply chain development, meat science and grading, genetics, and marketing, as well as on-farm experience.
Prior to starting as MD in 2019, Jason served in a number of roles across the red meat industry including CEO of Smithfield Cattle Company, Managing Director of AA Co, MLA’s regional manager in Europe and Russia, past Chair of the Australian Beef Industry Foundation, manager and coach of the Australian Inter-Collegiate Meat Judging Team, and Councillor, NSW Chairman and National Vice President of Cattlemen’s Union of Australia.
Holly Kramer
Woolworths group Non-Executive Director, MAICD
Holly Kramer is a prominent Australian and New Zealand board director, with a broad range of roles in listed, unlisted and not-for-profit organisations. She devotes a significant amount of her time to supporting and mentoring women in business, and speaks publicly about her many passions including sustainability, gender equity and leading businesses through purpose and culture.
While her career has spanned a number of industry sectors, she is currently focused on driving sustainability in the Food and Agriculture sectors. In her current portfolio, she sits on the board of Australia’s leading food retailer, Woolworths Group, and is chair of the board’s Sustainability Committee. She also serves as a director on the board of ANZ Bank, Fonterra Group (New Zealand’s largest business and a listed dairy cooperative with sector leading sustainability credentials), and NBryo (an unlisted agri-tech start up business based in Queensland).
In addition to her commercial roles, Holly is a Pro-Chancellor of Western Sydney University and sits on the board of indigenous scholarship group, the GO (Goodes-O’Loughlin) Foundation. She is also a member of Bain & Company Advisory Council.
In her executive career, Holly was the CEO of apparel retailer, Best & Less, where she was responsible for turning around business performance and restoring profitability to the company. Prior to that role, she had more than 20 years' experience in general management and marketing at Pacific Brands, Telstra and Ford Motor Company in both Australia and the US. Furthermore, she is the recipient of the Sir Charles McGrath Award for a distinguished career in Marketing.
Holly currently resides on a farm in the Southern Highlands of NSW producing cattle.
Holly has a BA with Honours in Economics and Political Science from Yale University and an MBA at Georgetown University.
Jack Holden
MLA Board Director, MAICD
Jack Holden is an appointed Board Director of MLA and a member of the Research & Development Investment Committee. He is also a sustainability practitioner with over twenty-five years’ experience in agriculture and forests. He has worked in government, consulting and industry roles and is currently the General Manager - Sustainability for Global Markets in Fonterra Group.
Since joining Fonterra in 2011, he has worked with farmers on a full range of farm sustainability issues, most notably on innovations to provide sustainable solutions for livestock farming. He is also Deputy Chair of the Australian Dairy Sustainability Framework, and a member of the Victorian Agriculture and Climate Change Council.
Jack was previously a sustainable agriculture extension officer in Western Victoria and was the inaugural Coordinator of the Southern Otway Landcare Network. He became a climate policy analyst in the Greenhouse Policy unit of Victorian Government and then joined KPMG’s Climate Change and Sustainability advisory practice prior to joining Fonterra. He also served as President of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Australia for 5 years until 2022.
Sarah Strachan
MLA Group Manager - Adoption and Commercial Services
Sarah Strachan oversees the delivery of MLA’s adoption and commercial services. This includes the research and commercial delivery aspects of Livestock Genetics, Meat Standards Australia, Producer Adoption, including adoption of on-farm sustainability practices, within MLA.
These programs Sarah manages are driven by the ambitions of the Red Meat 2030 plan to grow the investment in adoption to help double the value of sales from high quality and trusted Australian red meat. She aids to achieve this through converting research into commercial services for businesses along the entire supply chain. This includes the delivery of genetic evaluation services and the world leading eating quality system MSA - which delivered over $200m in additional returns to MSA producers in 2022-23 and supports over 200 red meat brands in the market underpinned with eating quality credentials.
MLA’s adoption programs provide a diverse range of options for producers to engage with and apply research outcomes into their production systems such as the flagship practice change programs of Producer Demonstration Sites and Profitable Grazing Systems programs, and recently released products such as Bred Well Fed Well, carbon accounting tools and Carbon EDGE workshops.
Sarah has a Bachelor of Rural Science qualification from the University of New England and has worked with MLA for over 20 years.
Tom Bull
LAMBPRO General Manager
Tom Bull is the founder and General Manager of LAMBPRO. The business is currently recognised as one of the biggest suppliers of prime lamb genetics in Australia with genetics being supplied to 350 farming operations who, in turn, produce over one million lambs collectively.
Tom began his career in sheep genetics while he was still in school. In the early 1990s, he commenced breeding Suffolk sheep with the purchase of five Suffolk ewes. Since them, he has introduced Poll Dorsets to his stock to accelerate herd performance and improve meat quality.
In 2003, Tom won a national award for innovation within the prime lamb industry through LAMBPRO, and more recently received the 2018 Coles Farmer of the Year award.
His passion for the Australian lamb industry continues to grow and he takes pride in supporting and educating clients to bring cutting-edge lamb production to their businesses.
Today, Lamb produced from LAMBPRO clients can be found internationally. Marketed under Kinross Station and Willow Bend, it is a market leader in eating quality and marbling.
Iain Bruce
Western Plains Beef producer
Iain is a keen advocate for Tasmanian agriculture, particularly grass-fed beef, and the other high-quality produce that the state can provide. He is regularly involved industry development and has recently worked closely with Greenham as they developed the Greenham Beef Sustainability Standard.
Iain is a previous chair of the Red Meat Updates Working Group and is a producer representative on the SE Victoria and Tasmania SALRC regional committee.
In 2015, Iain returned home to the family farm at Stanley and now works in the farm business full time. He also sits on the boards of two other Tasmanian family farm businesses that are cattle, sheep, agroforestry and cropping operations.