Experience

∆ The happy image above shows part of the multi-stakeholder network that was established to develop new organic bee product supply chains from Ethiopia to key international export markets of the EU, Japan and the USA on behalf of a multi-national company. The stakeholders pictured here at the launch of the company's African head office in Addis Ababa included representatives of regional beekeeping cooperatives, logistic companies, government livestock authorities and research agencies, honey processing experts as well as international development agencies, including USAID.

∆ Between 2009 and 2013, helped establish the global farming movement (Organics International / IFOAM) as a highly visible and influential international farmers organisation within the UN system. Robert delivered over 30 official high profile United Nations conferences around the world with high profile stakeholders including the World Food Programme, UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Red Cross, the European Commission, the African Union, USDA, and the Governments of Brazil and Bhutan.

These events, often chaired by Robert himself, brought together some of the world's leading organic farmers, scientists and advocates, helped put ecological and regenerative agricultural systems and science at the centre of international agricultural discussions on Food Security, Climate Change, and the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), long before UN agencies such as FAO and IFAD, and the mainstream global agricultural community, started to incorporate them into their work programs and farming systems.

∆ In conjunction with the New South Wales State Government’s Department of Agriculture, Robert established an Australian-wide consortium of over 100 organic food and agriculture stakeholder organisations from value-chains (private sector), state departments of agriculture and the science and research community for developing several major long-term research proposals under the 2000 and 2002 funding rounds of the Australian Government’s flagship innovation initiative the ‘Cooperative Research Centers (CRC) Program’. Robert also co-authored the Australian 5-Year Organic Research Strategy (2006 - 2012) for the Australian Government and the Organic Federation of Australia (industry peak body).

Also in Australia, Robert instigated a supply chain based project on behalf of the Cooperative Research Centre for Food & Packaging and Sustainability Victoria, to address the wine industry's waste problem by working with leading wineries and the country's premier quality vegetable oil producer to develop Australia’s first ever range of cold-pressed grape seed oils, including the development of innovative processing equipment for separating and drying seeds from grape marc.

As business development manager for the Australian based, Sustainable Packaging Alliance, Robert was involved in the design and commercialisation of the world’s first web based (Software as a Service) streamlined packaging life-cycle assessment tool that enabled packaging designers to quickly, and much more affordably, evaluate environmental impacts in real time as part of their in-house design processes. Today, PIQET (Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool), is used by some of the world’s biggest consumer goods brands.

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