Russel has more than thirty-five years’ experience in Australia’s food and beverage industry in various senior commercial and research roles. Currently Russel is Director and Founder of Food Innovation Partners Pty Ltd, a company that provides business, innovation and commercialisation consulting services to the food industry, along with grant writing. He is also Co-founder of New Me Co, a functional beverage company.
Prior to starting Food Innovation Partners, Russel was General Manager Innovation with the National Food Industry Strategy, a Federal Government initiative established to provide leadership to Australia’s food industry. Prior to that he worked for CSIRO for more than 25 years in food research before venturing into the commercial arena.
Russel is currently Advisory Board Member for Agriculture Robotics, a company commercialising a mango harvesting robot; Advisory Board Member for Jane’s Weather, a company that combines AI and Machine Learning with global weather models; Advisory Board Member for Fresh Earth a web platform supporting transition to sustainable farming; a partner of the Future Farming Systems CRC; a Board Member of Queensland Robotics and Advisory Board Member for Health Food Symmetry Ltd, a company making nutraceuticals from sugar cane.
Previously Russel has been Advisory Board Member of the Australian Research Council’s Robotics Vision Centre of Excellent; Special Advisor to Board of For Purpose Co, the commercial arm of Oz Harvest; Mentor for Mars Accelerator ‘Seeds of Change’ program; a Member of Queensland Department of Agriculture Committee to develop Queensland’s agriculture & food strategy; and Director and Co-founder of Freshly & Co.