Program Manager - Production Innovation - Dr Graham Mair

Dr Graham Mair is the Program Manager for Research Program 1 (Production Innovation).

Graham is an Associate Professor at Flinders University with 18 years of post-doctoral experience in applied research in aquaculture, with a focus on genetic management and improvement and the role of aquaculture in international development.

Prior to this, Graham was a senior scientist for 12 years with a United Kingdom government funded international research program in fish genetics.

Graham's professional credentials in an oyster shell.........

• Board member of the International Association for Genetics in Aquaculture (1997-2003)
• Board member of the World Aquaculture Society
• Past President of the World Aquaculture Society Asian-Pacific Chapter
• 100 publications in a range of media (34 in peer reviewed primary literature)

Program Manager - Product and Market Development - Jayne Gallagher

Jayne Gallagher is the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre's Programs Manager for Research Program 2 (Product and Market Development)

For nearly 20 years, Jayne worked for the Australian Government in Foreign Affairs and Trade and Agricultural portfolios. In this role, she was involved in the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum Fisheries Working Group and other international consultative forums.

She was the first Australian Government Director of Aquaculture and was responsible for facilitating seafood industry development.

Jayne is now the Business Development Manager for Seafood Services Australia Ltd. Here she has been responsible for the development and introduction of the highly successful SeaQual program and other initiatives to help industry understand and meet regulatory and customers expectations for food safety and quality.

Jayne has been President of IAFI - the International Association of Seafood Professionals since 2005.

Jayne's professional credentials in an oyster shell........

• Science Degree with a Psychology major
• Has a special interest in developing industry driven commercially viable and sustainable change programs
• Is a member of the Board of the International Association of Fish Inspectors (IAFI)
• Was elected as President of IAFI and hosted the 6th World Congress Seafood Safety Quality and Trade.

Program Manager - Education and Communication - Emily Mantilla

Emily Mantilla was appointed as the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre's Communication Manager on the 10th September 2007 and then a short time after was promoted to Program Manager for Education and Communications.

Emily holds an Honours Degree in Science from the University of Adelaide where she majored in Environmental Biology and Zoology. Emily is well known in the seafood industry for her energetic and outgoing personality where she just loves shaking things up in the communication and education world. She has done many a strange thing over the years to get the seafood research and development messages out there!

Emily's motto is always: "Lets have fun while we communicate and educate!"

Emily comes to the Seafood Cooperative Research Centre with a wealth of experience having been the Communication and Education Manager for four and a half years with the Cooperative Research Centre for the Sustainable Aquaculture of Finfish. As in the words of their Chief Executive Officer, "Emily made an outstanding achievement to our Centre, and it would be no exaggeration to say that it has developed a character that would not have been achieved without her".

Emily is responsible for all the Seafood Cooperative Research Centre's public relation and media activities, event management, managing the website and all the other communication bits and pieces. She is also responsible for managing the $7.6 million dollar education portfolio within the Cooperative Research Centre and looks after the enrolment of PhD, Masters and Honours students.

Business Manager - Debra "Debs" D'Aloia

Debra "Debs" D'Aloia is our hard-working number cruncher at the Seafood Cooperative Research Centre. Deb comes to us from a six year stint working as the Finance Manager for International Linen Service where she performed a large variety of business duties. Deb now manages our project management system, all the finances and is the CRC's Company Secretary.

Deb is also very well loved at the Seafood CRC because she does the payroll!

Deb has an Advanced Diploma in Accounting, a Certificate III in Accountancy, a Certificate III in Information
Technology and a Certificate IV in OHS.

In 2009, Deb decided to begin her OUA Degree in Accounting with Monash University and the University of South Australia.

Seafood Project Manager- Miles Toomey

Welcome to Miles Toomey, who joined the team at the Seafood CRC in late October. Miles is reporting to Jayne Gallagher in Program 2, and will be focused on retail & wholesale facing projects in the Australian domestic market.

He comes to us with significant experience in seafood sales & marketing, having been Sales Director with Sealord Australia and Sales and Marketing Manager with Seafarm (Crystal Bay Prawns) prior to joining us. We believe that his experience in working with both wholesalers and retailers will enable us to engage more actively in this area, and allow us to further our research into drivers of consumer behaviour and the impact of interventions to influence this.

Miles first few weeks will be spent getting up to speed with the extensive work already done by the CRC in the consumer space, before engaging with industry, wholesalers and retailers on specific opportunities.

China Project Manager- Steven Gill

Steven Gill has recently joined the Australian Seafood CRC team as China Project Manager. The role is working with the Lobster Fisheries across Australia to develop a suite of projects and an overall strategy that has wide spread industry support and will provide long term benefits in this vital market.

Steven is certainly no stranger to the Lobster industry and over the last 20 years has been directly involved with all aspects of the Lobster business. In the early days almost straight out of university as a wide eyed and innocent young researcher working at sea with fishermen tagging and releasing lobsters though out South Australia. Moving on to managing a Southern Rock Lobster export facility in the South East of South Australia and experience at the pointy end of the lobster trade.

Steven also spent 6 years as the first Executive Director of the then newly constituted Western Rock Lobster Council. This is a time that he remembers very fondly and is what eventually brought him back into the seafood industry. Steven was out of the seafood industry for almost 4 years working as lobbyist in the Housing and Construction industry.

"The seafood industry gets in your blood and almost from the time I left the industry, I missed it. This role with the CRC is like coming home. I love the industry and the people in it." said Steven. "One thing about this industry is that you are never left wondering about what people really think. I like that."

He is really looking forward to working with the industry to maximise the opportunities in the Chinese market and delivering lasting benefits from the investment in Research and Development.

  Communications and Events Officer- Chelsey Parish

Chelsey Parish joined the team at the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre as Communications and Events Officer on the 21^st of March, 2011.

Chelsey first became involved with the CRC in 2009 as an undergraduate student at the University of the Sunshine Coast, when she participated in a seafood market access research trip to South Korea. Following the success of this research trip, she received a CRC academic scholarship to complete her Honours Degree in International Business, focusing on the Australian prawn farming industry.

Chelsey also holds degrees in Arts and Business and majored in communications, Japanese and international business. Chelsey’s passion for communication and research experience with the seafood industry made her the perfect choice for the newly created role of Communications and Events Officer.

In this role Chelsey assists in the preparation of media releases and articles for industry magazines and websites as well as assisting in the planning and execution of CRC related meetings.

Office Manager - Alison Connelly

Alison is currently on maternity leave and will return to the Seafood CRC in mid 2012.

Alison Connelly began with the CRC on the 1st October 2008 and is responsible for the day to day running of the Centre and when you call us or drop by our office, chances are you will be greeted by Alison.

Before joining the CRC, Alison spent 15 years of her life at the Commonwealth Bank but ironically never sold a product or handled the cash. She worked in various roles with the bank from Human Resources, Fraud Investigation, Public Relations and as Personal Assistant to the General Manager to name a few positons.

After that Alison worked as the Office Manager for a small IT company for 2 years and then at her last stop was an Executive Assistant for a successful Property Developer in Adelaide.

Alison also has a few qualifications up her sleeve, such as a Diploma in Human Resource Management and a Diploma in Business Management.

Alison adores organising events and loves arranging work related events like conferences, meetings, social functions etc. She also enjoys organising people and loves a good admin process that makes life easier for all CRC staff to dedicate time to their core work and passion.

Alison is always here to help with everyone's enquiries.

Administration Assistant- Leah Fergusson

Leah Fergusson joined the Seafood CRC on a part-time basis on the 6th April 2010 bringing a wealth of customer service experience and time management skills from the retail sector.

Leah’s role is to support the administration team and the Program Managers to ensure the smooth running of the CRC office.

Leah joined us from the pharmaceautical industry, however
spent most of her career working in Woolworths in roles such as people management and training and development responsibility.

Leah is looking forward to undertaking her Certificate III in Business Administraton and excited by all the new challenges ahead!