Celebrating the Beef Industry’s Shining Stars
Posted on November 30th, 2021
The 2021 Graeme Acton Beef Connections Program wraps up … a true celebration of the Beef Industry’s shining stars!
The thick fog blanketing Toowoomba last Thursday 25 and Friday 26 November served as a fitting metaphor for the shining stars emerging at the Graeme Acton Beef Connections Program ‘Tail’. Over the two days, 11 Mentors and 10 Mentor partners shared their incredible journeys of personal development and achievement over the past 14 months.
Each partnership delivered a detailed account of their thoughts, feelings and milestones achieved throughout the program whilst working towards the delivery of their chosen project. However as the saying goes “Life is about the journey, not the destination” the mentor partners gave, at times, emotional accounts from the first instance when they felt fortunate to be selected to be part of the program, their thoughts and pathway to self discovery, evaluating what was important to them, and how the ‘life changing’ program has benefited them in their work and personal lives.
Beef Australia Chair Bryce Camm congratulated the very talented mentors and mentor partners and considers the Graeme Acton Beef Connections program as “One of the best parts of Beef Australia … and it keeps on delivering.”
In his speech at the ‘Tail’ to mark the conclusion of the program, Bryce sincerely thanked Jennie Acton and the Acton family for their unwavering support and encouragement of the program, Westpac for their generosity and continued sponsorship, and paid tribute to program co-ordinator Barb Bishop, for her ability to so successfully match highly respected industry mentors with mentor partners, and be by their side to provide support and guidance every step of the way, and to Jackie Kyte for her assistance.
The 10 Mentors and 11 Mentor Partners of the 2021 program were: Georgia Glasson – partnered with Mentor Ben Dwyer
Caitlyn Barton – partnered with Mentor Melinda King
Ryan Olive – partnered with Mentor Philip Hughes
Kate Power – partnered with Mentor Julie McDonald
Kari Moffat – partnered with Mentor Prue Bondfield
Hugh Courts – partnered with Mentor Greg Pankhurst
Caitlin Obst – partnered with Mentors Ashley Kirk & Adam Coffey
Bec Clapperton – partnered with Mentor Liz Allen
Ellen Simpson – partnered with Mentor Amanda Moohen
Chloe Gould – partnered with Mentor Angus Street
The ‘Tail’ event was captured over the two days in Toowoomba and will be shared on the Beef Australia website shortly, with an opportunity for participants for the 2024 program to Express their Interest.
