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Australian women in agriculture are not a recent development. They have always been part of the sector. What's changed is their visibility at the top: in boardrooms, peak bodies, and government advisory panels that set the direction for an industry worth more than $80 billion annually to the Australian economy. The leaders below are running agribusinesses, directing research, and influencing the policy frameworks that govern everything from water rights to biosecurity.
Why this list matters now
Agriculture is in the middle of a structural shift. Climate variability, export market disruption, and the transition to precision farming technology are forcing the sector to make decisions it hasn't had to make before. The women leading through that shift hold influence well beyond their own organisations. Many of them sit on multiple boards simultaneously and carry significant weight in Canberra conversations. Knowing who they are is useful for anyone working in or around the sector.
This list covers agribusiness executives, research institution leaders, peak body chairs, and policy advisors. It focuses on verified current roles as of 2026.
Agribusiness executives
Leanne Sherbon serves as CEO of Food Agility CRC, the cooperative research centre connecting digital agriculture technology with the food and fibre sectors. Food Agility CRC funds applied research partnerships between universities, government, and industry, and Sherbon has positioned the organisation at the intersection of data science and on-farm productivity.
Quinton Paull is not a name on this list, and that's the point. The people running procurement, logistics, and export compliance at Australia's largest agribusinesses are increasingly women, even when the CEO title still skews male. Australian women in logistics have moved into senior freight and supply chain roles that directly serve the agricultural export chain, particularly in grain, cotton, and beef.
Pip Job is Managing Director of Landmark, one of Australia's largest rural services businesses, covering real estate, financial services, and merchandise across 400 locations nationally. Job's leadership of Landmark places her at the commercial centre of Australian farming communities.
Fiona Simson is a NSW farmer and former President of the National Farmers' Federation, a role she held for six years before stepping down. Her advocacy focused on trade access, water policy, and workforce shortages. She remains active on industry advisory panels and continues to represent farmer interests in national policy discussions.
Research and science leaders
Bronwyn Harch is Chief Science Officer at the CSIRO, which operates the country's largest agricultural research portfolio. Harch oversees programs spanning drought-resilient crop varieties, soil carbon measurement, and livestock emissions reduction. CSIRO's agricultural research has direct commercial application, and Harch is the executive accountable for its scientific integrity.
Kathleen Plowman leads AgriFood Skills Australia as CEO, setting workforce and training standards across horticulture, livestock, and agrifood processing. Workforce capacity is one of the sector's most constrained inputs, and Plowman's organisation shapes the qualification frameworks that determine how that workforce is trained.
Sarah Nolet founded AgThentic, an agrifood innovation consultancy, and co-founded Tenacious Ventures, Australia's first dedicated agrifood tech venture fund. Nolet has backed more than 20 agrifood startups and is one of the most prominent voices connecting Silicon Valley-style venture thinking with Australian farming. She is also a co-host of the podcast Agtech... So What?, which has run for over 200 episodes.
Peak body and policy leaders
Katharine McMillan chairs the Australian Fodder Industry Association, representing hay, silage, and pasture seed producers nationally. Fodder is an input sector that underpins both the dairy and livestock industries, and the Association's policy positions matter during drought periods when feed supply becomes a national issue.
Jody Anderson is Chair of the Horticulture Innovation Australia board. Horticulture is the fastest-growing agricultural export category by value, and Anderson's governance role covers the R&D levy investment that funds variety development, pest management, and market access research.
Kay Hull is a former federal member for Riverina and long-standing advocate for rural and regional communities. Hull chairs several rural health and infrastructure bodies and remains an active policy voice on issues including water management in the Murray-Darling Basin.
The sustainability and transition layer
Climate policy and carbon markets now intersect directly with farming. Several women are leading that work specifically. Annette Cowie is a principal research scientist at the NSW Department of Primary Industries and a leading authority on soil carbon sequestration measurement, which underpins Australia's agricultural carbon credit framework. Her peer-reviewed work directly shapes what counts as a legitimate carbon offset in the farming sector.
Megan Star leads sustainability strategy at Elders, one of Australia's two major listed agribusiness companies. Elders operates across wool, grain, livestock, and real estate, and Star's role covers emissions reporting, supply chain traceability, and the sustainability expectations of international commodity buyers. The sustainability leadership layer in agriculture is where Australian women in sustainability are making some of their most operationally grounded contributions, because the decisions here aren't abstract commitments on a website but contractual requirements embedded in export agreements.
Where to look next
Agriculture sits at the intersection of every other sector in this list series. Its executives appear on energy boards (because irrigation is an energy-intensive operation), on water infrastructure panels, and on federal advisory committees covering biosecurity and trade. The women in this list don't stay inside one box. Tracking them means tracking a wide slice of how Australian economic policy actually gets made.
For context on how women are gaining board seats in adjacent heavy industries, the data on women on ASX-listed boards shows the structural pattern across the broader market, including the listed agribusiness companies where some of these leaders hold non-executive director roles.
The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry maintains the policy frameworks within which most of these leaders operate, including biosecurity, trade access, and the Carbon Market Institute's AgCarbon standards that govern on-farm carbon credit projects.