Our Team
Lloyd Neilsen, Managing Director
Lloyd Neilsen was appointed as Managing Director of Bean Growers Australia in 2008 after commencing in the role of Marketing Manager in 2001. Lloyd has 19 years experience in the Grains and Pulse industries and currently sits on the Board of Soy Australia.
Having grown up on the land, Lloyd considers the growers to be the foundation that Bean Growers Australia is built upon and is proactive in the development of grower products and services.
As manager of Export Sales, Lloyd is responsible for the development of the company’s international trade and risk management strategies and is actively developing relationships with customers in key geographic locations around the globe.
Lloyd attributes much of Bean Growers Australia’s success to being the direct supply chain link between growers and our export and domestic customers.
Mark Schmidt, Domestic Sales & Mungbean Marketing
Mark Schmidt has 20 years of experience in the Grain and Pulse industry and is responsible for the domestic marketing of grains and pulses processed by Bean Growers Australia. The ranges of commodities include Popcorn, Navy Beans, Soybeans, Chickpeas, Mungbean, Black Eye Beans, Adzuki Beans and Field peas. Mark works with a wide range of customers including Popcorn Cinemas and Popcorn processors, repackagers of all of these products, Soybean manufacturers and Mungbean Sprouters.
Mark is also involved with the marketing and purchasing of Mungbeans and involved with industry groups.
Ronnie Burgess, Production Manager
Ronnie Burgess leads the Bean Growers Australian production team and has fifteen years experience in staff management, production management and quality assurance. Ronnie is responible for overseeing the electronic colour sorter, grading plant and automatic packaging line in addition to managing the company's Workplace Health and Safety policy.
Andrew McDonald, Specialty Grain Procurement
Andrew McDonald has been involved in agricultural production for all of his working life of nearly twenty years. Andrew grew up on a cropping and cattle family farming enterprise in the South Burnett Region and knows the challenges faced everyday by people on the land. Before joining Beangrowers Australia, Andrew was an Agronomist with BGA Agriservices, specializing in servicing their Horticulture clientele in a broad and diverse range of crops, as well as continuing to have a strong interest in broad acre production in that role. Since joining Beangrowers Australia in 2008, Andrew has continued to provide a high level of expertise to all of our loyal producers and provides assistance to the pulse industry. Andrew currently sits on the panel with the South East Zone for the Grains Research and Development Corporation. All accumulation employees are involved in the agriculture industry in some way or another, from research and development through to quality assurance. Beangrowers Australia continues to build strong relationships with growers in ever changing seasons and trading arenas.
Judy Plath, Wide Bay Area Manager
Judy Plath has twelve years experience working in crop production and extension in the horticultural and sugar cane industries. Judy championed the introduction of legume break crops in the sugar industry in the Childers and Maryborough districts and supported sugar growers to grow profitable, food-grade soybeans. Judy now supports growers from the Wide Bay region who are interested in growing pulse/legume crops in their farming systems.
Lee Moller, Seed Production Coordinator
Lee Moller recently joined the Bean Growers Australia team and brings sixteen years of experience in farm management and crop production. For the past eight years Lee has been managing an irrigated, mixed cropping enterprise in Central Queensland, specialising in seed crop production. This role saw Lee win the Inaugural National Australian Mungbean Association Grower of the Year Award for his excellence in mungbean crop production and marketing. Lee has extensive experience with many crops including mungbeans, navy beans, black eyed peas, millet, pasture grasses, chickpeas and more.
Andrew Zerner, Technical Support
Andrew Zerner has 20 years experience in rural industries. For the last two years Andrew has worked in the Accumulation Department at Bean Growers Australia in a technical support role. This has naturally led Andrew into being more involved with Quality Assurance while maintaining his accumulation duties. He works closely with the Accumulation Department and growers, the entire production process and then with both the Domestic and Export Departments. Andrew actively strives to improve the overall quality of our products, the efficiencies of our systems and satisfaction of our customers.
For contact details for our team, please see Contact Us.
