Professor John Lovett, Chairman

John Lovett is Chairman of the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity's skills-based Board of Directors. Professor Lovett's other board appointments include Chairman of Agrifood Awareness Australia Ltd and Chairman of the former Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting.

From 1994 to December 2003 he served as Managing Director of the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Over that period the Corporation's investments in research and development and technology delivery increased from $30 million to more than $120 million per annum.

Since leaving the Corporation, John has assisted a number of industries with various aspects of strategy and planning - grains, meat and wool in Australia, and dairy in New Zealand.

At present he is assisting Land and Water Australia to develop an industry-focused plan for dealing with the impacts of climate change.

An Emeritus Professor at the University of New England, where he held the Chair in Agronomy, John Lovett was formerly Professor of Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania and has had research associations in Indonesia, Finland and the United Kingdom.

In 2006 he was appointed to the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, established to protect the world's crop genetic resources in perpetuity.  The opening of the so-called ‘Doomsday Vault' in Svalbard (February 2008) has captured world-wide attention for this very important endeavour, in which Australia has played a key role.

In his spare time, with the help of his bull ‘Harold', he breeds Angus cattle on a small property near Canberra.