GRDC in Conversation: Brianna Peake

This series is a GRDC investment that takes you behind the scenes as we sit down with some of the people shaping our grain industry, uncovering their journeys, learning more about their passions and the projects that are part of their everyday. We are over in Western Australia. This is now the third part of what has been the GRDC In Conversation podcast. We've covered southern Australia, we've covered the north, across New South Wales and Queensland and now we've headed west to meet with all sorts of growers, advisors, researchers and people involved in the Aussie grains industry. Welcome to the next series. Stakeholder relations, sustainability and strategy. Quite the remit. Basically the whole business.

Quite a mouthful. Yeah, it is.

Like for part of the GRDC In Conversation series, we been really lucky to talk to all sorts of different people and I think what I've loved about it is just understanding more about just how diverse and how many different opportunities there are in the Australian grain sector for people. I haven't spent much time in the west though, so I feel like you might have to just give me a quick how to and get me up to speed on some of the lingo, some of the things I should be conscious of. What do I need to know about Western Australia grains industry while I'm over here?

Oh yeah, that's a good question. We're very parochial in the Wild West. The big difference to the east coast industry, just hugely export oriented. So everything here is geared to get on a ship and go out that same as the resources industry here. So you'll sort of see that difference. Everything else is pretty much the same. But we are, we are, we can be accused of being a bit parochial here in the west, very protective of the industry. It's, it's big as well and you'll see that when you drive around and meet people sort of running in one state from sort of, or at least our footprint is sort of north of Geraldton. So Benu, sort of our Northern most site, Beno and Una up there and then east of Esperance, so out to Beaumont and then we run right through to just sort of, you know, not into the Margaret river wine region but ultimately, yeah, close this into there. So it's a big footprint, lots of growers, big scale farming. So yeah, that's the, that's the way it works. I don't know if we've got any special lingo. The only other thing we get accused of is we say the east coast and every time I deal with Eastern standards they laugh that we, that we say that and us over There. Yeah. I don't know. That's. That obviously is a bit offensive, but.

I think it's the western East. Isn't it sad? So a couple of quick questions maybe to get to know you. Football team.

Eagles. Okay.

Not bad. Maybe. Yeah. You guys could be better.

Terrible. Yeah. Good team, like in the long run. Terrible few seasons. Yeah.

Do you think Harley Reid will stay?

I don't know. I'd like to think so. We would love him to stay. Yeah, we love him here in wa.

Well, there's a few people requesting to come over this way, so.

To play with him?

Well, maybe. Yeah. He's something else.

Yeah.

What's your coffee order?

Oat Longmak.

Okay, interesting.

Over here a Longmak is different. It is on the east coast as well.

Okay, here's the education.

But it's weird when we go over the east, you can't order it the same. So it's like two, two shots in a small cup but filled up to the top. So if I'm on the east, I'd say a flat white with a double shot.

Okay. All right, that's easy. So just like a strong flat white.

What would you call that? Oh, strong flat white. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There you go. Some coffee order. So what do I need to order? A long Mac.

That's what we have here. A long Mac. Yeah.

All right.

And sometimes they're so topped up or not. But it's become so standard that most people don't ask that anymore.

Okay. So definitely is a western and east thing.

It's a weird thing. Like it's a very weird thing for that specific coffee. Yeah.

Now CBH Group, I think people over in the east will know of cbh. What do we need to know to understand a little bit about the business? How many people where you guys operate, et cetera?

Yeah, it's a grower owned co op. It's probably the first thing to know. So it's sort of 90 plus years old and we run sort of the grain supply chain here in WA from sort of the upcountry receival right through to ports and exports. So we have the footprint is about 100ish up country sites and then we've got four port terminals, so Geraldton, Kwinana, Albany and Esperance. We own our own train set and we contract trucking. So then after harvest we bring all that grain to port and then export it. Basically 90% export out of WA probably. And then we own a marketing trading arm as well. So we trade about 50% of the crop through that entity. So they buy from the growers in a competitive landscape with all the ABCDs or the big operators around the world. And then we have some processing assets in Asia as well, so Interflower and here in Australia with blm, which is OAT processing. Yeah, it's. We probably have about a thousand permanent employees and then that grows to around sort of 2000 around harvest time with harvest casuals as well. So, yeah, footprint is big in wa. Again, small on the sort of international scale big. From a WA sense, we're the Australia's largest exporter because a lot of the grain that goes exported would come out of wa, whereas the domestic market's so strong on the east coast. So there's slight difference there. So, yeah, that's us.

There you go. And your role? Chief Stakeholder relations, sustainability and strategy. In a nutshell, what is it that you're responsible for day to day, month to month?

Yeah, cat herding. Not a lot of different things. It's a broad remit. So the stakeholder relations is traditional sort of corporate affairs, government relations. We run the Grower Service center, which is our grower interface and all our grower digital products as well, community investment, so that sits with that side. Sustainability is sort of a newer portfolio to CBH as we look to kind of meet the market on what their requirements are of sustainability. That's. I could get into it later, but it's a sort of a centralized thought, decentralized execution model. And then the strategy area, we run the corporate strategy for the business and help the board and EXCO think about where are we going, how do we meet our targets, how do we keep delivering value for growers and what sort of capital base we're doing that with. And then run projects within the team and make sure the strategy's executed as well. That's it?

Just that simple?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amazing and really cool. And I think we'll get into it. But that you're responsible for the growth services team because that's where you had your start here.

Yes. Yeah, that's my CBH start.

Yep. Amazing. So talk to me. Was this. Was the grain industry something that you had on your radar forever? What do I need to know about you and farming in Darwin? You and your early years?

Yeah. And interesting, I should say. My CBA start was actually working on the bins in Darken, which is down south of the state. So I did that over uni, which was great fun. Probably three seasons there, which a lot of people start at CBH in that Sense they'll come and do harvest on the bins. Even when you are working with people in Perth, anywhere, like you go to your doctor, you'll go see a politician, you'll do something else and they'll. Everyone will be like, oh yeah, I worked at CBH once. Like everyone has almost done a stint or one season at CBH so we have this really nice connection to it in wa, no matter where people are. But I grew up, yeah on a farm in Delhi or Dawalinu is the full and correct term for it. And yeah, I probably, when I was a young kid, didn't really see my future in agriculture. I don't know what I thought it would be but probably wasn't going to be out doing dusty, dusty farming sort of things, chasing sheep and being on the header and I probably. I didn't end up in farming as such, but when I went to uni I studied natural resource management and as I studied that it's connected in with ag school at UWA and a lot of the units I did were very ag related. So there was just a natural fit to just keep coming back to agriculture. The people are amazing. It's an amazing industry. So my first rollout was an ag one, so I didn't ever really use the natural resource management skill set but to understand that landscape is quite helpful in my sustainability role. Now all these years later and I don't know if I chose it or I ended up in it, but yeah, ag is a really good industry to be in. My first rollout was with. My first professional role was with the Leby Group which is a grower group. I think you have similar ones all around Australia, small production groups where they have a membership, some sort of funding from projects and some sponsors and they look at local RD and E. So I ran the Leibi Group, which is up in Dawwolin where I'm from. So after I came back from uni and it was, it was just a brilliant job because doing that, you do everything, you sort of events like research and development, you're dealing with your board, you're dealing with your finances and sponsors and it's such a. It was such a broad remit to come into and I thought, you know, I'm probably much more suited to that than I am science, like science was quite sort of technical for me, whereas I prefer stakeholders probably. So that was a lucky job to start with because then I sort of made that understanding about the sort of thing that I should go into makes.

It a lot easier and for you going back to Dali, was that planned or did that just kind of fortuitously happen?

I. How did that work? I had done a bit of travel after uni, I went around Australia and came back and had to get my first big job, like professional, you know, real professional job. I applied for. You know, you're just looking at what's around. I applied for a grower group down in Ravensville. I think it was rain group and didn't get that one. And then a friend of mine that I'd been to uni with was actually working, running the leaping group up in Dawalinu and he's like, we've got an NRM job here. Would you be interested to come and interview? So it wasn't planned? No. I didn't think I would go back to Delhi and I was so lucky to do it. I'm very glad I started my career there. The farmers in Delhi who, you know, I kind of grew up with, but it was nice to work with them in a professional sense and they taught me everything I actually really know. So uni gives you a technical basis, but understanding the industry and how farming works and what a season means for people and, you know, what agronomy really looks like on the ground and what financial management looks like, and tough seasons and good seasons, I learned that all from the farmers in Delhi and I think very graciously they took me under their wing and taught me everything that I know. So I was lucky. And then within six months, my mate, who was running the Leiba Group, he left. And so then I took on the exec officer role, very green out of uni and did that for four years. So huge learning curve.

The people that you probably got to know through the footy and netball club growing up, how different was your perspective when you came back and started to learn about who they are in a business and professional lens?

It's a good question. I think, really similar, I guess I knew them as a young person, so it's more that sort of adult child relationship where Mr. And Mrs. And you sort of don't know them very, very well, but you're very respectful of them. Whereas working with them as colleagues and my management committee or farmers that I would go out and do projects with, they were great. They're just so accepting of you. Right. Like they. You're from there. They. Farmers, I think, really love young people coming into the sector and I think they love young people coming back to where they're from and they value that. And so I was lucky. They're just so. They were so good to me and so respectful and really helped me learn from, as I said, a very green space into being somewhat knowledgeable. So, I don't know, I didn't see it as too different in how they operated. Just getting to know them more was really. And getting them to understand how their businesses. Learning what risk looks like, I think in agriculture is a really interesting one.

Yeah. And for you, four and a bit years there, what was the trigger point for you to move on from that time?

Yeah, I think. I just think it was just time to probably leave Dali, I think, in one. So a lot of my. It's a bit personal. A lot of my mates were getting married and having kids and I wasn't quite ready to do that, so. And I'd love traveling and I just really wanted to go and travel, so it was a great time to do that. I think the group was in a. In a good position. I'd probably outgrown my role there a little bit. And they were always going to have amazing young people coming through that could do the same thing. And so they didn't. They didn't need me and they could hand it on to someone else. So it was just time, probably.

And so you took off backpacking over to Europe.

Yep, yep. Did a year and a half around Europe, Right. When the GFC hit as well, which was really interesting. So we did some jobs over there. I drove. I was like a sampler, what we would call the sampler here for a grain company over there. But over there they do it on farm. So I just got a van and some plastic bags and they're like, go and find these farms. So like this just when SatNav first came out, thank God, because trying to find English farms was interesting. So you drive out to all these farms all over the countryside, which are very beautiful, and then plug into their grain stack and sample their grain. And that was anywhere between a grain stack and some pigs and a potato sorter to some very big sort of corporate farms over there, which had huge grain sheds, like aeration and dryers. So it was amazing seeing that breadth when I only really understood our system here. So I did a couple of years of that. In between that travel, my sister got married and I came home and I actually just worked back on a farm in Duwalanu and did seeding there for our friends up there, which is a great experience as well. So, yeah, did a bit more on the ground ag things during that period. Yeah.

And was it that stage like you were Definitely like solidified that agriculture was where you wanted to be. Or did you, as you were traveling the world start to see different things and think maybe other industries seem shinier?

To be honest, I was just traveling and having fun. We, we did a lot of. We did all around Europe and absolutely loved it and had a ball and so no, I didn't ever look, look in that period to change my industry. And in fairness, I probably wasn't thinking about it that hard at that point in life. I'm a big believer and I think I've been really lucky to do that. Travel, I love travel and I love different perspectives and being away and life isn't all about work all the time and I just to have those opportunities, I always think when you're young, just go and do them before life gets too serious. So that's the honest answer to that question. I wasn't thinking hard enough about my career. I was just having an amazing time and learning different life experiences and seeing different things, the way different cultures live, the way, you know, watching inequities play out in a different scale or big kind of urbanized cities and understand sort of what you do and don't like about that. I just think they're all good life experiences, so.

Oh, I totally agree. And I think like, it's what I've learned through traveling is you just as you say, the different equities, like you go to some countries and you like. I remember it was part of my time at Marcus Alden, but going over to China and it was like you see homeless people all there and then you see a Lamborghini or Ferrari or something and you're like, wow, South Africa.

Small Australian mind, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's like the world's a much bigger place than what we've come to know. Yeah, yeah. How, how grateful are you that you did that like, that you had the year to travel Australia initially and then that second 18 months stint before your, your career started to get a bit more serious.

Yeah, very, very, very, very grateful. And you know, it was, it's never been particularly well planned. I just always known that I've loved travel. I think it's pretty embedded in us as a family. So my grandma and granddad traveled a lot later in their life and really loved it. And I remember going to pick them up from the airport in the middle of the night and coming back from China and places in Egypt and just being. My mind was just blown by hearing their stories. My mum and dad traveled a lot as well. When they were younger and I think it was just instilled in me, this is what you do. And even now, like when I can travel, I travel. If I can go away, I just, I absolutely love it. And you learn something wherever you go. You know, the crazier the country, the more you kind of learn. And it's just lucky to get the perspective on a different way of life. You know, Western Australia and Perth is absolutely amazing and very beautiful and even growing up in the regions that's very, very privileged and lucky. But I like to be able to see what else is going on.

Yeah, for sure. Let's talk about that. Coming home and you got that role at CBH in grower relations back then 2010, 14 years later, here you are, slightly different role today, a few more responsibilities maybe. Was it like a conscious decision coming back or was there just a role and you thought, let's do it?

Yep, pretty much. So coming home from. Yeah, a couple of years away or a year and a half away, no money and I was going to go work back on the bins because it was harvest time. I was like, that's a great way to earn money. I know, I love it. It's a really good culture and good fun. Then I looked online and there were these casual roles in Perth at the grass service centre where you answer the phone and help growers with their queries. And I was like, oh yeah, that'd be handy because then I can live with Mum and that'll, that'll be, that'll be good. And so got a role in our grower service center for harvest and it was just brilliant. And to do that role, you learn, you do a three week training course, it's big back then and you learn everything about the business from a sort of corporate head office perspective. So all the product products we sell to growers, everything they need to our operations or the way the paperwork works. It's a good base. Did that for Harvest. Absolutely loved it. And then actually I did go out for a year to a company called Daily Grain, which was half owned by cbh, half owned by Plum Grove at the time, and did sort of their business development and looked after their members. And then the manager at the grow service center left, left and so they called me and like, do you want to do this job? And I was like, I was only there a casual like a year ago, but yeah, came back in full time into that and I don't know, I probably didn't ever see myself running a call centre. I felt like it was For a period of time. But again, it was a great foot in the door in a professional role to CBH at that stage. I didn't think that I was staying for any period of time. It was just a good job and one that worked across the business, which was nice. And then in our division, we've got. In division at the time we had the girls service center, corporate affairs and some government relations sort of thing. And someone left the corporate affairs team and I just respected them. I love the way they worked and the people that worked there and the manager there. And I had a chat with her one day. I was like, oh, you know that job in your team? What about me? Could I do that? She's like, yeah, would you. Would you like to come over? And so I have no professional qualifications in communications or public relations or marketing. And they. This is what's amazing about cbh. Like, they give people brilliant opportunities if they think you can do it and if you work hard. So, yeah, completely changed. Sort of technical specialty, I suppose, but still staying in ag. Yeah.

What would you say to people, like, obviously, formal trainings are really important bedrock, but in terms of. Yeah. Not limiting yourself by what you study to where your career could actually take you.

Yeah. I think my career probably speaks for it, but I would say it even. I wish I'd been more conscious of that when I was younger. So when you. I feel like when I was. Maybe it's just me, I shouldn't say everyone. When I was younger in my career, I just sort of went through it, like ambled through it and looked at things and thought, that's interesting, or looked at opportunities and just kind of followed the path. Or someone said, hey, have you thought about this? And just gave it a crack. But I was lucky to do that because I. If I chat to people who are young in agnow, I was like, go as broad as you can really early. Definitely get financial experience really early as well. Or some business experience, I think. I wish I'd done a bit more of that. Go broad early because you've got plenty of time for it all to get really serious later. But when you are looking at sort of senior executive roles, certainly the way we look at it, cbh, but I imagine it's the same in the industry. You want someone that's got as much experience across a breadth as you can, and it's interesting and it's fun if you sort of do it that way. Not to say, you know, strong specialization doesn't have its value. I guess it goes to personality Type too. You know, I have a huge respect for research and PhD people that devote full careers to specific areas. I just, Yeah, I liked the opportunity. I liked being able to go broad and I think that's really helped later. Yeah.

What would you say, what would be the characteristics of someone in a corporate affairs area of a business that would.

Make them successful corporate affairs? I would say you've got to love people. You genuinely have to love stakeholders and people because you're really trying to understand how they tick. So there's the formal side of communications, of being clear and straightforward and all the rest. And I don't think that's necessarily something you can. I learned it on the job. But you. I think you've got to have a genuine desire and interest in the issues around you and how do I connect and engage with that person? Because you're trying to seek to influence something or an outcome or just at least clearly get through to someone and communicate something really well so that it's easier for them. So when we think about our grower comms, it's like, you know, it can get complex. It doesn't need to be. What's the cleanest, most straightforward way that we can communicate something? Or in the government relations space, when you've got an issue and you're coming, you've got to be able to look at it from all sides and try and work out, well, how is everyone going to react to that outcome and what is the way that we can influence to get the outcome that we sort of need for our business or whatever it is you're doing. So that's sort of how I think about it. And, you know, you're dealing with all types of stakeholders, media being a huge one part of that landscape. And they're the same, they're just interested in people trying to deliver a story or information to an audience. And, you know, the sooner you can get your head around that and understand them, form those really good relationships with them and understand that's their job, this is your job and respect that. It's. It's not. Not hard. Yeah.

As you've been talking, one thing I'm wondering is, so when you've got these different moving balls and having to always be quite alert and cognizant of what's happening in the industry, what's happening abroad, what's happening wherever, how do you stay alert? How do you, how do you keep yourself focused and I guess, ready to show up at any time for the business?

Like, I'm not perfect at it, like, like Anyone? There's always days where you're a bit. Sometimes my boss will be like, have you read that thing? I was like, no, I haven't read it yet. You know, you try to be across a lot and stay across everything. I guess there's what fits with your natural tendencies. So what do you lean into and enjoy? So I learn by talking to people, but some people learn by being able to consume and read it. Learning that style and how that works and where I'm an extrovert. So I get my energy from being around people and lucky, that that's the way I learn because that's how I can consume things. A lot of my job is with people and out at events and out at events at night times and things like that. And sometimes I think you've got to realize when you're capping out on those things and what's the other things like exercise or family time or, you know, whatever it is that can help you regain the energy. And I'm just lucky. I get my energy from people. And your team, like, they're, they're great. If you love the people you work with that are great fun and that you can have a bit of a laugh with and not be too serious about things and just go, okay, this is what we're dealing with. This is how we're going to tackle it. Yeah. All those things, I think, help keep your energy up. Yeah, yeah.

It's like a balanced.

Yeah, yeah.

On the leadership front, the Australian Rural Leadership Program, so applying for it. And I'd say I read a bit of an article where you said you didn't know a whole lot about it, but CBH have been huge supporters of it and I think each year for quite some time have sent someone through the course. What was it that I guess got you to decide to agree to doing it? And was it, was it at a point in time that. Yeah. Was just right?

Yeah. Again, as you said, so CBH sponsors people in the business to go through, which is really lucky. A lot of other people are matched up with a sponsor. So huge opportunity. I. I think that we have. A friend of mine had done it. That same friend was the one that I. I went and worked with at the Levy Group. So he had come and worked at CBH eventually. So he's a very good friend of mine and he's like, good at, you know, giving me some ideas about what I should be doing. And we'd had a few people at CBH and I loved the way they would talk about it and it's. You've done a rop ollie so, you know, it's. It's not secret squirrels, but they try not to be too open on what the experience is so you get to experience it properly. It's probably the best way to describe it. And so I loved hearing them kind of talk and code about it and like, it sounded like this really cool thing where you just go and have a huge experience. You grow and learn a lot and it's fun but educational and has strong leadership sense of it. So, yeah, my friend suggested I apply. I hadn't really thought about it and applied and got in like that. Straightforward. I was really lucky.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's more competitive now at CBH when people are applying. So I think at that stage just less people were sort of considering it. It's a big commitment if you're away from your work or family. So you've got to be able to commit to that and be ready for that. So I was lucky in my. That point in my life. It worked really well.

How did you go, like. I guess. Yeah. How did it really benefit you knowing that someone who loves traveling, being able to turn the phone off for 10 or 14 days at a time.

Yeah.

May be quite a nice thing.

Yeah. I mean, that's probably the only time I've turned my phone off for 14 days straight.

Yeah.

It's quite. If I. If I had to do that now, I'm not sure I would do.

Yeah.

But that is the most liberating thing that you can do for someone is be like, you are not going to be in contact. I mean, I. I'll preface this by saying I don't have kids. I think that would be very hard for families. I didn't. So, you know, so liberating to just be like, you're here, you're with these people. We're going to put you into a situation where you're going to find that challenging and you got to work it out. And you were way up. For me, the first stint was in the Kimberley, so up in sort of remote Northern Wa and it is the most beautiful part of the world and you get to spend two weeks out there challeng yourself working with people, nutting out gritty things. I mean, how lucky? How lucky is that? I just loved it. I absolutely loved it. And I think it's. It's a really. The style of learning is experiential learning. So it definitely suits me. So, you know, you're walking along and you're having small little epiphanies about yourself or people. So just slowly and it goes over two years, you just build like a slow natural confidence, I think in yourself and your style and how you operate. And you go, oh, that's okay that I do it that way. And it's a bit weird and a bit different, but I can get outcomes and I'm learning that that works and how to make that work for me, which is really not. I just started a new job at the time I had done a couple of years in corporate affairs and then my boss who I had, I have great respect for her, she's a good friend of mine, she said come and do government relations. And I had refused and I was quite embarrassed. I didn't know anything about politics or the government. And I just sort of said to her, oh, this is not really, I don't think I can do it. And I just didn't have enough experience. And she's like, it's just relationships with people. So you'll be fine, don't worry. So I, I said yes and took on a job that I had I was pretty terrified of and I had no idea what I was doing. And doing ARLP at the same time as doing that job was just perfect. I was lucky that they came together because here I was trying to build my professional confidence in doing a job and you know, dealing with big stakeholders that I hadn't met and didn't know and then learning that, okay, so this is how people tick and your way of working that out looks like this. Yeah, it naturally nicely worked together. I didn't really see it all that way at the time because you're just in it and then it's not until years later you kind of go oh yeah, okay, that's. That worked.

How important? Like because you said the word confidence in there. But how important do you think it was having I guess the outside of work space to be able to escape to, but to be able to I guess throw ideas around and talk through things to then actually have the confidence and the benefit now of hindsight to look at how that actually helped you in that role.

Yeah, huge. Just, you know, I love cbh. It's very all consuming like most jobs are and I've been here a long time but also I'm from the regions and so AG can be quite like that. So a lot of what you do is um, it is all consuming, can fit in together and to just be able to go away from it in, in quite stressful periods of time. So I'll just be able to Go and have time away and just think and operate differently and, and sort of decompress and test concepts and ideas with people in a, you know, what would that say? A safe environment. And I do really value that in a highly confidential way is just amazing. It's such a rare gift to, to have in your career to do that. And then you come back and you get a bit refreshed and you're a bit. Got some new confidence instilled and you're like, okay, I can tackle this or I can do that or I'll test out this way of operating. And yeah, so very lucky. Yeah.

And you said the word gift in there. So now you just triggered me and made me think about feedback, all the gifts. Feedback is a gift.

Yeah.

What was different the second time that I guess a big change came about was a couple of years ago. Head up the Geraldton zone. What was different between you in 2016 to that?

So I'd done from 2016 is when I first sort of took on the role of managing our whole division. So the boss I was speaking about before she left and yeah, so took on the role of managing the division. That was a big step up into the executive for me. And we were going through the middle of a takeover bid from an external. External parties at the time, CBH was. It's all in the public. So that was a really stressful time to come into that executive role. And we were under quite significant scrutiny publicly and under a lot of pressure and that role was under a lot of pressure. So I feel like I just had my head down for a long time, just, just working through that and we did a big round of sort of looking at our structure and governance with our members actually Great in the long run. So, yeah, I think my first few years of running a division is just running it like hard and head down and then slowly you get to. Yeah, you've got everything. After a little while of doing something, you get your team in the position that you want them and everyone's playing their roles and it's really working well. And then you'll get to a point where I was probably like, okay, what's next for me? Or what does that look like? And you can either go and find that outside of CBH or inside cbh. And when I look at doing my sort of role for other companies and if you're staying in wa, that's mining, you know, or probably some of the gtes or things like that, and I find it, I find it hard to get as passionate about What I do in other. Other sectors? I think so. I love AG and have been in it for a long time and I think it's a brilliant place to be. So I was like, okay, well if. If you're not sort of looking at that, then what does it look like inside cbh? And to progress here, you probably really need to go through running something in operations or in marketing and trading. They're the big sort of P and L units for our business. And I'd never worked in operations before, so that opportunity came up. Ben asked if I'd like to go and run Geraldton. The Geraldton zone manager, he was ready to sort of shift and do something different as well. So it was really nice timing. So yeah, went up to Geraldton and I think I was ready to do something different, but really had no idea what I was doing again. It was like starting at the Libby group first time around and again the team up there were just so amazing to me. Like they just. I just sort of was very open with them. Like, I don't know how to do your jobs. I've never done this before. How does this work? How does that work? What does that look like? And I can ask them questions, but I genuinely didn't know how to do it. And so they taught me everything. And yeah, they took me under their wing again and really showed me operations. But I learned more about people up there than I have in my whole career because, you know, I went from running a team of 20 to sort of team of 120 and then plus casuals at Harvest and a completely different style workforce. So I really loved that. I loved that part of it the most is like learning more about people, how to motivate and encourage them and give them support to get to do the best of their job. So great.

And I'm interested. So you said previously before that you were probably starting to get hit that limit of where you're at for people who are listening. And I've had conversations with people over recent weeks and whatnot, who they go, oh, well, maybe I'll start to look at a job somewhere else. But how beneficial was it and how did you find the people internally to be able to have those conversations candidly to go, maybe I'm yeah, at that point. And what would you say to people who are thinking about that in terms of actually maybe leaning in and having that conversation internally?

Yeah, and it's hard. Different cultures do it differently, so you've got to be pretty conscious of that. I think CBH is a very Open, pretty transparent place and, you know, you never get it perfect. We're working a lot on, you know, what is your development plan and where are you going and what's your future career path and how does that map out here? Have you thought of outside our division but into another division? So we're trying to do that a lot better and I think we're getting a lot better at it. So we offer a lot of secondments through and across the business. So as long as you're having those conversations and showing your interest, I think that's really important. And it doesn't. It shouldn't always feel like a conversation of like I'm in or out. It's like I think I'm starting to get, you know, bored or maybe I'm not as effective as I used to be. If you're really honest with yourself or I think someone else could do this and do it well. But I'd really like to have a go at that. We love that here because the more we can get people to work across the different areas and units, which is what I was sort of saying about starting broad, we think we round people out really well and that they've got more probably success like at senior leadership level. We're quite open with that. So here I think it's probably. That's a pretty normal conversation. Yeah. We're encouraged to sort of to. To operate like that. Yeah. Some people wouldn't want to. I understand. Yeah. Some people wouldn't want to do that though. I think I get it.

Pretty good place to work.

Yeah. Yeah.

The other part of your role obviously is sustainability. It's something which, I'll say the term understanding what it actually stands for can be here or there to you in what you're doing. What is sustainability, what is the focus and what does it mean to you and you as a business?

Yep. So I'll try and keep this short because it can be long. So we've always had a sustainability action plan for a long time and that's looked largely at environmental factors like waste management and using sort of like non commercial grain and how we, you know, test our water at our site. So we've had that in play. And then as the kind of world has changed around, really having a very strong ESG focus, the sustainable development goal focus and then like a carbon reduction focus. Cbh, we've had that plan in place for three years now. We were just at a point where we needed to mature our thinking around that. And it's very different to being in A listed environment where you're getting really strong investor pressure or pressure from your financiers. We weren't seeing that as much. Our board obviously were going to various things saying, oh, this is something we need to be considering a bit more deeply. What happened at CBH is the market is really driving it. So we sell to big global sort of food production companies and they were all getting pressure from consumers and so they were starting to sort of set their 2030 and 2050 targets and say, you know, we need, we need our supply chain to look like this and therefore the grain that we're buying from you we can start putting some pressure on, which I like. That's been a good thing for CBH to have that more market driven because it's sort of more opportunity focused rather than cost. So then we did a piece of work, we looked across our business and like, what are our elements of sustainability? What does sustainability mean for us? Sustainability is actually one of our values and it's actually very nicely embedded into something like a cooperative. Because cooperatives are here for their members for the long term and they make, they'll tend to make longer term investment decisions rather than short cycle driven by sort of shareholder dividend sort of decisions. And I can look back to some of the investments we've made in like Kunana grand terminal in the 70s, which is huge and we still haven't maxed out capacity of that terminal. So it's a natural concept for a co op. But then the modern world of sustainability I suppose brought some more rigor to that. So in our sustainability pillars we have people obviously is a huge part of that. So how do we make our place, you know, CBH a great place to work, that's a standard one. So looking at diversity and inclusion and safety and having it great, we were already on that journey, but formalises it a bit. Community investment again, which sits in my area already have had a long standing community investment fund. But again is that driving the right outcomes? Is it looking at actual change in the community or are we just sponsoring things procuring? Local procurement sits in that pillar as well. We've got the governance side so making sure board have really strong oversight. So we have an HSS committee, so Health, Sustainability and Safety committee that, that has oversight and then we've got our two other pillars which are pretty interconnected. So markets. So how do we make that market opportunity and requirement and that's around like chemical residue on our grain and making sure we test for that and having product development that shows what we're doing in our supply chain. So we might look at traceability or things like that. And the environment has more traditional metrics you'll see in other business. So achieving 50% reduction in our scope one and two by 2030 and by 2050, it's a 100% or net zero of our supply chain. So that's from site to customer. So it's not full scope three a little different. But we are working with growers because a lot of the Scope 3 sits in the grower side. And the interesting part around sustainability for all of ag is how do we help growers work through this? Because ultimately the targets get pushed back down to them. Our growers are already very efficient in the way they grow grain, but they have these kind of requirements coming to them and we need to help. Like, what does measurement look like? What's the right tool to measure? Working with GRDC and other sort of scientific bodies around. Okay, what's the right R and D that we need to put in? You know, changes to variable rate, which they've done a heap of research in. But like, what else? What makes it applicable? Fertilizer. Because to get to where like let's say a carbon reduced state, at least not, I don't know about net zero for grain, we need to work with growers on that. They can't just carry the can and then. So we're looking at our supply chain. That's the bit that we own. But we've got a big role to work with growers as well. Sorry, that was a long. No, long answer.

It's huge, isn't it? But like, it makes so much sense, I think how you explained it there in terms of the part that you're genuinely responsible for. And that's the. I think for me, the piece which has been, I guess, pushed down is going, oh, well, the farmers are responsible for everything. Whereas actually if it's to your point of whoever your customer is, if I'm a farmer to you guys, well, okay, that kind of makes sense because from there it's actually your business's responsibility with how you market, who you market, how you move, et cetera.

Yeah, everyone Scope three is someone else's supply chain, basically. And that's how it's designed to work. So we're kind of probably the Scope three of our food customers and the growers are our scope three. So you looking to bring each other along? It's just, you can see how it cascades down the chain and we genuinely have a huge role, I think as a Co op is helpful as well, because that's your member base. So we've always had a strong view that we need to bring a market signal back. So if the market's changing and they need something else, they want us to grow a different malt barley or they're buying feed wheat now and less sort of milling wheat. Like, we have a big role to play in feeding that back down the chain to breeders and researchers, but also to our growers. So they see it. So sustainability is very similar to that. It's just a bit more complex, probably.

Yeah, one part. So you mentioned, obviously the importance of people, but for around women in leadership, what does it look like in the business today? But then also I'd love to know, where do you see it heading, maybe more broadly across the grain sector?

I think ag has. Is getting there. I think it's probably been a little slow off the mark and I speak generally. And if I compare it in wa, obviously we are very exposed to the mining industry here. Just look down here and it's everywhere. And I don't think we've competed anywhere near as hard as they have for the full set of resources that are there in the population. And sometimes, I'll say it, I think the views can still be a little bit backwards in our industry. It's changing and it's getting there and it's everyone's responsibility to kind of understand that and make sure it's clear. I think, you know, the perspective we've taken at cbh, quotas are really difficult. As a female, you never want to be there in the position that someone's had to put you there. Obviously, you know, we're there because we're good at our job, not because of some other reason. We've looked at targets. We have targets at CBH, it's a broad target at 30% at the moment we're getting very close to that, which is great. And then now for us, it's about making sure it flows through all the levels of the business. So we are seeing a huge amount of frontline females or females coming to our frontline team out in operations, which is brilliant. And so now it's about how do we hold them in the business and, you know, get them through and up through the different stages of their career. Especially when you have the dynamics, if you, if you have a family and kids and things like that, which are just. Can be natural barriers to make sure they stay within our system and that we have all the right mechanisms around one understanding that that may be career Gap, but also that females will operate a little bit differently in terms of their level of confidence or how they'll seek to apply for things. So you've actually got to put more effort into tapping them on a shoulder. And I've had this in my career and I've seen it and some people don't like this conversation, but ultimately females just do operate a little bit differently. Like you want to be more confident going into something, that you're going to be able to do it and achieve it sometimes than blokes do. And so what is, what should that look like and how do we help people with that? So we've got great policies, you know, around the structural things around parental leave for both men and women. And there's more. I think what we're going to have to work on is the, the other elements and what I would say, like the softer side of this and like what, what do we do in terms of mentoring and coaching and encouraging or making sure those secondment opportunities I was talking about are, you know, available and known and understood by everybody. And we're trying to put people in these different opportunities so that there's nothing holding them back if they want to keep progressing in their career. No shortage of that. Cbh. Yeah. The industry, I don't know, like when I went through, you know, uni, it was sort of 50, 50, a lot of the, like agronomists coming out and like the area reps at the time, you know, that was pretty 50, 50. We've still got this and I think a lot of industries have. We still have the structural issue of getting to senior and executive and CEO roles for women in ag. So that's what we've got to work on.

Yeah. Oh, we might see there we've all.

Got to do the work collective.

Yeah, no, for sure. And I think it's really exciting where, where it's heading and I think there's so many important initiatives that are happening and I think also it's kind of the more, the more time I'm spending in industry as well, the more I'm realizing, well, one, just how hard it is for people to get to those higher echelon positions, but also how few they kind of are as well, in a way.

Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? You sort of forget that when you're young in your career, which is a good thing. That's what's nice about being young in your career. It's like the opportunities are huge and endless, it feels. And then as you get more Senior and get a bit older. You're like, oh, literally, like, if you want to keep progressing up. Yeah. Just. It shrinks.

Yeah, yeah. And I've chatted to. I'm going on a tangent, but I've chatted to different people in senior roles across businesses, both male and female. And I look at it and like, quite often will go, like aspects of the life you live that I aspire to have nothing like. Because it just seems so distorted and out of whack that it is.

It's interesting that you say that because we, we do talk about that a lot and it's really hard because, like, you get to senior position, I know you can cut this out if you want, but I personally think I get really paid well to do what I do and that, you know, there's an element of my time that goes above and beyond that's required and should be. But you've always. Then it's what's the balance? And we're. There's a lot of energy I get from the things I do that are extra with work, like I was saying at the start, but it shouldn't be so unsustainable that someone else can't do it. And how do you make these roles attractive to everybody? And I think the point you just made around looking at certain styles of, let's just call them styles of leadership where executives or CEOs work, you know, really crazy hours or don't see their families very much or can't have a holiday or have time off to go to their. Their kids carnival. That's not a sustainable model of leadership. And when you're in it, sometimes it's hard to pull yourself back at it. And I can be bad at this. I'm not saying I'm not so, like, I'm not pointing the finger at anyone. It's just hard to pull yourself out of it and go, what's sustainable? How do I, like, have a normal life and do my job really well and commit to all of that? I don't know what the balance is. It's hard. I've learned I don't really separate work and sometimes I've always been like that in my career. I just blended it all together and just get on with it because I find the more I was trying to separate them or have tension in them, it just. It's too hard.

Yeah.

Especially that's personal stuff. Yeah. Like our relatives are all, you know, farmers and everyone we hang out with is in ag in some scheme more way, shape or form. And you know, you see all your stakeholders out at events and things like that, it's like, ah, just, it's one big mix.

It's just laugh.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Brianna, thank you so much for coming on and having a chat. It was fantastic to hear your story and I think others are going to really enjoy hearing it as well.

Thank you. I really enjoyed it. Ollie, thank you for the chat and coming to Perth.

Thank you. Thanks for joining us for the GRDC in Conversation podcast. This series is a GRDC investment that's sharing the stories of the people who are living and breathing the Aussie grains industry. Make sure you check out some of our other conversations and hit follow on your favourite podcast app to never miss an episode.