Agribusiness expert and serial board member Dr. Michele Allan has taken office as chair of Australia’s leading space research centre, SmartSat Cooperative Research Center (CRC), following the sudden death of inaugural chairman Dr Peter Woodgate on Christmas Eve.

Dr. Allan, Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Charles Sturt University, is also Chairman of the Food and Agribusiness Growth Center (FIAL), Trusted Autonomous Systems Defense CRC and Wine Australia. She is also a director of the CSIRO, the Food Agility CRC and Dairy Food Safety Victoria and joined the SmartSat CRC board when it was established in South Australia in July 2019.

The SmartSat CRC brings together more than 100 national and international partners who have invested more than $190 million over the past seven years, complemented by $55 million from the federal government, in research. It works with the Australian Space Agency & Defence, towards the government’s target of tripling the size of the space sector to $12 billion and creating up to 20,000 jobs by 2030.

Priority industry sectors for SmartSat include telecommunications, agriculture and natural resources, transportation and logistics, mining, and defense and national security.

Dr. Allan acknowledged the untimely death of Dr. Woodgate and his leadership.

“He was an inspirational leader and I am honored to carry on his legacy,” she said.

“I look forward to working with the SmartSat CRC team to pursue our goals of advancing Australia’s space and space industries.”

Professor Andy Koronios, CEO of SmartSat CRC, said they were pleased that Dr. Allan took on the role despite the sad circumstances.

“As one of our founding board members, Dr. Allan AO has already made a tremendous contribution to our organization. This, along with her diverse industry knowledge and wealth of leadership experience, will be incredibly valuable as SmartSat CRC enters its fourth year,” he said.

“We are all deeply shocked and saddened by the passing of our inaugural chairman, Dr Peter Woodgate, whose dedication and service will be greatly missed. Looking ahead, we are determined to ensure that we carry on Peter’s legacy.”