FROM THE CHAIRMAN Peter Milne, A.M In this year’s Annual Report I’m going to talk about our people right up front, so it’s clear and unambiguous that our people are at the heart of this organisation. Animal Health Australia’s (AHA) Members, the executive team, staff and the Board together constitute AHA and I have appreciated the goodwill of each of these groups throughout the year. Their dedication has ensured the occasional issues that arose were quickly resolved and helped AHA largely deliver on the commitments in the 2016-17 Annual Operating Plan (AOP). • During the year, AHA made a greater effort to induct and mentor new people in the Members group, to ensure they were quickly able to contribute at the Members’ Forums and other meetings, benefitting their organisations, as well as AHA. • In July, the Board worked with the executive management team and staff in the Reflections Workshop, which was all about the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) process that Kathleen Plowman has driven through the company. A couple of things happened that day; I became an M&E believer and I appreciated the value of the model in use. It reinforced to myself and other directors how committed our people are to deliver outcomes and value for our Members and for the livestock industry. • The Board acknowledged the performance and achievements of our CEO Kathleen Plowman in her first term in office, by offering to renew her CEO contract. We were thrilled by her acceptance of our offer and note the continuation of significant progress driven by Kathleen. • In November 2016, at the Annual General Meeting, three new directors were appointed to the AHA Board, and they have settled into their role well. 2 “We are about halfway through AHA’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020, and we are well positioned to ultimately deliver on the Strategic Plan.” • We are now almost half way through AHA’s fiveyear Strategic Plan 2015-2020 (the Plan) and my view is that we are well positioned to achieve the outcomes spelt out in the Plan for these priorities by 2020. • Progress with delivering future financial sustainability to AHA is going to be much more challenging and yet it is arguably the most important thing we can do to really differentiate AHA in 2020 from AHA in 2015. It’s the critical key to allowing AHA to become the organisation Members planned for it to be two and a half years ago. I’m not suggesting it will be easy, much of it is a stretch, but on recent performance I am very optimistic we will get there in 2020. My thanks to everyone for what has been achieved and I look forward to working with Members and the AHA team on the opportunities and challenges ahead. Note: The Annual Report Summary 2016-17 provides a brief recap of AHA’s activities in the 2016-17 financial year. The Annual Report 2016-17 will provide a more detailed evaluation of AHA’s performance and will be available early November.
3 Publizr Home