Pauline Brightling, Leader of Harris Park Group

Pauline started Harris Park Group in 1998.  As Group Leader, she is responsible for directing our strategies and actions and managing our resources.

Pauline has worked as a veterinarian, academic, business manager, consultant and adviser in the agricultural sector for over 30 years.  Her work is internationally recognised.  She has been engaged as a strategy adviser by Animal Health Ireland and Dairy New Zealand.

While Pauline is undoubtedly the Group’s visionary and mentor, she also excels at the attention to detail needed to turn a vision into reality. Her professional training as a veterinarian ensures that the Group’s approach is grounded in scientific analysis and rigorous thought.  

Pauline’s career has been focussed on dairy farm businesses and young people for many years. She is currently the Leader of Dairy Australia’s The People in Dairy program, and the Dairy Moving Forward champion for the People Strategy.  These programs are designed to support changes on farm to enhance attraction, retention and efficiency of people working and investing there.

Anne Hope, Strategy Research & Development Manager

Anne is the brains trust behind some of Harris Park’s most tricky challenges, especially developing high-level strategic plans and program design. A veterinarian and epidemiologist by training, her technical input also ensures our creative innovations are rigorous and scientifically sound.

Anne is responsible for setting the scene for key projects by doing the research that provides an evidence-based entry point, and contributes the thinking that enables the us to build the relevant responses or plans. She presents concepts and strategies as written plans or reports and helps with the delivery of our programs by participating in progress review and program evaluation.

Anne has a special ability to develop an overview of complex issues quickly and communicate strategic concepts clearly.

John Craven, Projects Manager

John is the manager of the animal performance projects Countdown 2020 and InCalf. John has worked in the dairy industry and agricultural research for many years and is incredibly well regarded and connected.

His role at Harris Park Group is to help design projects, review progress and ensure that clients are engaged in project developments and achievements. Having experience as a farmer, John is very focussed on identifying how project activities will improve farmer profitability and in trying to understand the possible constraints to innovation on farm .

His other passion is to ensure the scientific quality of all projects by engaging experts to test the rigour of experimental design and to review progress. John often calls on his extensive networks to advise on the development of projects that will have a high probability of improving the bottom line for farmers.

Helen Pitman, Finance Plus Manager

Helen brings to Harris Park a non-agricultural background!  She has worked as a copywriter, PR consultant, general manager and has combined motherhood with work as a freelance number cruncher. Her business management qualifications, human resource expertise and experience in the television production industry means she’s seen it all before, and no challenge is insurmountable.

Helen looks after our bottom line. She’s the one who keeps us on our toes and makes sure our projects deliver within budget. As well as managing the financial side of all our projects, Helen turns her hand to website content management, producing project materials and makes sure we meet our contractual obligations, especially reporting and regulatory compliance.

Andrea Thompson, Product Designer

As product designer, Andrea brings ideas to life. She develops resources and tools that work for the end-user. When we have a new concept to get off the ground, Andrea pulls in the right people at the right time. She is a clear-headed member of the team and is always able to identify the key issues to address and find strategic ways forward. We are constantly amazed by her exceptional organisational skills and her willingness to break new ground by trying new technologies.

Andrea has agricultural science training and spent years providing dairy farmer client services for a major dairy company. She's a great listener and very good at putting herself in the shoes of our different clients. She’s great to bounce ideas off because she never loses sight of the big picture. Her skills as a lateral thinker brings the team great insights into whatever challenge is at hand.

Narelle Savige, Projects Officer

The Australian dairy industry is Narelle’s greatest passion. She commands the engine room of Harris Park Group and is the link between the Group’s team members and our professional associates. She combines her organisational skills with experience in researching and writing media releases and feature stories for press and newsletters.

Narelle’s hands on rural upbringing and agriculture diploma have equipped her with strong practical and technical knowledge of Australian agricultural industries. Importantly, this gives her much needed insight into the challenges associated with farming and rural life.

Narelle has boundless energy and somehow combines her work for Harris Park with a communications internship with Australian Dairy Farmers, and helping out on the family farm .

Nina Puren, Project Coordinator

We are so lucky to have Nina. She’s our ‘can do’ person who takes pleasure from putting things in order. We are ever grateful for her exceptional organisational skills, her ability to cope easily with multi-tasking and to interact easily and well with people.

Nina combines her ongoing studies with two days work for Harris Park Group. She is responsible for developing and maintaining information resources (both electronic and paper), maintaining the stakeholder contact list and assisting individual projects with their data management.
Nina has a tertiary English teaching background which means she has an eagle eye for detail and professional accuracy. Not only does she make sure things get done on time, she also makes sure they are completed to a high standard.