Nick Femia - SA Mushrooms

Nick has been an AMGA member for 23 years, and previously spent 13 years on the AMGA board as well as the South Australian state director for 3 years.

He has been instrumental in shaping the industry, also having held positions on the AMSAFE program, MIAC, the AMGA Marketing Sub committee, Hort Innovation Strategic Industry Advisory Panel, and various mushroom project reference groups. He also spent time on the Horticulture Coalition committee of South Australia.

Nick and his family started SA Mushrooms in 1998, and the farm has recently expanded to include a state of the art compost yard, as well as a mushroom wholesale store in the South Australian Produce Markets - which distributes SA Mushrooms Australia-wide. This fully integrated business now has over 120 employee’s on three sites.

Nick is excited to be back on the AMGA board, and giving back to the industry, and believes that his most important role is to look after Growers’ interests, both large and small operators, in an equitable manner.

Georgia Beattie - Bulla Park

Georgia Beattie is the CEO and owner of Bulla Mushrooms, Australia’s largest organic mushroom farm. As a new generation of farmer, Georgia specialises in high performance farming, embracing the use of technology and innovation to achieve fast growth and scale in agriculture. 

Georgia began her career in the startup space, founding wine packaging business Lupé Wines in 2010. The company created innovative IP to manufacture a single serve glass of wine and raised venture capital to expand quickly into events, hotel minibars and airlines across Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. The company was acquired in 2016. Prior to this, Georgia spent a period in the tech industry as CEO of Realestate.com's new venture, Spacely, as well as CEO of Startup Victoria.

Georgia is also a non-executive Director of Rowing Australia and Second Bite and also on the advisory board of Law Squared. 

Carmine Callisto - Global Axis Import Solutions.

Carmine Callisto is the Managing Director of Global Axis Import Solutions Pty Ltd, a successful family owned business that has been operational in Adelaide, South Australia for the past 32 years.  The company acts as exclusive agents for a number of international mushroom and horticultural brands and products in Australia and New Zealand-supplying mushroom farms, nurseries, turf producers and potting soil companies in all states of Australia and New Zealand.

Carmine has a strong background in sales, having worked across other industries including the building and automotive sectors, prior to his introduction to the Mushroom industry in 1998.  He has worked extensively to build solid and strong relationships and connections across the industry, investing time listening to growers and delivering what they need to produce strong yields of quality mushrooms.

Carmine has been passionate about giving back to the industry, and has been a member AMGA conference organising committee for the past 19 years.

Dr Geoff Martin – Dr Mush

I’ve been involved in the industry for 40 years and have made compost and grown mushrooms on three continents, starting in the UK, then Southern Africa, through New Zealand moving to Australia in 2001.  Now semi-retired, I am kept busy running my mushroom consultancy business, Dr Mush Advisory, helping growers in New Zealand and Australia.

I’ve been an AMGA Director since 2007, I was Chair in 20/21 and 21/22 prior to which I was  Treasurer. As an AMGA Board member, I believe that my most important role is to look after our Growers’ interests, both large and small operators, in an equitable manner.

Brian Backhouse - Costa Mushrooms.

Brian is the South Australian State Manager for Vertical Farming for Costa, which includes Mushrooms. He has been involved in the Mushroom Industry for 9 years with Costa running the West Australian tray farm operations for the first six and a half years and now running Costa’s flagship Mushroom facility in South Australia. Brian brings an operational focus and team engagement to the sites he is responsible for recognising that it is a team that delivers results and not individuals.

Brian has worked across the Dairy industry and Chemical manufacturing and has a Bachelor in Commerce majoring in Accounting. He is passionate about the mushroom industry and has a desire to see the industry achieve its potential through modernisation and new thinking of both the physical processes and the strategies implemented to drive improvement through our marketing and sales performance.    

Kyle Davies - Zweck (on behalf of Marland Mushrooms).

Kyle is a founding partner in Zweck, a consulting firm offering accounting, taxation, HR, and HSEQ services. Kyle spent over a decade working at firms including senior management roles at PwC and KPMG before moving more into the commercial roles where he served as CFO and then General Manager of Marland Farms QLD for over five years. 

With over 17-years of experience working with SMEs and larger corporations, Kyle is an expert in budgeting and financial management with a proven ability to provide actionable insights.