Board of Directors

L-R Charles Wilson, Peter Wakefield, Geoff Hewitt (Chairman),
Bob Dall'Alba & Gordon Cherry (circa 2016)

Geoff Hewitt

Chairman

Born in 1962, Geoff is a third generation farmer on the Darling Downs in Queensland. He and his family run an aggregation of farms producing both grain crops and cotton, with the primary focus on high quality irrigated cotton. He has over 25 years experience representing agriculture at state and national level. He served on the board of Cotton Australia for 5 years with 2 years as Chairman. He was a Director of Queensland Farmers Federation, and Chairman of the QFF Water Committee for 4 years. He was a Director of Central Downs Irrigators for 12 years, and was appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Committee to the Queensland Government on water reform. He was a Director of listed Agricultural Company Primeag for 2 years prior to its privatisation in 2013. Geoff has been Chair of ProClass since its inception in 2004.

Tony Geitz

Managing Director - Australian Cotton at Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Brisbane, Australia

Tony has been associated with the cotton industry for approx 20 years. Initially in Agribusiness banking and then trading after joining Reinhart as Managing Director in 2001. In 2009 he moved to Beijing as Head of China for Paul Reinhart AG overseeing domestic trading and global imports. Tony moved back to Australia in 2014 and then moved to Louis Dreyfus Company as Managing Director, Australian Cotton in 2016. Tony has held various industry roles including Chairman of the Australian Cotton Shippers Association and serving on the committees of Australian Cotton Industry Forum and the Committee for International Co-operation Between Cotton Associations.

Simon Corish

Assoc Diploma of Applied Science – Agronomy. Cotton farmer from Goondiwindi, QLD

Simon was a Director of Cotton Australia Limited from 2007 – 2018, including the Chair of Cotton Australia from 2014 to 2017. Represented Cotton Australia on the Board of the International Better Cotton Initiative from 2014 to 2017. He has been General Manager of the Corish Group of properties since 2002 and has been actively involved in cotton production since 1996. He sat on the National Farmers Federation Water Taskforce from 2008 to 2014 and the General Committee from 2014 to 2017. Simon is still currently involved locally on the Border Rivers Food and Fibre committee.

Peter Wakefield

Managing Director - Wakefield Inspection Services

Peter began his long association with the cotton industry at age 19 when he became a trainee cotton controller at the Liverpool Warehousing Company, UK. Later he joined Associated Surveyors and Test Laboratories Co., Ltd in Thailand then went on to become Manager for "Edward T Robertson & Son” in their Taiwan office. In 1990 he returned to Liverpool to take up the position of European Manager for Edward T Robertson & Son, and was thus able to be at the forefront of the Company’s expansion into the former Soviet Union. In 1993, a major change happened, which resulted in the purchase of parts of “Edward T Robertson & Son”, thus forming a new company Wakefield Inspections Services, which Peter assumed the position of Managing Director.

He has held past positions on the Liverpool Cotton Association (LCA) as a Director; and the International Cotton Association (ICA) as President and Chairman of the Committee for International Cooperation between Cotton Associations. In 2007 Peter relocated to Shanghai where he now resides and works.

Eliza Star

Quality & Sales Manager - Queensland Cotton

Eliza has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and originates from an irrigation property at Carrathool, in Southern New South Wales. In 2016, Eliza commenced her employment with Queensland Cotton initially as Grower Services Representative worked for Queensland Cotton, a subsidiary of Olam Agri Holdings for 7 years. Prior to this, she worked in Sydney for the Agricultural Insurance division of Rabobank. In her role as export manager, Eliza manages the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) sales position, customer quality allocations and promotes Australian Cotton within the export markets. Eliza was elected to the Proclass Board at the end of 2023