Our people

Professor Richard Price

Richard is Managing Director of Kiri-ganai Research, and has a wealth of experience in managing national and international innovation programs addressing the sustainability and health of local to global environments and domestic and international industries.

Following an early career in the Australian Departments of Productivity and then Trade, Richard worked in Japan, including at the University of Nagasaki. Returning to Australia he was involved in national research reforms, and was a co-author of Australia’s Primary Industries & Energy R&D Act 1989 establishing 15 national industry R&D corporations. He helped found the Land & Water Resources R&D Corporation, where he established a wide range of national research programs including the National Dryland Salinity Program, Managing Climate Variability Program and the Social and Institutional Research Program among many others.

Leading a collaborative research team involving the University of Tasmania, five State Governments, four industry peak research investment organisations and numerous farming and community groups, Richard jointly won an Australian Banksia Award in 2008 for his oversight of Australia’s largest agricultural biodiversity program to that time. In 2009 he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Queensland and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Australian National University. In 2013 he was made a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology.

Richard has led the research and engagement activities of two research institutes: the Australia-Indonesia Research Centre (2014-17), where he oversaw work conducted by over 400 researchers, and the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions (2017-22), where he oversaw the work of over 240 researchers.

Our associates

Associate Professor Tony Buckmaster

Tony is an experienced RD&E program and project manager with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry. He is skilled in project management, science education, Arcgis products, sustainable development, program evaluation, and biodiversity. Strong community and social services professional with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in Ecology from University of Sydney.

For close to 20 years Tony accumulated deep knowledge about the behaviors and impact of Australia’s invasive animals, and he rose to lead the research effort of the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions as its RD&E Manager.

Professor Steven Cork

Steve is an associate consultant with specialist expertise in futures and scenario planning. His business, EcoInsights, commenced in 2005.

Steve has an interesting background of tremendous complementary to Kiri-ganai Research. He was a research ecologist for 25 years and has been a futurist specialising in relationships between the environment and human health and wellbeing for the past 10 years. He has extensive experience working in and with government policy agencies in Australian and internationally.

Professor Jann Williams

Jann trained as a landscape ecologist with her professional interests over many decades focusing on the conservation and management of biodiversity in Australia. For her lifelong dedication to Australian ecological knowledge and practice, Jann was awarded the Australian Ecological Society’s prestigious Gold Medal in 2019.

As Managing Director of Ecological Insights, Jann worked as a consultant for 9 years for Land & Water Australia. Five years was spent as the National Coordinator of the Native Vegetation R&D Program (1998-2003) and five and a half years (2001-2007) as the National Coordinator of the Native Vegetation and Biodiversity Sub-program of Land, Water & Wool. During this period, Jann also led a team of authors writing the biodiversity theme report for the 2001 Commonwealth State of the Environment Report, contributed to the 2002 biodiversity report published by the National Land & Water Resources Audit and in 2005 authored and co-authored two major reports on native vegetation management at the regional and property level for Greening Australia.

Since 2014 Jann’s research has taken on a new dimension – exploring nature’s elements as a framework for (re)connecting people with nature and for a new discipline called ‘Elemental Ecology’.

Dr Sue Ogilvy

Sue leads Australia’s Farming for the Future program to establish robust evidence of links between natural capital and financial and non-financial benefits to farm businesses and farming families. Her diverse experience includes strategic sales and marketing in the IT industry.

Following rewarding and stimulating roles as the VP Sales for Panviva and senior account management and marketing in Hewlett Packard Australia, Sue became interested in agricultural sustainability and natural capital. Indeed, Sue has risen to be at the forefront of regenerative agriculture in Australia.

Sue has a BSc in Science (Physics), a master’s in marketing, and a PhD which focused on adapting double-entry bookkeeping for natural capital in agriculture.

Doug Watkins

Doug is a wetlands ecologist with broad experience in advisory, management and stakeholder engagement. Doug has 25+ years’ experience working as a wetland ecologist in Australasia and Asia.

For the period June 1995 – July 2013 Doug worked full time with Wetlands International from the Oceania Office based in Canberra, Australia. For the last 12 years of that period Doug was the manager of the Oceania Office and responsible for staff located in Canberra, Brisbane and Fiji. With the closure of the Wetlands International Office in June 2013, Doug returned to working as a Consultant Ecologist. His clients include the South Pacific Regional Environment Program, WWF-Hong Kong, Melbourne Water and Wetlands International.