Our TEAM
Our team of innovative and experienced professionals are committed to agriculture and delivering genuine outcomes for industry.
Our core focus is inspiring, developing and influencing people and industries across agriculture, globally. We bring a fresh and flexible approach to each project and are dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals.
Download our Prospectus (PDF)
Maria Thompson - Managing Director
B.RurSc (Hons 1), M.Agr
Maria founded AgSTAR Projects in 2011 and has grown the company by delivering national projects and building her extensive network of primary producer, industry, government and rural media contacts.
With a comprehensive understanding of Australia’s livestock industries and structures and a positive, can-do approach, Maria has delivered industry strategic programs and submissions, facilitated national initiatives and contributed to policy development for Australian agriculture.
Maria thrives on inspiring and developing others and delivers training in extension and adoption, adult learning principles, program logic, monitoring and evaluation.
Maria specialises in:
- Project design and program logic
- Adult learning styles
- Facilitation
- Monitoring and evaluation
- National program coordination
- Australian livestock industry projects
Media: Maria Thompson’s journey to success
Callen Thompson - Consulting Partner
B.Sc (Agriculture)
Callen is an extension specialist, with a strong technical background in crop and pasture agronomy. Callen is passionate about tropical grasses and their fit in mixed farming systems. He has a sound ability to transform scientific information into primary producer language and has produced podcasts, videos, drone footage and webinars. Callen’s proven technical capacity in beef production includes early weaning, nutrition and feedbase management. Callen worked for ten years as a commercial agronomist with integrated beef, sheep and cropping systems. He has used extension techniques such as co-innovation to assist producers to take up new technologies and enterprises, and enabled producers in Northern Australia to develop cropping systems on pastoral properties. Callen has experience providing technical advice on the integration of livestock and crop production while working for Local Land Services. Callen is an accredited ProGraze™ deliverer.
Callen and Maria own and manage a beef cattle property at Coonabarabran in Central West NSW.
Contact Callen for:
- Producer group-driven extension and adoption
- PROGRAZE™ delivery
- Soil Testing
Phone: 0428 125 906
Email: callen(@)agstarprojects.com.au
LinkedIn: Callen Thompson
Jane Phillips - Senior Consultant
B.A/B.Bus (Public Relations, Marketing & Journalism), Cert. Engagement IAP2
With more than 15 years experience in communication, media relations and stakeholder management, Jane has worked in higher education, water and state government roles.
Jane has a knack for building and sustaining relationships to deliver communication and engagement outcomes in rural areas. During her time in the water industry Jane was responsible for bringing parties together in often complex political environments for infrastructure projects, gaining input for asset development. With a background in journalism, Jane combines her writing and interviewing skills to produce case studies, newsletter articles, media releases and reports. Jane recently worked with agriculture, natural resource management, animal health and biosecurity teams to reach landholders across NSW. Jane is an accredited DiSC Everything practitioner.
Jane can help with:
- Facilitating workshops
- Communication strategy and content
- Case studies, interviews and articles
- DiSC workshops to build effective workplace relationships
Phone: 0491 227 390
Email: jane.phillips(@)agstarprojects.com.au
LinkedIn: Jane Phillips
Jane Pryor - Senior Consultant
B.Rur.Sc (Hons1), Grad Dip Ed, CertIV T&A
Jane is proven in bringing stakeholders together to find solutions. With a Graduate Diploma in Education, Jane thrives on working with students/stakeholders and thinking about varying teaching/extension approaches and how they affect the learner/user and consequently result in Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Aspiration (KASA) change.
Jane has a passion for extension and has developed and delivered numerous workshops, short courses and training packages. During her time with the Queensland government Jane worked with graziers and producer groups in rangeland environments to develop producer demonstration sites. The sites contributed to larger research projects providing regionally relevant data to help with on-ground decision making.
Talk to Jane about:
- Extension and learning styles
- Training packages to enable change
- Working with producers to achieve outcomes
Phone: 0427 218 554
Email: jane.pryor(@)agstarprojects.com.au
Dane Parnell - Project Officer, Events
Dip. Bus
Dane has worked for AgSTAR Projects since 2019 providing administrative, communications, graphic design, technology and event management support to the team.
Dane’s exceptional organisational skills, digital know-how and attention to detail are greatly valued by the AgSTAR team and our clients.
Talk to Dane about:
- Event administration
- Digital solutions for event management
