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.
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
Podcast episode: Seeds for Success, Maria Thompson, “AgSTARS: The value of young, enthusiastic leaders in farming.”
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
Jane Phillips - Senior Consultant
B.A/B.Bus (Public Relations, Marketing & Journalism), Cert. Engagement IAP2
During her time with AgSTAR, Jane has delivered national consultation and communication projects across rural Australia.
With experience across communication, media relations and stakeholder management, Jane has worked in higher education, rural water and state government.
Jane brings warmth and energy, 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, interviewing and photography skills to produce case studies, articles, media releases and reports.
Jane is an accredited DiSC Everything practitioner, helping people improve workplace relationships.
Jane can help with:
- Stakeholder engagement
- Facilitating workshops
- Communication strategy and execution
- Case studies, interviews and articles
- DiSC workshops to build effective workplace relationships
