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About

When complete, TURBINE will be Australia’s first purpose built, end-to-end food and beverage manufacturing and education precinct – unlocking growth, accelerating innovation and creating a national blueprint for collaborative manufacturing.

TURBINE is a response to an industry-led desire to scale and innovate through:

  • accessing world-class services and advanced manufacturing infrastructure
  • reducing cost
  • increasing speed to market
  • increasing global competitiveness

 

The TURBINE Precinct will bring together a critical mass of expertise and capability that spans the entire value chain. This ecosystem will also include partnerships with research, education and training, and government organisations to support individuals and businesses not only located within the precinct but also the broader industry in the region and beyond.

Stage 1 of the TURBINE Precinct will include a large-scale contract beverage facility; co-located manufacturers; collaborative R&D centre, expertise and training hub. The Precinct is expected to be operational March 2025.

Team

Andrew Eves-Brown

CEO/Project Director

Lyndon Scrooby

Project Engineering Manager

Board of Directors

Maree Adshead

Chair

Swain Roberts

Secretary

Simon Michelangeli

Director (Currently on a leave of absence from the Board)

Peter Gates

Director

John Knaggs

Director

Katrina Brennan

Director

David Hoath

Director

Discover more

Contact us

0460 701 750

info@turbine.org.au

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Andrew Eves-Brown

CEO/Project Director

With over 20 years FMCG experience across General Management, Supply Chain and Operations, Andrew has led a number of organisations to success using his highly honed skills in operations, tactics and strategy.

Andrew joined Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) as Head of Economic Development in 2020 driven by a desire to help grow the connections and collaboration within the Sunshine Coast business community while continuing to be the bridge between Industry and the Council and facilitating deep relationships that contributed to significant growth across this area.

In his time at SCC, he helped shape the future of the Region through the REDS (Regional Economic Development Strategy) review, supported the Sunshine Coast Region through the recovery post-COVID and was a strong supporter of the Sunshine Coast Biosphere championing how the UNESCO sustainability goals could be embedded in our community and lifestyle.

Prior to Local Government, Andrew was CEO of COYO Pty Ltd and drove the strategy that established COYO as a Premium Brand in the major retailer sector and saw the company more than quadruple in size during his three-and-a-half-year tenure.

Before working with COYO, Andrew was COO at Gourmet Garden for 11 years helping grow the business from $20m to $100m prior to the company selling to McCormick, Herb and Spices.

In 2010, Andrew was recognised for his outstanding leadership skills that saw him awarded a “Medal of Excellence” by the Australian Institute of Management, Sunshine Coast for his Vision, Innovation, Leadership, Implementation and Culture within an organisation. In 2015, Andrew was recognised as the 2015 Sunshine Coast Outstanding Business Person of the Year.

Andrew also sits on a number of local and international Advisory Boards helping guide these organisations to success. These appointments include Ocado Solutions Australia, Naturo and Australian Organic Collagen.

Lyndon Scrooby

Project Engineering Manager

Lyndon is an experienced Engineering Manager with a professional career forged in Manufacturing, Plant Reliability and Capital Project Management. A competent and successful project engineer Lyndon has strong leadership skills across multi-functional teams and is skilled in stakeholder management.

With over 32 years in engineering, Lyndon has worked for a number of high profile organisations including Nestle, Lion Dairy and Drinks, Mars Foods Australia and Sara Lee.

His many achievements working for these organisations include:

  • The development and leadership of large technical teams
  • The successful development, management, and delivery of multi-project capital works programs
  • The creation and delivery of asset master plans for industrial organisations to effectively support long terms business plans
  • Developing teams and industrial operations to achieve greater productivity and waste reduction by using Lean thinking

Maree Adshead

Chair

Maree’s keen business acumen and ability to identify emerging trends has consistently positioned her as a dynamic and forward-thinking leader.

She is currently chief executive of Australia’s independent regulator of voluntary environmental markets, Eco-Markets Australia which administers the globally recognised Reef Credit water quality market.

In prior roles, Maree was Queensland’s inaugural Small Business Commissioner, a powerful advocate for the business community of Queensland throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also been a partner of national law firm Minter Ellison, and chief executive of transformational change-makers such as the Open Data Institute Australian Network, founded in London by world wide web inventor Sir Tim Burners-Lee.

Known for her professionalism, integrity, and exceptional leadership, Maree Adshead is widely regarded as a trusted advisor and thought leader in her industry. Her insights and expertise have been sought after by industry peers and government at all levels. She is a regular contributor to various governance and advisory boards.

Swain Roberts

secretary

As the General Counsel of the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) and a lawyer and governance professional, with more than 30 years of legal experience nationally and internationally, Swain has significant experience in the higher education and health sectors.

Swain graduated from the University of Queensland in 1985 with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Law.  He has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Education and a Graduate Certificate in Business (Not for Profit Studies).

After being admitted as a solicitor in Queensland, Swain worked overseas before joining leading international law firm Linklaters where he worked for 17 years, with the last 11 years as a Capital Markets Partner based in Singapore.

Before joining UniSC in mid-2016, Swain worked as a Special Counsel in McCullough Robertson’s Social Infrastructure Group, providing advice to charities and not-for-profit organisations, particularly with respect to tax-related funding structures.

A passionate supporter of the community, Swain has been involved in the following organisations over the years:

  • Council Member, St. Johns College, University of Queensland (2010 – present)
  • Director, Sundale Ltd (2017 – 2020)
  • Co-Chair, Social Investment Measurement Network Australia (SIMNA) (Qld Chapter) (2015-2018)
  • Founding co-Chair, Buderim Dementia Alliance (2018)
  • Director, Australia Singapore Business Association Queensland (2015 – 2018)
  • Director, Alzheimer’s Australia Queensland (2014 – 2017)
  • Director, Alzheimer’s Australia Gold Coast (2015 – 2017)
  • Director, Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation (2016 – 2018)
  • Director, Buderim Foundation (2010 – 2015)
  • President, Sunshine Coast Grammar School Parents & Friends (2013 – 2015)

Simon Michelangeli

Director (Currently on a leave of absence from the board)

Simon is the founder of Queensland Drinks Accelerator and the Co-Founder of Glass House Brewery.

Simon was involved in Turbine from its inception, initially leading the development of the Turbine operating model and collaborative framework.

He has extensive corporate strategy, marketing and communications experience through roles for companies including Google, ANZ Bank and GM Holden.

Simon combines his corporate background with entrepreneurial success, starting a number of food and beverage businesses including Italian food and coffee concept Fugazza in 2010, premium foodservice company Soulful Soup in 2014 and Sunshine Coast-based Glass House Brewery in 2016.

His experiences in pivoting Glass House Brewery into a contract manufacturing facility has seen him help launch three new beer brands since 2019 and support the growth of a number of local beer and other drinks brands.

This experience and Simon’s interest in diversification into non-alcoholic beverages was the precursor to founding the Queensland Drinks Accelerator to exponentially expand beverage production capability in the region and establish the central contract manufacturing capability at Turbine.

Peter Gates

Director

Peter is the Managing Director of Doehler Australia and New Zealand, who are a global producer, marketer and provider of technology-driven natural ingredients, ingredient systems and integrated solutions for the food and beverage industry.

He is a career veteran in the Australian Beverage Industry with over 25 years of combined service with Berri, National Foods and P&N Beverages holding senior manufacturing and operations roles.

Peter has over 5 years of service as Group CEO for the privately owned Directus Group of companies, serving Australian and New Zealand Food and customers with integrated ingredient systems.

As a passionate advocate for Australian food and beverage manufacturing, and in the role of Managing Director of Doehler Australia, Peter successfully implemented two mergers and acquisitions that secured local manufacturing opportunities for flavours and flavour extracts and tropical fruit processing and value add ingredient systems.

Peter is the past Treasurer of the International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association and previously held the role of Executive board member of the Australian Beverage Council and Chair of Juice Australia.

John Knaggs

director

John is an experienced strategic adviser, urban planning, development and major projects specialist.

He is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (2003).

John was most recently the Chief Executive Officer (2015-2022) of SunCentral Maroochyore Pty Ltd, the company established to oversee all aspects of the design, construction and commercialisation of the new Maroochydore City Centre, one of Queensland’s largest urban regeneration projects and predicted to add over $4 Billion to the Queensland economy.

He was also the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Sunshine Coast Regional Council (2008 – 2015).

Katrina Brennan

director

Katrina has been in the accounting profession since she was 19, starting as a junior and climbing through the ranks to Director of a mid-tier Brisbane city based firm before joining SRJ Walker Wayland on the Sunshine Coast as Principal.

Katrina specialises in advising small to medium business clients engaged in activities across a variety of industries including professional services, building and construction, Manufacturers and service industries. Regularly assisting business owners with their personal affairs in addition to their business operations.

Forming good relationships with clients is very important to Katrina. She believes the more time she invests in relationships, the more she can learn about her clients and their businesses.

Katrina is a huge advocate for supporting her local community by helping business owners take control of their businesses – including setting up, selecting the right structure, growing in the right direction, at the right pace and getting the right systems and technology in place to support growth.

David Hoath

Director

David is an experienced company director, board member, Chairman and formerly a CEO and MD of major businesses in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and US. He is the Chair of FAN (Food and Agribusiness Network) and a Director of Biofab Technologies.

He is a founder of two Management Consultancies in both Australia and New Zealand and continues to advise and coach several clients around strategy, people and operational effectiveness.

David holds a master’s in marketing gained from the US and has served on numerous industry and company boards, chairing two food distribution businesses in the process. He lives on the Sunshine Coast.