Management Team

Shane Bird

Chief Executive Officer

After completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics at Queensland University, Shane worked for Cargill for 12 years in Toowoomba, Wagga Wagga, Melbourne and Johannesburg, South Africa. During this time Shane developed extensive experience in grain procurement, logistics and trading. He developed an association with BFB in 1996 while working for Cargill and has been a director and shareholder since 2009. He took on the role within BFB of Grain Risk Manager in 2011, and became CEO in 2019. In 2023, Shane continues his role as CEO for Altora Ag.

Paul Fenn

Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary

Paul has extensive experience in the agribusiness sector across M&A, corporate advisory, restructuring, value creation and integration. Paul was first introduced to Altora Ag whilst a Director of M&A at PwC, where he advised the shareholders on their sale to PSP Investments in 2019. Following this, Paul joined the Natural Resources Group supporting the strategic growth and development of farming businesses and assets across Australia. This included working with companies such as Hewitt, Fresh Country Farms, Southern Premium Vineyards, Aurora, Stahmann Webster, Australian Food and Fibre and of course – Altora Ag. Paul was more recently involved in supporting the merger of Daybreak Cropping and BFB to form Altora Ag and joined the team permanently as CFO in November 2023. Paul holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from Sydney University and is a Chartered Accountant.

Stuart Wiencke

General Manager - East

Stuart joined BFB in 1999 after previously gaining nine years industry experience in grain, fertiliser, storage and handling and logistics. He has held various roles within BFB including Logistics Manager and Operations Manager. Stuart's most recent role as General Manager at BFB managed the operational divisions of the company and continues his role with Altora Ag as General Manager - East and is also a company director and shareholder.

Troy Bungey

General Manager - West

Originally growing up in the Great Southern of Western Australia on his family’s mixed cropping and livestock property, which is still in the family. He has held various agronomy, grain production and institutional asset management positions over his 20 plus year career in agriculture across Western Australia. Troy has a Bachelor of Business (Agriculture) from Curtin University, initially spending 10 years in agronomy in the Esperance region, before taking a National Grain Production Manager position with an ASX listed business. His most recent role was Regional Asset Manager for an institutional farmland funds investor doubling the investment footprint in the Western Australia wheatbelt region during his time with the company. Troy joined Daybreak Cropping in December 2020 as Operations Manager - West and helped grow the Daybreak portfolio in the west to over 60,000 ha. Troy now oversees the western aggregations as General Manager - West for Altora Ag.

Scott Bartlett

General Manager - Agronomy

Maria Steel

Chief People Officer

Maria is an experienced HR and Safety and Governance executive with over 20 years experience garnered from industries including Managed Services, Supply Chain and Manufacturing with listed and non listed global entities DB Schenker, Transfield Services, Serco and Pact Group Holdings.  She joins us most recently from the Human Services Sector where she held the role of Chief People Officer. In Maria’s most recent roles she has held accountability for HR and industrial relations, Safety, PMO and Security Risk Management. Maria joined the business as Chief People Officer in 2022.

Operations Managers

Andrew Blair

Regional Operations Manager - QLD, Central NSW, VIC

Andrew grew up on his family’s mixed farming operation at Junee and attended boarding school in Sydney.  After finishing his HSC, Andrew attended Marcus Oldham College in Geelong completing a Diploma in Farm Management in 1992. For over 25 years, Andrew worked in the cotton industry and held various management positions in central Queensland, north-west NSW and Riverina NSW. In 2017 Andrew was appointed farm manager of Catumnal Farms, the first Daybreak Cropping aggregation at Boort, Victoria. In 2018, Andrew transferred to Quandialla - central NSW, to manage the newly acquired Caringbah Farms aggregation. Andrew currently oversees the operational activities of the QLD, Central NSW and VIC farming portfolio of Altora Ag. 

Peter Stimson

Regional Operations Manager - Riverina NSW

Peter has been involved in agriculture for 35 years and started with BFB in 2001. Peter commenced as an operator assisting with duties across the farms and as the company grew, progressed to Field Supervisor and then to Farming Manager. Peter currently oversees the operational activities across the Altora Ag farming portfolio within the Riverina Region.