Dr Rajendra Adhikari is a Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness, and a value chain researcher at The University of Queensland (UQ), Gatton. He has more than 22 years of experience in agribusiness value chain research, agricultural project planning, management and evaluation, agribusiness teaching and agrifood policy. Rajendra currently leads an ACIAR project which aims to develop competitive and inclusive value chains of pulses in Pakistan. His research is directed towards agribusiness value chain analysis, modelling and development, co-innovation and entrepreneurship, agricultural policy/strategy and behavioural research. Current research activities are based in Vietnam, Pakistan and Australia. Rajendra holds a PhD and Master’s degree in Agribusiness from UQ.
Dr Julius Kotir is a Senior Scientist with the Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and also an Adjunct Senior Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability. His academic and research interest is focused on understanding and managing the complex and long-term sustainability of coupled socio-economic-environmental systems. A particular interest is how to use this understanding to design decision support tools in the form of models to evaluate the impact of different options under an uncertain global future. His work takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining participatory co-design and field-based methods with systems thinking tools and system dynamics modelling to develop qualitative and quantitative simulation models that can support decision making. Julius has is currently using these tools and methods to address a wide range of complex agri-environmental problems including international and rural development issues, food security, economics of farming systems, agrifood and digital twin supply chains, climate-smart agriculture, water resources management, farmer adoption of new practices, and agribusiness policy design and analysis.
Dr Thea Voogt is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and the Director of Business Law.
She specialises in income tax law, agriculture tax policy tools, the impact of climate change on the financial fortitude of farming families, corporate governance and business structures.
Thea leverages her significant business experience in senior executive roles and her background as a chartered accountant in industry projects. She holds a Doctorate in Financial Management and Master of International Commercial Law (UQ).
Thea is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an award-winning law teacher. She is the 2017 recipient of the prestigious UQ Business, Economics & Law Faculty Teaching Award. She also received the 2017 Inspired me to learn Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course, and the 2016 Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course from the UQ School of Law.
Prior to joining UQ, Thea was the CEO (Principal Officer) of the superannuation funds of the University of Johannesburg, a Professor in Accounting and managed large tenders for this institution. Over the course of her career in South Africa, she was closely involved with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants as sought-after speaker, researcher and umpire for the national qualifying exams for chartered accountants. Thea also held a Ministerial appointment to the Board of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
