Hugh is passionate about realising opportunities for productive rural communities through sustainable resource management, enabling regulatory frameworks, and empowering people to make it happen.

Growing up on a rural property in southwest Victoria, Hugh has been working with communities in resource management sectors, including water management, circular economies, and agri-politics for over twenty-five years, including senior management and executive roles. This has provided him with a deep understanding of resource management and governance processes that can promote sustainable communities, with a focus on rural and regional areas.

The wide range of roles he has held, from operational delivery, high-level project management of construction and asset maintenance activities, and policy development, have been integral to the development of his approach to proactive delivery of strategic operational and policy outcomes. These outcomes have been achieved through a combination of active engagement, communication, and planning, including the understanding of business structures to achieve positive operational and resource management outcomes in the most effective manner possible.

Critical to his successes throughout his career has also been a passion for engaging customers, communities, stakeholders, and staff to influence culture and behaviours to achieve positive outcomes.

This has resulted in the development of enduring, authentic relationships across the agricultural, rural water, and natural resource industries across South-Eastern Australia and Tasmania with all stakeholders from community members to industry and Government.