UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > New Director plots the course of national Centre

Next Vietnam to be subject of CWA Study Weekend January 31, 2005  

Previous First steps to helping an international charity January 27, 2005 

New Director plots the course of national Centre

January 28, 2005

PaulMartin.thumb.jpgProfessor Paul Martin brings a successful career in commercial strategy and a practical concern for environmental issues to his new position as the Director of the Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law (AgLaw Centre) at the University of New England.

Professor Martin, who took up his position as Director of the AgLaw Centre at the beginning of January, is committed to the development of what he describes as “practically useful and intellectually challenging projects”. “We have to ensure that what we deliver is what’s wanted or needed,” he said.

He and his associates at UNE have already begun to identify projects that could improve the lot of farmers, resource managers and rural communities by focusing the substantial legal, economic, scientific and managerial capabilities of the University. These include the reform of environmental law to allow better integration with voluntary environment management systems, looking at better ways of ensuring farm succession, and reviewing how competition laws affect health services in rural Australia and how regional roads are funded.

The AgLaw Centre, established in mid-2003, is the first organisation of its kind in Australia. It is a joint venture of UNE’s Faculty of Economics, Business and Law, Faculty of The Sciences, and School of Law, and brings together skills from across these disciplines to support the development of Australian agribusiness within the context of environmental protection and the prosperity of rural communities.

Although he was for 20 years a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Graduate School of Management within the University of NSW, Professor Martin said he had “never contemplated heading into academia as a career move” until the opportunity at the AgLaw Centre arose. “Most of my work has been corporate rather than academic,” he explained. “However, the opportunity to make a significant contribution in areas that are important to Australia, and to work with exciting ideas and interesting people, was too good to pass up.”

As Managing Director of the consultancy company Profit Foundation he co-authored (with his wife Miriam Verbeek, a former head of Sutherland Environment Centre) two important projects for Land and Water Australia: Cartography for Environmental Law (completed in June 2000) and Fifty Million Australians – Is Sustainability Possible? (completed in September 2002). Their book Sustainability Strategy, based on the results of these and other consultancy projects, is to be published by Federation Press later this year.

Professor Martin’s commercial experience includes chairing two successful high-technology companies (in computing and medical hardware), a range of strategy, negotiating and commercialisation projects for both local and international clients, a period as a venture capitalist, and membership of State and Federal Government venture capital bodies. His experience in natural resource management includes a period as Chair of the Board of a Catchment Management Authority.


Media contact: Professor Paul Martin, AgLaw Centre, UNE (02) 6773 3811 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049. (Contact Jim Scanlan for the photograph of Professor Martin displayed here.)

Posted by Jim Scanlan at January 28, 2005 01:29 PM