Graham Bradley, Chairman and Non-Executive Director, United Malt

Graham Bradley AM

Independent Chairman and Non-Executive Director

Qualifications: BA, LLB, (Hons.) Sydney University LLM, Harvard

Appointed: 13 January 2020

Mr Bradley has over 30 years of business, executive leadership and governance experience at senior executive and board levels across banking and financial services, manufacturing, infrastructure, resources, agribusiness and corporate strategy consulting. Mr Bradley has previously held the position of Managing Director of Perpetual and senior roles at Blake Dawson and McKinsey & Company.

Mr Bradley is currently Chairman of Virgin Australia International Holdings (since March 2012), Shine Justice Limited (since May 2020), Waveconn Group Holdings Management Pty Ltd and Lighthouse Industries Holdings Pty Ltd (since May 2023).

Mr Bradley is also the Chairman of Infrastructure NSW (since July 2013), a member of the Advisory Council of the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales and was made a member of The Order of Australia in 2009.

He is a former Chairman of Volt Corporation Ltd and Volt Bank Limited (June 2021 to October 2022), EnergyAustralia Holdings (June 2012 to April 2022), GrainCorp Limited (March 2017 to March 2020), HSBC Bank Australia (March 2004 to October 2020). He is also a former director of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (November 2012 to June 2022), and was the President of the Business Council of Australia and the Deputy President of the Takeovers Panel, among other notable roles.

Board Committee memberships:
Chair of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee.

Mark Palmquist

Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer

Qualifications: Bec, GAICD

Appointed: 13 January 2020

Experience: Mr Palmquist has over 40 years of experience in food processing and agricultural sectors and has held a number of senior leadership roles prior to commencing his role at United Malt.

Prior to his role at United Malt, Mr Palmquist was the Managing Director and CEO of GrainCorp Limited from 2014 until 2020, which demerged its malt business that is now United Malt. Prior to this, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Ag Business, for CHS Inc., a leading global agribusiness, diversified in energy, grains, and food. He has held a variety of global leadership roles for a broad range of CHS agricultural inputs and marketing areas, retail businesses, and grain based food and food ingredients operations.

Priorities: Mr Palmquist is focused on building a sustainable business aligned to meeting the needs of our customers in each of our markets, while ensuring strong governance, risk management and continued innovation.

Mr Palmquist is a former director of Telesense, Inc (from September 2020 until August 2022) and is a former director of GrainCorp Limited (from October 2014 until March 2020).

Christine Feldmanis

Independent Non-Executive Director

Qualifications: Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Applied Finance

Appointed: 1 January 2023.

Experience: Ms Feldmanis has more than 30 years of experience in the financial arena with both government and private sectors. She has extensive experience in business operations, investment management, finance, accounting and risk management, governance, and business building in both listed and private markets.

Currently, Ms Feldmanis is a director of Omni Bridgeway Ltd., Bell Financial Group Ltd., Rabobank Australia Ltd. and Utilities of Australia Trust. During her executive career, Ms Feldmanis held the role of Chief Executive Officer of Treasury Group Investment Services Limited and prior to that, Chief Financial Officer of NSW Treasury Corporation.

Ms Feldmanis is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a Certified Practising Accountant.

Board Committee memberships:
Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
Member of the Environment, Health and Safety Committee

Terry Williamson

Independent Non-Executive Director

Qualifications: MBA, BEc, FCANZ, FGIA, FAICD

Appointed: 23 March 2020.

Experience: Mr Williamson has an extensive background in financial reporting and risk management with prior roles including senior audit partner of Price Waterhouse, Chief Financial Officer of Bankers Trust Australia, Member of the Global Controls Group Bankers Trust New York Group, Chair of Audit and Risk Committee Stockland Property Group, Avant Insurance and Member of the Audit Committee of the Reserve Bank Australia, and Financial Advisor to a number of non-profit organisations.

Mr Williamson is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Fellow Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand, Fellow CPA Australia, Fellow Governance Institute of Australia and Member of the Australian Computer Society.

Mr Williamson is currently a director of Apollo Care Operations Pty Ltd and Apollo Care Pty Ltd (since August 2020), member of the Building Estates Committee of the University of Sydney and finance adviser to the Society of the Divine Word.

Mr Williamson was previously a director of Stockland Capital Partners and Stockland Direct Retail Trust No. 1 (April 2018 to September 2021).

Board Committee memberships:
Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Member of the Environment, Health and Safety Committee

Bryan Bechard

President, Warehouse & Distribution

Qualifications: Bachelor of Applied Science, Madden School of Business at LeMoyne College

Appointed: March 2020

Priorities: Bryan Bechard is responsible for the warehouse and distribution operations of United Malt, serving the needs of its craft brewing, distilling and food customers. Providing market-leading services and delivering exceptionally for our customers in the craft segment is a primary focus.

Bryan ensures our warehouse and distribution business continually provides the one-stop-shop of ingredient solutions of branded and innovative products through its network of distribution facilities and a portfolio of services geared to the needs of our craft customers.

Experience: Bryan joined GrainCorp in 2009 and was appointed President of Country Malt Group in 2014 and later appointed to President of Global Craft in February 2019.

As one of the co-founders of Country Malt Group (formally known as North Country Malt Supply) in 1995, Bryan has been involved in ingredient distribution to the craft industry for over 25 years.

Mary Clarke

Independent Non-Executive Director

Qualifications:
BE Chemical Engineering, Cooper Union
MBA (executive program, finance concentration), University of Delaware

Appointed: 1 March 2023.

Experience: Ms Clarke has over 30 years of experience across regulated consumer markets including the food and beverage, nutrition and personal care sectors. Her successive experience includes roles in process engineering, innovation, marketing and sales, strategic planning and general management.

Ms Clarke is currently Senior Vice President at dsm-firmenich. She was previously head of the North American business of Naturex. Ms Clarke’s prior background includes executive roles at industry leading firms, including General Manager, Food Ingredients for FMC Corporation and General Manager, Global Food and Pharmaceutical, for Lubrizol.

Ms Clarke was appointed as independent director of Shiru, a precision fermentation food tech company, in November 2020.

Board Committee memberships:
Member of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee.

Gary Mize

Independent Non-Executive Director

Qualifications:
BA Marketing and Finance, Michigan State University
Advance Executive Program, Northwestern University

Appointed: 23 October 2020.

Experience: Mr Mize has over 36 years of experience managing commodity-based trading and processing businesses at the senior executive and board levels.

Previously, Mr Mize was the Global Chief Operating Officer of Noble Group Hong Kong, President of Conagra Foods Grain Processing Group, CEO of Conagra Malt and President of Cargill Worldwide Juice Group. He’s lived in Hong Kong, Sao Paulo and Geneva.

Mr Mize is currently Lead Independent Director of Darling Ingredients (a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange) (since February 2021 and Independent Director since May 2016) and an Independent Director of Gevo Inc (a company listed on NASDAQ) (since September 2011). He is a former director of Ceres Global (a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange) (from September 2013 to December 2021).

Board Committee memberships:
Chair of the Environment, Health and Safety Committee
Member of the Nominations and Remuneration Committee

Patrick Bowe

Independent Non-Executive Director

Qualifications:
BArtsSc Political, Sandford University, MA Economics, Stanford Food Research Institute

Appointed: 1 September 2022.

Experience: Mr Bowe has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Andersons, Inc. (listed on NASDAQ) since November 2015.

Previously, he was the Corporate Vice President at Cargill Inc. (January 2007 – September 2015). Prior to this role, Mr Bowe was President of Cargill’s corn wet milling in North America.

Mr Bowe is a current director of Primient (since August 2022), a privately held global food and industrial ingredients company. He is former Chairman of the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts Board of Trustees (June 2020 to June 2022) and continues to hold a seat on the board. In addition, he is the current Treasurer and Director of the Toledo Museum of Art (since July 2020).

Board Committee memberships:
Member of the Audit and Risk Committee
Member of the Environment, Health and Safety Committee

Erika Morgan

Chief People Officer

Qualifications:
B.A. in International Business & Marketing, SHRM – Senior Certified HR Professional

Appointed: July 2021

Priorities: Erika Morgan is responsible for United Malt’s Human Resource strategy and operations globally. She’s focused to ensure her teams lead and develop programs that engage, equip and empower the highest levels of team performance and business success. Erika’s priorities include building and developing a workforce company-wide with the capability and capacity to help create value and operate as a more integrated organisation.

Experience: Prior to United Malt, Erika has held various leadership positions within HR for global and multi-national companies in the consumer goods, services, and food and beverage industries. She has extensive experience in the assessment and implementation of Global HR Service Deliver Models to support scale and growth sustainably. Erika started her career with Nike Inc., where she led HR teams and implemented enterprise-wide transformation initiatives across North and Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Tiago Darocha

Chief Operating Officer

Qualifications:
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
M.S. Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Masters in Business Administration (MBA)

Appointed: July 2021

Priorities: Tiago Darocha has comprehensive management responsibility for all elements of United Malt’s commercial and production activities, including all malt production and barley procurement. His focus is centred on delivering operational excellence to ensure customer satisfaction with the highest quality products and service, supporting the execution of the company’s transformation agenda and developing the company’s long-term strategy that will drive continued performance and growth.

Experience: Tiago spent 21 years at Anheuser-Busch InBev, where he started as an intern and held positions of increasing responsibilities including Senior Brewmaster, Senior General Manager, Senior Operations Director and Vice-President of Operations. Tiago’s last role prior to transitioning to United Malt was Global Vice-President of Brewing and Quality, with worldwide responsibility for brewing operations and end-to-end quality. Tiago is a native of Brazil and has lived in São Paulo and Mexico City.

Ryan Dutcher

Chief Financial Officer (Interim)

Qualifications: B.A. Economics, University of Colorado
Master of Business Administration, Cornell

Appointed: July 2022

Priorities: Ryan Dutcher oversees finance, treasury, tax, investor relations and risk functions for United Malt Group. His priorities are ensuring his team provides accurate, independent and objective analysis to drive decision making, performance and value creation for all stakeholders.

Experience: Ryan has more than 25 years of finance experience in both public and private companies in the manufacturing, technology, healthcare, education, construction and service industries.

Amy Spanik

Chief Financial Officer

Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts in Education from the University of Portland and Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Accounting from Washington State University. Licensed CPA.

Appointed: March 2020

Priorities: Group’s finance, treasury, tax, investor relations, environmental, health & safety, and risk functions. Her priorities are ensuring her team provides accurate, independent and objective analysis to drive decision making, performance and value creation for all the Group’s stakeholders.

Experience: Prior to the demerger of United Malt, Amy held the position of Chief Financial Officer of GrainCorp Malt since 2015. Previously, Amy was Global Financial Controller and Assistant Controller at GrainCorp Malt.

Amy started her career with Ernst & Young where she had nine years’ experience.

Nina Palludan

Chief Information Officer

Qualifications: B.S. Information Systems, California State University

Appointed: March 2020

Priorities: Nina is responsible for United Malt’s information technology function. Her priorities are driving agility through technology, data and process optimisation.

Experience: Prior to the demerger of United Malt, Nina held the position of CIO of GrainCorp Malt since October 2019. Previously, Nina was the CIO at Hanna Andersson.

Nina has over 30 years’ experience as a technology and operational leader. Using technology as the catalyst for change, Nina has been responsible for leading global transformations across the manufacturing, logistics, retail and hospitality industries.

Tony Dal Ponte

General Counsel

Qualifications: J.D., cum laude, Notre Dame Law School B.A. Economics, University of Oregon

Appointed: October 2022

Priorities: Tony leads United Malt’s legal function, working as a strategic business partner to drive growth and profitability in all areas. He’s focused on streamlining systems and structures, supporting growth initiatives, and ensuring fair and efficient resolution to legal matters.

Experience: Tony is an experienced food and beverage industry executive with over 15 years of experience as an attorney and business leader. Before joining United Malt, he served as Vice President & General Counsel for the Pacific Seafood Group where he oversaw all legal, government relations, EHS, risk management and insurance, and public affairs functions. Prior to Pacific, Tony spent seven years in private practice acting as outside general counsel for businesses and several years teaching as an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Portland.

Tony currently serves on the Board of Directors for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).

HOW WE CAME TO BE

United Malt. Our legacy is in the name. And while the story of how we came to be is a long one, it’s a heritage we’re intensely proud of.

We’ve been serving as a network of multinational maltsters since the early 90s. But in truth, our experience goes back hundreds of years. With a family of brands – both large and small, international and local – that spans countries as well as centuries.

Giving us the scale and diversity to continue to bring world famous flavour, colour and aroma to every single drop of our customers’ brilliant products.

THE VALUES THAT UNITE US

These four values define what we stand for and how we work together – regardless of what country we live in, the brands we work for or the role we play. They influence what we do every day and unite us in making the world of malt a safer, better, fuller flavoured one.

SAFETY

The safety of our people is paramount.
Safety is part of our way of life and requires the commitment of everyone throughout the organisation.

Safety extends to the health and wellbeing of ourselves and everyone around us and to the environment in which we operate. It is part of everything that we do as well as the way that we do it.
It is our way of coming together as a community.

PASSION

We are proud of our industry, our business and our people.

We are proud to be part of a wider community and are positive stewards in the way we work.

We bring a spirit of innovation and continuous improvement to everything that we do.

QUALITY

We provide outstanding ingredients and unsurpassed service that, together, deliver premium value to our customers.

At every step in the process and in all our roles, we come together as a team to make sure that we always provide the best.

INTEGRITY

We believe that nothing is more important than our reputation, and behaving with the highest levels of integrity is fundamental to who we are.

We are honest, open, ethical and fair at all times.

OUR PURPOSE

CREATING INGREDIENTS THAT BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER

YOUR PARTNERS IN CRAFT

Take a sip of beer. Whisky if you fancy. Notice that? It’s the malt that makes the difference. Flavour, colour, aroma – everything. You can’t make the drink without it. So make it with the world’s best.

At United Malt, we source our product from the finest barley-growing regions in the world. Think Scottish Highlands. Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. The vast, fertile prairies of Canada. The golden fields of Goondiwindi on the New South Wales and Queensland border. And so many more. It means our malt brings world famous flavour, colour and aroma to every single drop of our customers’ brilliant products.

And that’s only half the story. Yes, we’re still a young company, but the international maltsters who make up our united family have centuries of experience — Bairds, Barrett Burston, Canada Malting and Great Western Malting, just to name a few. All with their unique recipes and timeless malting traditions that we celebrate and use to this day.

It’s what fuels our international reputation of quality and craft. And it’s why we do more than just simply trade malt.

Our collective heritage means we’re intensely proud of our industry, farmers, brewers and distillers. Committed to partnering with the creators, innovators and experimenters. And excited about making the world of malt a more interesting, full flavoured one — for our customers and our staff.

We’re passionately protecting our earth’s resources while we do it, with sustainable practices at every touch point and empowering our farmers and local communities to play their part too.

That’s quite a lot for a maltster, isn’t it? But it’s what we live for.

Making malt matter, by being partners in craft.

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Mark Palmquist

Erika Morgan

Tiago Darocha

Ryan Dutcher

Nina Palludan

Bryan Bechard

Donald McBain, Chief Transformation Officer, United Malt

Tony Dal Ponte

WHERE WE

PARTNER

WITH YOU

We source our malt from the finest barley-growing regions in the world and partner with other craft ingredient suppliers who align with our values to offer quality brewing and distilling products.

It’s why today you’ll find our malting plants and distribution centres across Canada, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Increasingly, you’ll find us in Asia too. Partnering with suppliers in the region to bring the exceptional character of our malt to even more exciting products.

North America

Global HQ: Vancouver, WA

Canada Malting Co. and Great Western Malting: CMC and GWM have a malting capacity of approximately 760kt across five locations in Canada and the U.S, with nine country grain elevators in Canada.

Country Malt Group: CMG has 13 distribution centres across Canada and the U.S.

United Kingdom

Bairds Malt: Across three plants in Scotland and one in England, Bairds has a malting capacity of approximately 250kt.

Australia & New Zealand

Registered Office: Sydney, NSW Australia

Barrett Burston Malting: Across three locations in Australia, BBM has a malting capacity of approximately 250kt.

Cryer Malt: Cryer operates five distribution centres across Australia and New Zealand.

Keep up to date

+61 2 8073 3160
UNITED MALT GROUP LIMITED

Citigroup Centre, Level 18

Suite C, 2 Park Street

Sydney NSW, AUSTRALIA, 2000

Graham Bradley AM

Independent Chairman and Non-Executive Director

Mark Palmquist

Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer

Christine Feldmanis

Independent Non-Executive Director

Terry Williamson

Independent Non-Executive Director

Bryan Bechard

President, Warehouse & Distribution

Mary Clarke

Independent Non-Executive Director

Gary Mize

Independent Non-Executive Director

Patrick Bowe

Independent Non-Executive Director

Erika Morgan

Chief People Officer

Tiago Darocha

Chief Operating Officer

Ryan Dutcher

Chief Financial Officer (Interim)

Amy Spanik

Chief Financial Officer

Nina Palludan

Chief Information Officer

Tony Dal Ponte

General Counsel

ABOUT UNITED MALT

WE HAVE DEEP HERITAGE

HOW WE CAME TO BE

Brothers Frank and Hugh Baird establish the Great Canal Brewery, beginning their journey with a vision to provide high quality beers to the growing Glasgow, Scotland population.

Bairds brothers set up their malting business to supply brewers, which today is known as Bairds Malt.

Three malting companies in Ontario, Canada merge to form Canada Malting Company.

Founders of Barrett Bros. and Burston and Co. merge to create Barrett Burston Malting, heralding a new era in malt production in Australia.

Four local brewers in Vancouver, WA join and together form Great Western Malting.

Canada Malting Co. purchases Great Western Malting.

Canada Malting Co. purchases Bairds Malting, growing their global malting capacity.

David Cryer starts Cryer Malt in New Zealand, bringing European malts to Australasia brewers and distillers.

ConAgra Foods and Tiger Brands acquire Canada Malting Co. and bring Barrett Burston into the malt group.

Bryan Bechard founds North Country Malt (predecessor to Country Malt Group) in his garage, beginning what will be our North American distribution business.

While part of ConAgra Foods and Tiger Brands, Bairds Malt buys Moray Firth Malting in the United Kingdom.

Private equity firms Castle Harlan and CHAMP buy the malt group from ConAgra and form United Malt Holdings (UMH).

UMH purchases North Country Malt and creates Country Malt Group.

GrainCorp purchases United Malt Holdings.

GrainCorp buys Schill Malt, a malt manufacturer in Germany.

Bairds establishes Brewers Select in the United Kingdom, growing their portfolio to distribute directly to craft customers.

Barrett Burston purchases Cryer Malt, creating a partnership that strengthens their ability to service Asia Pacific with quality malts.

GrainCorp sells Schill Malt.

United Malt Group demerges from GrainCorp to become one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of malt.

Bairds, as part of United Malt Group, sells Brewers Select.

THE VALUES THAT UNITE US

SAFETY

PASSION

QUALITY

INTEGRITY

OUR PURPOSE

CREATING INGREDIENTS THAT BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER

YOUR PARTNERS IN CRAFT

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Mark Palmquist

Erika Morgan

Tiago Darocha

Ryan Dutcher

Nina Palludan

Bryan Bechard

Tony Dal Ponte

WHERE WE

PARTNER

WITH YOU

North America

United Kingdom

Australia & New Zealand

Keep up to date