As a certified advisory board chair, Howard Hall understands the critical importance of stakeholder consultation and informed decision making.

Howard combines his comprehensive agribusiness experience and insights from more than 30 years with evidence based, tried and proven methods for the establishment and operation of advisory boards and other advisory mechanisms.

He can assist your business or enterprise to investigate best fit approaches to greater stakeholder consultation and informed decision making in today’s complex operating environment.

In businesses:

Key ‘pinch points’ such as succession planning and decisions around divestments, partnering and strategic growth are often a catalyst for considering the establishment of an Advisory Board or other advisory mechanism.

In Not-for-profit (NFP), Non-government organisations (NGO) and public / for-public-good enterprises:

The catalyst for establishing advisory boards or other advisory mechanisms can be the importance of broader stakeholder engagement and consultation and or special purpose outreach and targeted stakeholder insights for decision making.

The growth of Advisory Boards

The establishment of advisory boards is increasingly common in progressive businesses and many research, development and community projects and programs. The rise in prevalence is driven by:

• the increasing complexity that businesses, projects and programs must manage to be successful, 

• the exponential growth in the amount and types of information and data that must be considered, and

• the number and diversity of stakeholder groups that must be consulted,

if CEOs, boards, owners, and responsible parties are to make informed determinations and decisions.

Advisory boards do not have a governance or compliance role. They are modern-day advisory structures that can deliver valuable and independent awareness, perspectives, knowledge, and insights to decision makers at multiple levels within organisations. Their contributions can be delivered via governance boards, CEOs, executive teams, program and project leaders and teams, and business owners.

In International Research and Development

In international research and development across Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa and Pacific nations Howard has brought new and innovative approaches to scaling for impact and commercial engagement, otherwise known as public private partnerships (PPPs). Commercial engagement, PPPs, are widely considered amongst donors, researchers, commercial partners and Governments in developing countries to be a high priority issue for achieving scaling and impact.

Successfully combining the skills and experience of international researchers with the current-day insights and perspectives of commercial agribusiness operators requires new thinking, and tailored approaches to knowledge sharing and co-creation. It also requires strong leadership and effective project management and communications between partners with diverse backgrounds.

As the Agribusiness Research Program Manager at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Howard strategically transformed a portfolio of projects, emphasising private sector engagement and prioritisation of delivering sustainable outcomes. His understanding of partner countries and robust networks across key government, institutional and industry sectors position him as a trusted advisor with valuable industry expertise.

Howard’s leadership in ACIAR involved building capacity among researchers, emphasising the pivotal role of commercial collaboration, focusing on the criticality of clear pathways to adoption of research outcomes and developing guidelines for broader researcher application in these frontier areas. He is able to bring this foresight and strategic planning to assist your organisation in programs, projects, design, planning and evaluation.

In Agribusiness, Australia and Internationally

Drawing on his experience in corporate agribusiness at multiple points in agribusiness value chains and as the Managing Director and Founder of Pinnacle Agribusiness, Howard has successfully expedited diverse projects for over three decades. His role in guiding the strategic divestment of significant family-operated farms and spearheading strategic investments by corporates and fund managers into agribusiness sectors attests to his strategic insights and facilitation skills.

In an advisory capacity and by applying effective stakeholder engagement Howard played a foundational role with OBE Organic Beef, acquiring government funding for their transition to exporting premium organic products initially to Japan and subsequently expanding their global footprint. Today OBE exports to 14 countries through market strategies in Europe, USA, Asia and Middle East.

Through international fact finding and his advisory expertise Howard helped shape the Australian citrus industry's export trajectory through a strategic overhaul of its longstanding export approach, resulting in the industry moving away from the 'single importer' mode in key markets like the US.