Paget Hargreaves

Board Director

Over my 30-year career I have gained both international and domestic experience across the property, resources, food, energy/water, bioscience and medicinal cannabis sectors. This has resulted in seven Board, Director and/or Advisory Board appointments. My skill set encompasses strong management and leadership with good governance procedures backed by strategic thinking to achieve goals, budgets and targets. This is supported by an accomplished track record in delivering large scale, integrated projects. I have been fortunate enough to develop strong experience and relationships working in multicultural environments and through this have developed a good understanding of Australian import/export markets. On the government relations side, I have 28 years’ experience with Australian Federal Governments, State Ministers, Shadow Ministers and Government institutions as well as State and Local Government bodies. In the agtech sector, I was a founder and director of Sundrop Farms, which developed, financed and built a global first food, energy and water project in Port Augusta, SA. More recently, I have been founder, President and Board Director of Asterion Cannabis Inc, which is developing a $400m state of the art medicinal cannabis project in Toowoomba, Queensland and was appointed Major Project Status by the Federal Government in 2019. Both these roles involved an understanding of how to develop businesses from their initial stages through to successful operation. I have worked closely with Australian universities and their various commercial and R&D departments as well as other research organisations/institutes so have developed a good understanding from a business founder perspective. Our excellent Australian university resea and engaged industry, coupled with political stability and an innovation agenda driven by Federal Government, make for an attractive investment proposition which needs to be introduced and showcased to overseas investors, providing a full end-to-end client service delivery experience in the process. The cornerstone to success in this endeavour has to be, as has been the case throughout my own 30-year career, the establishment, building and maintaining of relationships. Without strong, trustworthy relationships in place business plans will not work, opportunities will not be identified and investment will not be forthcoming. In summary, I provide an experienced understanding of investment and business development as well as a sound understanding of the Australian economy in general, what the triggers are, where investment is required and which jobs will need to be transitioned in time with the ascent of AI and new energy sectors. For my part, this has developed into a keen sense of where Australia’s strengths are and how Australian businesses can capitalize on this.