The people at Ornatas drive change and focus on the future.
Ornatas is led by a team driven by building a sustainable future for seafood. We are dedicated to doing this, whilst creating real opportunities in global communities, and taking care of our environment.
Collectively the skilled team offer a wealth of enthusiasm and experience in science and innovation, a deep knowledge and understanding of the ocean environment and aquaculture systems, as well as financial, strategic and creative thinking to drive the company forward.
Senior Management Team
Simon Davis
Site Manager Townsville
As our site manager in Townsville, Simon manages and coordinates the construction and operation of our facility as it develops. Armed with a vast and diverse background, he brings his extensive experience in site and project management to our North Queensland site.
Jennifer Blair
Hatchery and Research & Development Manager
Jen oversees the commercialisation of the lobster hatchery technology developed by UTAS at our Toomulla Beach site. As our Hatchery and Research and Development Manager, Jen manages special projects and takes the lead on our strategic research and partnerships, while also focusing on the establishment of Ornatas’ grow-out operations, which has become a top priority for the company’s future.
John Breen
Farm Manager
Armed with over 18 years of farm management experience, John is perfectly suited as our Farm Manager. He oversees the production planning and commercialisation of nursery and grow out operations of the Tropical Rock Lobsters at our Toomulla Beach site.
Jo Tonacia
Office Administration Manager
Jo’s role is to keep the site office running smoothly and provide support for the staff and on-site visitors. Jo supports the Site Manager, plans and coordinates administrative procedures and systems, and devises ways to streamline the Ornatas processes.
Technical Team
Brandon Panebianco
Hatchery Team Leader
Brandon is our Hatchery Team Leader, who coordinates the hatchery staff tasks. Brandon is responsible for the construction of RAS systems and supporting infrastructure around the farm. He also plays an important role in assisting with managing the operation of RAS systems, animal husbandry and health management, water quality management and feeding.
Lachlan Davison
Nursery Team Leader
Lachlan coordinates activities with our juvenile lobsters in the nursery. He works across all areas of our hatchery operations including juvenile production, larval rearing, broodstock and systems maintenance. The major focus of his role is managing the juveniles in our hatchery which includes the operation of the recirculating aquaculture systems, animal husbandry and health management, water quality management, and feeding.
Kate Bowie
Senior Broodstock Technician
Kate works in the broodstock area of the hatchery. Her responsibilities include system management, water quality monitoring, animal husbandry, and bacterial sample collection.
Bianca Davis
Senior Feed Technician
Bianca’s role is to undertake the manufacturing of high quality juvenile diet to ensure our juveniles lobsters move through their benchmarking stages. Bianca is also in charge of stock management for the juvenile feed ingredients.
Benjamin Smith
Senior Resident Hatchery Technician
Ben is employed as our onsite Resident Hatchery Technician who is on-call for 5 days out of 7. Ben’s role involves working with the water treatment systems, hatchery operations and contributes to everything from broodstock to live feeds.
Grace Othieno
Biosecurity Technical Officer
Responsible for ensuring the optimum health and quality of our Tropical Rock Lobsters, Grace collects, monitors, and reports farm water quality conditions, lobster health, and bacteriology. She also collaborates with our hatchery and farm operations to provide technical support for our commercial production aligned with our Biosecurity Plan.
Sandra Villamil
Research Officer and Project Manager
Sandra is our Project Manager for the CRCNA project. As our Research Officer she participates in the scientific aspects of the project, including experimental design, data analysis and communication. She also contributes to implementing our biosecurity and TRL health monitoring plans, which all underpin the provision of quality juveniles for raft grow-out research.
Tessa Ramshaw
Larval Technician
Tessa is responsible for looking after our larval lobsters by ensuring the larvae have the right water quality during their early stages of development, and that their tanks and hatchery systems are kept clean. Tessa also monitor’s their growth and feed consumption to ensure they are healthy and achieving known growth benchmarks.
Jordan MacRae
Larval Technician
Jordan is responsible for looking after our larval lobsters by ensuring the larvae have the right water quality during their early stages of development, and that their tanks and hatchery systems are kept clean. Jordan also monitors juvenile growth and feed consumption to ensure they are healthy and achieving known growth benchmarks.
Joseph Dukes
Hatchery Technician
Joseph is responsible for looking after our larval lobsters by ensuring the larvae have the right water quality during their early stages of development, and that their tanks and hatchery systems are kept clean. Joseph also works with the team to monitor their growth and feed consumption and ensure they are healthy and meeting their growth benchmarks.
Harrison Gardiner
Juvenile Technician
Harrison is responsible for our Juvenile lobsters to ensure they are healthy and meet their growth benchmarks. Harrison’s role is to keep the Juvenile systems at optimal conditions, which includes managing water quality, daily animal husbandry, health management and feeding.
Andrew Lange
Juvenile Technician
Andrew is responsible for looking after our Juvenile lobsters to ensure they are healthy and meet their growth benchmarks. This includes keep the Juvenile systems at optimal conditions, and managing their water quality, daily animal husbandry, health management and feeding.
Hannah Lees
Feed Technician
Hannah’s main role revolves around our feed manufacturing area to ensure we produce only high-quality feed that’s manufactured clean and is free from unwanted bacteria to support the growth of our Tropical Rock Lobsters. She also assists in the care of our lobster broodstock and our site biosecurity.
Sam Mason
Maintenance Technician
Sam is employed as our onsite Welder/Fabricator/ Maintenance Technician. His role is welding, fabrication and assembly of the structural stands and racking systems. Sam is also a good All-Rounder who can assist in plumbing, mechanical and general farm maintenance.
D'elle Dunning
Feed Technician
As a part of our feed manufacturing team, one of D’elle’s tasks is to guarantee that our feed went through the proper manufacturing process to ensure that our Tropical Rock Lobsters only get the highest quality feed. D’elle also supports in the broodstock and larval areas providing lobster husbandry.
Emerson Shearin
Hatchery Technician
Emerson is responsible for looking after our larval lobsters by ensuring the larvae have the right water quality during their early stages of development, and that their tanks and hatchery systems are kept clean. Emerson also monitors larval growth and feed consumption to ensure they are healthy and achieving known growth benchmarks.
Chelsea Henshall
System Support Technician
Chelsea is our go-to expert in operating and maintaining components of our site water quality monitoring system. She ensures the hatchery only has optimal water from filtration, tank farm, and reservoir areas. Her other duties include assisting the team with maintenance of the RAS plant components including filtration, disinfection, pump and water quality equipment.
Brian Mealor
Site Caretaker
Brian is the site groundsman, his role is to keep the farm clean and maintained. He works with the team to assist with equipment maintenance and the operation of light machinery when needed for construction activities.
Executive Director
Martin Rees
Until 2015, Martin was a partner in KPMG Tasmania for 25 years specialising in corporate finance and commercialisation of new technologies. He was responsible for the establishment of In-tellinc, a Hobart based IT incubator/seed investor which over the past 15 years has invested in over 40 start-up companies generating a number of national and global successes.
Martin has been a founding Director of a number of these ventures and brings these skills to Ornatas. He is also a Director of Foundry Pty. Ltd, TasmaNet Pty. Ltd, St. Lukes Health Ltd and Pets Domain Ltd. Martin and his family own and operate a vineyard and wine business in Relbia and he is currently Chair of Wine Tasmania.
Director
Brian Kohl
Brian is the shareholder represenative on the Board. He is a born and bred Tasmanian with a long history in community and environmental areas of work. He has an Economics degree from the University of Tasmania, and has worked in all levels of Government before moving to private industry. He is currently a shareholder and Director of a number of Tasmanian companies and spends much of his time sailing throughout the South East Asian region.
Brian’ s professional career has included roles of Senior Economic Advisor to both the Labour and Greens parties. Brian is currently the Director and CEO of one of Tasmania’s largest private equity hedge funds.
Director
Peta Sugden
Peta holds a senior role in the Tasmanian State Service where her primary focus is to enable investment into Tasmania through investment matching. Peta’s State Government Experience includes investment attraction and facilitation and food and agri-business development. Peta has also held Ministerial Office roles including as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff with the former Government.
Peta’s private sector experience includes senior management positions within the Tasmanian poppy industry and a global inspection where she held qualifications as a Senior Lead Auditor, specialising in quality assurance auditing in the food industry and undertook food safety training nationally and globally.
Strength in partnerships
Research Partners
Commercial Partners
Funding Partners
