The foundation Director of the ABRI (Managing Director since ABRI's incorporation in 1993). Dr Rickards is also Manager of Australia's National Beef Recording Scheme, Executive Director of the Australian Registered Cattle Breeders Association - (the peak industry Council for beef and dairy cattle breeds) and leader of a national program for improvement of ruminant species in the Philippines. The Rural Press Group has listed him in the top ten achievers in Agribusiness.
25 years of commercial experience in software development, the last 17 of which have been in the livestock industries. He has extensive overseas experience and has developed and installed major systems for ABRI's clients in North America and the UK. He has played a leading role in the development of breed registry systems for various species in Australia, and has been instrumental in the development of this software for a world-wide audience (now installed and used by more than 80 Breed Associations). From 1993 to the present, he has served as Associate Director, ABRI, also responsible for the supervision and management of ABRI's software development team.
Jack has more than 20 years experience in the livestock recording industry and has played a leading role in the development and commercialisation of BREEDPLAN since its inception in the early 80’s. BREEDPLAN is now used in 13 countries and Jack has extensive international experience developing and implementing genetic evaluation and pedigree/performance recording systems. Jack was Project Leader for the ACIAR sponsored “Genetic Improvement of Thailand’s Beef Cattle and Buffalo” project was part of the AusAID team for capacity development in Vietnam and has supervised the implementation of BREEDPLAN in the UK.
Manager of the BREEDPLAN Pedigree / Performance team at ABRI, he has managed a family sheep and cattle property on the New England for many years. Steve is responsible for supervising the GROUP BREEDPLAN evaluations for a number of breeds and providing follow-up technical support. He has been Operations manager for the national implementation of BREEDPLAN in the Philippines and provides a number of courses in the use of BREEDPLAN technologies.
Conrad Mouton, with dual qualifications in Computer Science and Accounting and years of experience gained in the US and Australia, heads up the Saltbush Software team as well as the ABRI accounting division. Conrad has been instrumental in overseeing the new Saltbush .net platform for current and future on-farm software development.
Erik has a comprehensive background in computer programming, consulting and system administration. He takes care of the extensive computer infrastructure at ABRI and has been responsible for the setting up and support of computers running BREEDPLAN software in offices around the world.