Tasmanian cheese producer wins top business women’s award
28 Sep 2010
28 September 2010: A northern Tasmanian cheese producer was named today as 2010 Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year.
Jane Bennett is Managing Director of Ashgrove Cheese, a family-owned cheese producer established in 1993 on the Bass Highway north of Elizabeth Town on farming property owned by the Bennett family since the 1880s.
After studying dairy technology in Victoria, Ms Bennett spent two years making farmhouse cheese in England, including six months in Somerset, the home of traditional cheddar, before returning to Tasmania in 1992 to make cheese from milk produced by Ashgrove Farm’s 1300-strong dairy herds.
In the early days of Ashgrove Cheese, she made the cheese, packed the cheese, developed the quality assurance and human resources systems and served in the family shop. Today she manages the financials, sales and marketing and 60 employees of the business that has become one of Australia’s premier cheddar cheese brands.
Ms Bennett also won the Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award at the sixteenth Telstra
Tasmanian Business Women’s Awards, announced today in Hobart.
Other winners of the Telstra Tasmanian Business Women’s Awards, were Kristi Seymour, owner of 41 Degrees Real Estate in East Launceston; Amanda Quealy, CEO of The Hobart Clinic in Rokeby; Robyn Lewis, CEO and founder of VisitVineyards.com in North Hobart; and Teena O’Keefe, owner of Dance Fit in East Launceston.
Telstra Chief Marketing Officer and Telstra Business Women’s Awards Ambassador Kate McKenzie said the winners of the Tasmanian Awards were successful business women whose leadership qualities and achievements would provide inspiration for women across the State.
“Jane Bennett turned a job in a family business into a passion. The judges described her as an outstanding role model for rural women,” Ms McKenzie said.
“She has adapted and diversified the business from a milk producer to a well known Tasmanian cheese maker that employs 60 people and is deliberately working towards being an employer of choice,” she said.
Jane Bennett has received a number of awards recognising her active involvement in agricultural and regional community development. She was Chairman of the Tasmanian Food Industry Council from 2002-07, a member of two Federal inquiries into telecommunications services in 2000 and 2002 and has been a member of the Brand Tasmania Board since 2004.
The CEO of Hudson Australia/New Zealand, Mark Steyn, said Hudson has been a very proud sponsor of the Awards for the past nine years. “It is a privilege to be associated with an event that showcased the calibre and quality of talented women working across Australia,” he said.
“Employment participation by women has been increasing over the past 40 years but it is still well below the rate for men and lower here than in many other developed countries. That is why we are keen to recognise the vital role that women play in the Australian workforce. This year’s line-up of finalists in the Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award, including Jane Bennett, is an exemplary group of Australia’s finest business women and we commend them on their achievements.”
The Tasmanian winners proceed to the national finals of the 2010 Telstra Business Women’s Awards which will be announced in Melbourne on 11 November. They will join an alumni of more than 430 winners of the Telstra Business Women’s Awards since the program was launched in 1995.
Winners of the 2010 Telstra Tasmanian Business Women’s Awards are:
Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year
Jane Bennett, Ashgrove Cheese, Elizabeth Town.
Commonwealth Bank Business Owner Award
Kristi Seymour, 41 Degrees Real Estate, East Launceston.
After buying, renovating and selling 18 houses by her mid-20s, property entrepreneur Kristi Seymour established 41 Degrees Real Estate in 2003. The agency focuses on residential sales within 10 kms of Launceston’s CBD, has an all-women sales team and promotes itself to property buyers among professional women and emerging market segments such as Generation Y.
Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award
Jane Bennett, Ashgrove Cheese, Elizabeth Town.
White Pages Community and Government Award
Amanda Quealy, The Hobart Clinic, Rokeby.
Amanda Quealy moved to Tasmania in 2008 to take up the role of CEO of The Hobart Clinic, a private, not-for-profit provider of mental health services. For the past 20 years she has committed to the development of the health and human services sector, working in the public and corporate health sector. She managed aged care and retirement village developments in Australia and China and founded a community care business.
Nokia Business Innovation Award
Robyn Lewis, VisitVineyards.com, North Hobart.
Robyn Lewis, an economist who spent 10 years as a consultant to agencies such as the World Bank, founded VisitVineyards.com, a culinary travel guide in 2002. The website connects more than 30,000 wine, food and tourism businesses in regional Australia. Its culinary calendar and information on tours, accommodation and events targets five million annual visitors to Australian vineyards.
marie claire Young Business Women’s Award
Teena O'Keefe, Dance Fit, West Launceston.
As owner of Dance Fit, Teena O’Keefe has grown her business from 60 students in 2006 to 400 children and 200 adults in 2010. Teena contracts six instructors to her dance and fitness school that operates in Launceston and on the East Coast. After closing her doors in late 2009 while she overcame serious personal illness, Teena found that 95 per cent of her students returned when she reopened in 2010.
Further information on the Telstra Business Women’s Awards can be found at www.telstrabusinesswomensawards.com
Media contact:
John Hanrahan
Lighthouse Communications
Ph: 02 9262 3868; M: 0407 881 139
Telstra:
Karina Keisler
0419 523 776
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Telstra Business Women's Awards Network