On 6 November 2001, the Chairman of The Australian Wine Research Institute, Mr Doug McWilliam, retired from the position as Chairman, and will retire as a member of the Council of the Institute on 31 December 2001. Mr McWilliam had been a valued member of Council since 1987, and had a distinguished tenure as Chairman from 1 January 1992. “The Institute and its staff are at the front line of Oenological research and my position as chairman has provided me a wonderful opportunity to be both involved and to try to give back something to an industry which has been so generous to me personally”, said Mr McWilliam. “It has been a very satisfying experience to see the Institute grow, as it has over the past 10 years, in both size and service to our industry. The great interest in our technical conferences is ample testimony to the Institute’s success”.
The Council of the Institute appointed Mr Robin Day to the position of Chairman of the Institute. Mr Day, who has been a member of Council since 1987 has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Adelaide), and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Wine Science) (Charles Sturt). He is the International Wine Development Director for Pernod Ricard, and runs an international winemaking consulting business, Domain Day Consulting. Mr Day is a board member of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation and the National Wine Centre, Chairman of the Corporation’s Compliance Committee, a national and international wine show judge, and has 27 years of production and R&D experience in the Australian wine industry.
“As the new Council Chairman, I am looking forward to working with the members of the Institute’s Council to enhance research and development outputs from the Institute to the benefit to the Australian wine industry”, said Mr Day “The Australian wine industry currently receives excellent ‘bang for its buck’ and I know that this will continue at the Institute, however, the Institute will seek further resources to place even greater emphasis on outputs on the ‘D’ side of the R&D equation in the future. It will also continue to provide value to the Australian wine industry with its pro-active problem-solving technical service to Australian winemakers and continually find innovative ways for information dissemination.”