Board of Directors and Advisory Board:
Peter Steer - Managing Director
Peter holds a Bachelors degree in Wine Science and an MBA and is a qualified and highly experienced winemaker. He joined Flextank in March, 2007 after working with many Australian and international wineries. He was the founding winemaker at Yarra Ridge (1988-90) and the CEO at Taltarni Vineyards in the early 2000’s.
Peter has also worked with Nestlé, the global food giant, where he managed business improvement and development projects from the global Head Office in Vevey, Switzerland. Peter has an extensive background in sales, marketing and product development. He has successfully managed sales networks in Australia, the US and Europe and Asia as well as new market development in Vietnam, Denmark, Ireland, US and Japan.
E-mail: peter@flextank.com.au
Tony Flecknoe-Brown - Founder and Technical Director
An honours graduate in mechanical engineering (physics major), Tony has been a career innovator in the plastics and food packaging industries.
In 1984, he jointly established and ASX listed the public company, Hitek Limited (now Solace Ltd), to develop and license high-barrier plastics food can technology to the world’s can industry. Hitek supplied Australian made plastic can manufacturing lines worldwide. The business assets and technology were later sold to Tetra Pak in 1993, at a substantial gain for the shareholders. Tony became one of the three founding directors of Tetra Pak’s Plastics Packaging Division.
After returning to Australia, Tony co-founded Flextank Pty Ltd in 2001 with two fellow professional mechanical engineers, developed and patented the permeable tank technology and established early stage commercialisation.
Tony holds more than 50 patents in the plastics field and has published many articles and technical papers on his developments. He has multi-year experience as an ASX listed public company director. Until recently he was a joint-owner of a 200 t/yr Yarra Valley vineyard and winery.
Peter Henry - Director
Peter Henry graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Warrnambool Institute of Technology in 1969 and worked initially as a project design engineer at Ingersoll Rand and Caltex. Equipment and systems he designed are still in use today and have been adopted by other petroleum companies.
In the late 1970's, he established a building and construction company. The business has grown and prospered into a multi-million dollar operation concentrating mainly on large domestic and mid-size commercial contract works.
In 2001, Peter co-founded Flextank with Tony Flecknoe-Brown. He retains an active role in new product development.
Michael Unwin - Director
Michael is Managing Director and senior winemaker of Michael Unwin Wines Pty Ltd, a winery he founded in 2000 in Western Victoria. He also produces wines on a contract and consultant basis for approximately ten wineries / vineyards.
Collaboration with Tony Flecknoe-Brown on improved winery systems and wine storage and maturation began in 2001. Together, they invented the controlled permeability rigid polyethylene vessels along with complementary systems and ancillary equipment to aid in their use and handling.
All Flextank products have been tested and constantly used in Michael’s winery since 2001.
Post Graduate trained in Oenology and Viticulture at Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand, Michael also holds Diplomas in Horticulture and Horticultural Management.
Advisory Board
Dr. Tony Jordan - Winemaker and Winemaking Consultant, Oenotec Pty Ltd
Tony Jordan, through his company Oenotec Pty Ltd, is Consultant to the global wineries of the Estates and Wines group within Moet Hennessy, as well as to other wine companies in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
He assumed his current roles in mid-2008 after 21 years with the Moet Hennessy group. He commenced as Managing Director/Winemaker for Domaine Chandon Australia in 1987 and the role was expanded to consulting on winemaking to the Chandon wineries worldwide in the 1990’s. He was then appointed as CEO of Domaine Chandon Australia, Cape Mentelle and Cloudy Bay NZ in 2003.
Tony graduated with Honours from Sydney University and then completed a PhD in Chemical Physics which then lead to an early career in Research Science, a Lectureship in Wine Chemistry and then Oenology at Charles Sturt University (where he was involved in establishing the Wine Science course) and later managing partner in Oenotec, a worldwide winemaking/viticulture consultancy
Tony is a Board Member of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, President of the Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association and past President of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology. He has judged over the last 25 years at all national and most regional wine shows in Australia, as well as the Decanter Awards in the UK, Winpac in Hong Kong and the Easter Show in New Zealand. He was Chairman of the Royal Hobart International Wine Show for 5 years and has also chaired several other wine shows. In 2009, he Chaired the Hong Kong International Wine Competition and is a senior judge at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show, the Royal Hobart International Wine Show and The Decanter Wine Awards (UK).
Andrew Stops - Partner at Piper Alderman Lawyers
Andrew commenced practice as a lawyer more than 20 years ago and has practiced in a wide variety of mainly commercial disputes. He was a founding partner of the Melbourne
office of Piper Alderman in 2002. That office now has over 50 staff.Andrew also holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, as well as a Bachelor of Economics, majoring in accounting and finance. His exposure to and experience in many areas of commercial law has been invaluable in assisting the Flextank board in its decision-making.
Andrew’s community involvement includes a Vice Presidency of the Alumni Advisory Board of the Australian School of Business, and a member of the Football Federation of Victoria Disciplinary Tribunal.
Michael Howard - Consulting Actuary with extensive knowledge of the financial services industry
Michael has an MBA and is a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors and has been a director of a number of entities, including a computer services company and a funds management company. He was a director of the Investment Funds Association (IFA), the managed funds industry body, for six years, being Chairman for the last eighteen months of that body prior to its merger with AIMA and LISA to form IFSA. Michael was a key driver of this merger.
Michael currently specialises in health insurance, being the external Appointed Actuary for two health funds. Key activities include preparing financial condition reports and advising on the impact on capital requirements of strategic and tactical options. Individual assignments encompass a wide range of issues including advice on profitability, capital requirements and governance. Other assignments include investment policy, selection of fund managers, the appropriate level of capital for an entity.
Prior to this he had extensive experience in creating and consolidating new businesses and has significant involvement with the not-for-profit sector, being Finance Director of Hands On Health
Australia. He was also President and Chairman of the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Victoria for a number of years.
Key Management
National Sales Manager, Geoff Shenfield. Geoff comes from senior national sales management roles in Kodak, Telstra, Optus and Cork Supply Australia. He holds a BSc (Chemistry).
Engineering & Operations Manager, Andrew Sammut. Andrew joined the Company in 2009, with a background of engineering and systems design, procurement and supply in the renewable energy field. Andrew has a BEng (Mech) Hons.
Research Winemaker, Allen Hart. Allen joined the Company recently and has extensive experience as a Senior Research Winemaker with Foster’s Group Ltd. Allen has a BAgSc (Oenology) Hons.
US Technical Representative, Wayne Donaldson. Wayne has an excellent reputation as a winemaker in the USA and has been very influential in gaining attention for Flextank products in the US market.
Office Manager, Vicki Katsaras. Vicki is an experienced senior office manager with relevant accounting qualifications. She is located at the Melbourne Head Office.