Our Committee is comprised of local leaders with broad and diverse skills and experience, who understand the challenges, opportunities and priorities in their local community. They are local people developing local solutions to local issues.

Our 11 dedicated members have a strong understanding of Federal, State and Local government policies and initiatives, and the ways in which local communities can engage with them.

The Chair and Deputy Chair positions to date have been appointed jointly by the Australian and State Government Ministers responsible for regional development.

Opportunities exist from time to time for new appointments to the Committee. Should you be interested in joining the Committee please refer to the following link for more information. Join your local RDA.

Ruth Fagan, Chair

Ruth Fagan has extensive advisory board experience, in a State and regional capacity. She has been involved in a range of industries, including tourism, agriculture, planning and retail. Ruth is presently a State appointed member of the Joint Regional Planning Panel for the Western Region, a Cowra Shire Councillor for 16 years and a Board Member of Local Government NSW.

Trained as a journalist and a resident of Cowra for 37 years, Ruth has worked as a journalist, Tourism Manager and operated a number of businesses in Cowra including a gift shop, a motel, a vineyard and a dress shop. She is a member of the Cowra Showground, Paceway and Race Course Trust, the Cowra Business Chamber and various local committees. Ruth holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from Charles Sturt University, she is the Director of a Marketing Business and the Business Development Manager and partner of a real estate agency in Cowra.

Reg Kidd, Deputy Chair

Reg is an agricultural consultant and holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Graduate Diploma in Education and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

He is currently the Mayor of Orange City Council and has been a Councillor for 24 years. Reg has represented NSW Local Government on a number of State Committees including; Landcare, the Catchment Authority, Biodiversity and is the longest serving chairman of the Infrastructure Council committee.

Reg presents ABC Radio’s Gardening Talkback segment on Saturday mornings and is a Board Member on numerous government committees regarding weed control and pesticide use. He has been involved with the Orange Botanic Gardens and National Field Days at Borenore for almost 40 years.

Reg is passionate about sustainable farming practices and educating younger generations about how they can grow their own vegetables and help improve the health of the environment.

He enjoys spending time with his wife Kerry, their three adult sons and their young families.

David Sherley, Member

David is currently employed as the General Manager of Bathurst Regional Council. He has an interest in the facilitation of regional growth to ensure the future sustainability of rural Australia, in particular the areas of infrastructure development, cultural and sports tourism and regional planning.

David is a member of Central NSW Joint Organisation. He has a Bachelor Ec (Sydney University), M Bus (CSU), a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies (Deakin) and holds a membership of the ASCPA.

As the General Manager of Bathurst Regional Council, David has been involved in a wide range of matters such as; operations of the Mount Panorama Racing Circuit, the development of museum facilities in Bathurst, community strategic planning, economic and infrastructure development and overseeing the implementation of Council’s Community Strategic Plan.

Christine Weston, Member

Christine is an accomplished Direct Marketing Executive with 20 years international experience working in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Germany and throughout Asia Pacific.

Christine has been involved with Boards for over 10 years in both the not-for-profit and community sector. Her experience extends from executive roles to reporting to the Board of multi-national companies. Christine’s positive nature, marketing passion, fundraising expertise and strong activism for regional living has delivered social and economic outcomes to both communities and companies.

Christine was awarded NSW Woman of the Year 2010 for her dedication to regional development, community and tourism. These local initiatives include ‘Rent-a-farmhouse for $1 a week’, ‘Animals on Bikes’ paddock art trail and ‘Opera in the Woolshed’.

Christine was born in Parkes and now lives in nearby Cumnock with her husband and 3 highschool children on a grazing and farming enterprise. Christine has a strong sense of commitment to the Central West, and is very passionate about job creation and investment to improve communities in the regional area.

Tracie Robertson, Member

Tracie is the Managing Director of Ray White Real Estate in Parkes, Forbes and Condobolin employing 20 staff. She successfully started an online holiday booking service within Ray White, Parkes in order to provide additional accommodation options for Elvis Festival attendees.

Tracie is a graduate of Charles Sturt University and the Australian Institute of Business having completed a Bachelor of Business Management, a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration.

Tracie is a past Vice President of the Parkes Regional Development Association which evolved to become the Parkes Chamber of Commerce, and was a forming member of the Condobolin Chamber of Commerce, the Forbes Economic Development group and the Parkes Business Awards.

Tracie is currently involved in CSU’s CenWest Next Stage Growth program and completing a Cert 4 in Training and Assessment with the intention of being at the forefront of legislative change to training requirements for Real Estate Agents.

Philip Dodds, Member

Philip is the CEO Director/owner of Phocas, a fast-growing software engineering and business intelligence firm with head office located in Orange. Phocas employs over 150 staff with 6 offices in 3 countries. Phocas exports software, completely developed in Orange, NSW to customers world-wide.

Philip has been involved in many start-up software companies in Australia, the USA and the UK. Philip has negotiated the sale of business ventures to large technology industry companies such as Microsoft and Sage.

Philip has experience working with the former Rural Lands Protection Board and LHPA in large business change projects which required engagement with a diverse range of NSW regional stakeholders. Philip is a Chartered Accountant and software engineer, and owns a farm in Molong.

Diana Fear, Member

Diana is CEO of Central West Farming systems leading the direction of projects through overseeing the financial management, administration, project delivery and reporting on project KPIs.  Critical to the success of these projects is identifying suitable collaborators, effective stakeholder engagement, and ensuring efficient operational systems.

In 2016, Diana presented a paper on CWFS Women in Agriculture Project at the 2nd Symposium on Transformation for Rural Development in Delhi, India.  In 2018, Diana participated in the National Rural Women’s Coalition Leadership program. A recent CWFS success was the Grain Research Development Corporation funded Overdependence on Agrochemicals Project (2014-2017) with a consortium of four farming systems groups and CSU Wagga.  Diana has also completed the Women on Boards 2019 Next Generation of Female Leaders program.

The CWFS AgMarketing Project is another success that identified new market opportunities to add value to agricultural commodities. This project delivered a series of hands on workshops to target on-farm women decision makers to increase profitability of farm businesses through capacity building. Diana has a BA (Hons) International Relations and a Diploma of Agribusiness.  She also completed Governance Essentials for Not for Profits last year and was successful in the 2018 Community Directors Award Program, Institute of Community Directors Australia to do a Diploma of Business (Governance) this year.

Diana is an active community member and has wide experience on local and regional committees.

Peter Bishop, Member

Peter’s 26 years in agriculture, has enabled him to develop sustainable management practices in order to produce the highest quality Wagyu and Angus beef.

Peter completed the Australian Institute of Companies Directors course in 2008. Peter has been a Director of the Hunter Local Land Services for 2 years, Mudgee Merriwa Rural Lands Protective Board and Director/Treasurer of the Australian Wagyu Association for 7 years.

More recently Peter was the Director of Farm Management for a large foreign Chinese company that operates several large properties in Queensland and NSW, responsible for 40 staff.

While Peter completed an Advanced Diploma of Farm Management at University of New England (Armidale) his father was actively involved with the Regional Development Australia Hunter board.

Peter and his family have bought a Cowra farm to continue their Wagyu passion.

Rich Evans, Member

Rich is the CEO and Editor in Chief of Central West Media, publishers of the Lithgow Village Voice and Bathurst City Life. CWM also operates a number of soon to be launched regional focused portals such as Central West Jobs.

Rich is also the Chief Reactivation Officer at The Foundations in Portland where he is using his marketing and events experience to reactivate the old Portland Cement Works site. Rich has enjoyed a long career in marketing and technology and is still involved in a software startup in the building industry. He is also a hard working member of a number of community based organisations and committees, most recently working with Lithgow City Council on their economic transition planning.

Rich is a businessman, author, speaker, consultant – but most of all he identifies as a designer.

Rich is also an advocate for the Mental Health movement and has recently launched a podcast – The Uncommon.