Kathy Grigg is appointed AM for the King's birthday honours

Euroa beef producer and industry leader Ms Grigg, Camberwell, has welcomed her new title as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her commitment to the agricultural industry, tertiary education and financial governance.

She grew up on a farm in South Australia before she studied at university in Adelaide and worked at the formerly-known Australian Wool Corporation.

"You have that affinity for areas that you feel associated with," she said.

"You feel it's an important area that you're comfortable with, so I took up the role that was offered and haven't looked back."

Since her time at the AWC, some of her roles included Deakin University's deputy chancellor, COInvest chair and board member, a GrainCorp chair for the audit and risk committee, and a non-executive director at Agricultural Innovation Australia.

She also served as part of the audit committees for the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, Monash Medical Centre, Euroa Health, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Navy Health, Australian Pork Limited, Suncorp Portfolio Services, Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, and the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries.

READ MORE:

Ms Grigg an Australian Institute of Company Directors fellow, and Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants fellow.

"[Education] is so important in the development of the people in our country, I was delighted to be part of the Deakin University council for 12 years and have the honour of being deputy chancellor for part of that time," she said.

"As you go along a journey like that, you learn from all sorts of different things.

"You learn particularly from other people that you're working with and I've had the privilege of working with some very, very good people who have been able to guide me.

"You often see how they work and you develop your own style, but you see how to work through different situations and how to best get outcomes.

"Leadership is so important and when you get good leaders of organisations, you learn from that."

She said from an agricultural perspective, there were three key ingredients to focus on.

"When you look at the whole field of agriculture and you look to the future, there's probably three things that require a lot of focus," she said.

"One is productivity, and agriculture over time has had a reasonably good record of productivity but we have to keep it going.

"Tied in with that too is technology and being open to the use of new technologies that can help productivity but also make things easier for a lot of operators.

"As every industry faces, we've also got sustainability.

"You need to be focused on how to keep your industry sustainable into the future and those three things tie together quite well in terms of taking a broader picture of agriculture.

"Our agriculture has always been competitive on world markets and we need to keep it that way."

Ms Grigg said she felt honoured at her new title and was currently enjoying a holiday in London before she headed home to Melbourne.

"I am totally surprised about it, I just wonder how these things happen and why it happened, but totally honoured that it has happened," she said.