President

Dr Mike Stephens

Mike Stephens, the founder of Meridian Agriculture, has almost forty years’ experience in directing, managing and advising small and medium sized agricultural businesses. He has developed and directed industry projects, and consulted extensively on succession and transition in business. Before establishing Meridian Agriculture Mike worked as farm manager and managed very large holdings.

Mike holds a Diploma of Farm Management, an MSc, and a PhD (Farm Business Succession.) He is a Fellow of Ag Institute Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Churchill Fellow.

He lives at Yendon with Jo, his wife, where they are regularly visited by their four children who bring interesting grandchildren, stimulating conversation and good red wine.

Vice President

Prue Bentley

Prue is a public broadcast media professional with more than 15 years’ experience in radio and news production. Originally from western Sydney, she has worked for the ABC in 4 states and territories across Australia, but now calls Ballarat home working as the Chief of Staff at ABC Ballarat and Southwest Victoria. Prue believes in the power of conversations to bring people together on important issues, and the value of local communities to make meaningful change for the better.

Secretary

Ross Furness

Board Member

Jane Valpied

Board Member

Paula Nicholson

Paula believes her membership of the BMI Board allows her to assist in the facilitation of the maximum usage of this iconic facility in the CBD, inspiring collaboration with organisations concentrating on education, research, heritage, information dissemination, and community building.

Paula returned to live in Ballarat over 25 years ago, and has been active in the Not for Profit sector in Fundraising, Events, Community Engagement and Governance for over 15 years across a range of local organisations.

Having a long-term connection with Ballarat, she attended Ballarat College as a Boarder for the final two years of her secondary education, then completed a Science Degree at Melbourne University majoring in Psychology. Paula went on to subsequently work in Business Analysis, Human Resources, Customer Service and Management, in Melbourne and Singapore for multi-national Dunn and Bradstreet.

In 1996 she returned to Ballarat where, with her husband, they purchased the generational family business, Nicholson Construction. Having grown up in the small regional community of Nhill, Paula has an understanding of the way smaller communities can work together to create opportunities for advancement, investment and growth. She believes that Ballarat is a wonderful and unique place to live and one where those who wish to, can make a real difference to the future of this prosperous regional centre by getting involved and making and leveraging connections of their own.

To this end, she sees herself as a Community Builder and is committed to utilising her experience and large network to encourage the broader community to be involved with both the heritage and future of the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute.