Dr Martin Cole

Chief Executive Officer of Wine Australia

Chair from 2000 – 2020 | Member since 1996 | Consultant 1994

Dr Martin Cole has more than 20 years experience in food science and research management across government, academia and industry, and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Wine Australia.

An internationally recognized leader in food and wine science, Dr Cole held a number of senior leadership roles from 2010 to 2019 with Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and led the development of its agriculture, food and nutritional science strategy. As Deputy Director of Agriculture and Food from 2016, he led the strategic management and merging of several of the CSIRO’s largest business units.  His achievements in that role include the development of the National Food and Nutrition Strategy and Roadmap, the development of a Food Innovation Centre in collaboration with Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) and the launching of multiple strategic partnerships with multi-national food companies including Mars and Fonterra.

Prior to joining the CSIRO, Dr Cole served as Director of The US National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST), the largest and most successful Center of Excellence of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this role, he developed strategic partnerships across government, industry and other academic institutions to foster and grow collaborative research opportunities, established a new clinical nutrition research center with FDA focused on developing scientific studies to underpin the substantiation of health claims within the US. During his tenure, research funding to NCFST doubled and industry membership increased from 8 companies in 2004 to 33 companies in 2009.

Dr Cole has over 15 years’ experience with the CODEX Food Hygiene Committee, including as Chairman of the Institute of Food Technology, Global Regulations and Policy Task Force and as a member of the Australian and US delegations to CODEX Food Hygiene Committee. He is currently the Chair of the International Commission on the Microbiological Specifications for Food (ICMSF) and a member of the High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) to the UN Food Security Committee.

Dr Cole has frequently been called upon as an expert by organizations such the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as the US House of Representatives. He is also a Director with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), Adjunct Professor at the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Science, University of Tasmania and a fellow of the International Union of Food Technologies (IUFoST). Dr Cole has published on many aspects of food science including food safety, novel processing and nutritional food security, and in 2020 was awarded the CSIRO Entrepreneurial Award, for the creation of the V2Foods plant protein company.

Directly prior to joining Wine Australia, Dr Cole was Head of School, Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide. He holds a Bachelor of Science (First Class, Biological Sciences) from Manchester Met. University, Doctor of Philosophy from the University of East Anglia, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr Cole is married with three adult children, and lives in Stirling, Adelaide.