Graeme McConnell has been the managing director of Planfarm since July 2018. He joined the company as a consultant in 1999 and is one of the larger shareholders of the group.
Mr McConnell consults directly to a large client base in the central and eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia, including managing property for foreign corporate interests. His experience is dominated by broadacre cropping (cereals, oilseeds and legumes) and livestock (sheep and cattle).
Prior to Planfarm, Mr McConnell spent over 9 years with Bankwest (now a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia) where he created and developed a benchmarking analysis of the bank's farming clients. He also effected the merger of the Planfarm and Bankwest surveys to create the Planfarm Bankwest Benchmarks which is now the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, including detailed analysis derived from over 530 broadacre farm businesses in Western Australia (which is close to 20% of the viable farm businesses in the state).
Mr McConnell has presented key papers at the ABARES (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics) National Outlook Conference in Canberra, the Australian Farm Institute, Grains Research and Development Corporation crop and business updates.
