Meet our team

Dr Mirjana Prica is an enthusiastic visionary who focuses on collaboration, entrepreneurship and innovation to deliver commercial value.

Mirjana sits on boards and advisory groups for clusters, cooperative research centres, universities, research and industry organisations and businesses in Australia and overseas, where she leverages her 30 years of research and commercial experience in food, agribusiness, advanced materials and minerals.

Mirjana has practical experience in establishing clusters and building ecosystems of capability and capacity for unlocking growth. Currently, Mirjana is leading FIAL, a national and industry-led organisation, established by the Australian Government and is using clusters to drive innovation and business growth for the ~180,000 firms operating in the food and agribusiness sector.

James is the CEO of the Future Food Systems CRC. An agrifood innovator at heart, Dr Krahe encourages collaboration across the Australian food and agribusinesses sector and supports the ground-breaking research happening across Future Food Systems’ project portfolio.

Dr Krahe has strong knowledge and connections within government, industry, and research, and is experienced in food and nutritional science, holding a PhD in Food Science, and a Bachelor of Human Nutrition (Hons), from the University of Newcastle.

Alisi is the Food Systems Programme Lead at the Pacific Community (SPC) based in Suva, Fiji. She is responsible for providing leadership and coordinating the Food Systems Integrated Programme. This looks at cross-organisational work programming with staff in multiple divisions to achieve impact for Pacific member countries in the Food Systems space. The triple helix concept in clustering is the same for Food Systems approaches, recognising the role of Government, private sector, and academia.

Alisi has worked in regional development for over 20 years, covering infrastructure development, private sector and strategic planning. Her immediate past roles, prior to SPC, was working in regional private sector – serving as Team Leader Private Sector at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), and as CEO of the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organisation (PIPSO). At PIPSO she managed the regional cluster project, being piloted in 4 countries (PNG, Samoa, Tonga & Vanuatu).

Alisi is a keen advocate for clustering in the Pacific, and especially keen to use clustering economic policy to address food systems deficiencies.

Jacqueline Brinkman is an economic development specialist and CEO of Economic Development Australia (EDA), the national peak body for economic development. Under Jacqueline’s leadership, EDA membership has more than tripled to over 1400 members in just 4 years.

Jacqueline is one of Australia’s most experienced industry cluster managers and has facilitated industry development and new investment across a range of sectors. Her advocacy and lobbying have resulted in legislative change at the local, state and federal levels.

Jacqueline has held CXO roles across a range of sectors in QLD and NSW, is an award-winning copywriter and an experienced company director with current positions on the Board of Dare Disability Services and RDA Sydney.

Dr Nicola Watts is passionate about clusters and the opportunities they present for addressing challenges and unleashing opportunities through purposeful collaboration and innovation.

Nicola is a former cluster founder, who currently facilitates collaboration, co-innovation, communications and capacity-building. She has extensive global experience matched with a strong focus on 'acting locally'.