Darryl D’Souza
CEO,
Australian Pork Limited

Point of View

APL is thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr Darryl D’Souza as the new Chief Executive Officer of Australian Pork Limited. Darryl will commence as CEO on 6 October 2026, following a structured handover period ensuring continuity and a seamless transition of leadership.

In addition to serving as an APL Delegate, Darryl brings extensive leadership experience, a combination of industry knowledge, scientific expertise and commercial leadership, and a strong commitment to supporting Australian pork producers, advancing industry growth, and delivering value for levy payers.

His experience leading large and complex technical, research and commercial operations, together with his strong stakeholder relationships throughout the pork value chain, positions him exceptionally well to lead APL into its next phase.

Darryl also already possesses a deep understanding of APL, having previously served as General Manager Research and Innovation and the entire APL team and Board are excited to welcome him back.

From 1977 to 1984 he was an agricultural journalist with Elders Weekly, Farmers Weekly, Western Farmer & Grazier, Countryman, Merredin Advertiser and Esperance Express. During this period, in 1980, he moved to Canberra to start and manage an agricultural news bureau, servicing the Stock Journal (SA) and the Farmers Weekly (WA).

Dr Heather Channon
National Feral Pig Management
Coordinator

Dr Heather Channon is Australia’s first national feral pig management coordinator to tackle Australia’s feral pig population and reduce the risk feral pigs pose to the spread of diseases including African Swine Fever (ASF) if the disease ever occurred in Australia.

Heather has worked for Australian Pork Limited (APL) since 2005 in various roles within the Research and Innovation Division and recently completed her PhD at The University of Melbourne with her PhD program focused on developing an eating quality system for the Australian pork industry. Prior to this, Heather was a Research Scientist (Meat Science) with the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Werribee from 1995-2005. In this role, Heather conducted many research projects to understand the impact of processing and post-slaughter factors on pork quality.

Ashley Norval
Global Knowledge Transfer Manager, DanBred
Nordic News

Following graduation with a Bachelor of Animal Science at CSU in Wagga Wagga, Ashley gained a position at Rivalea in Corowa, where she worked as a Technical Officer within the research and development team. In 2014 she joined Australian Pork Limited as a Technology Transfer Coordinator in the research team and was eventually responsible for the management and development of the National R&D Extension and Capability programs, the Pigs and Schools Education Program and later the development and implementation of the Australian Pork Industry Leadership Program. After five years at APL, Ashley moved to Copenhagen Denmark full-time where she completed a Masters of Animal Science at the University of Copenhagen. Ashley now works full-time for DanBred as a global Knowledge Transfer Manager, where she is responsible for optimising client farm productivity through training and education.