Academic is my second career. I worked in education management, development aid and private business for 20 years before commencing my first university degree. I completed a Bachelor of Property Management at University of South Australia in 1992 and a PhD in Business Management in 1999. I have since held various research positions from postdoctoral fellow to Research Professor at University of South Australia, Canada Research Chair at University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada and I am now an Honorary Professor at Australian National University. My initial research focus was on assessing the socioeconomic impact of water markets in the Murray Darling Basin and how to design water market policies to provide the greatest production flexibility for the farmers, while minimizing the environmental impact. As a Canada Research Chair my focus was on designing water sharing policies within the South Saskatchewan Basin and assess the suitability and acceptability of such policies by key stakeholders.

My entire career both before and after academia, has had a strong focus on the livelihood of of the poor and smallholder farmers in the global south and on improving the productivity of farmers, especially irrigators, both in the Global South and Global North. Both in my early career and over the last thirteen years my work has been focused on improving the food security and livelihood of small holders in southern Africa.