Leeanne Puglisi-Gangemi of Ballandean Estate on the Granite Belt has been elected to the Winemaker’s Federation (WFA) board of 12 at an historically significant annual general meeting on 13 November 2018. Leeanne is the second Queensland board member to be elected since WFA’s 1999 inauguration and the first Queensland female board member.

“I am thrilled to be elected to a platform where I can continue to improve the business and regulatory environment for Australian winemakers and grape growers. Educating national and international consumers about the quality of Queensland wines has driven my advocacy. Queensland now has over 1500 hectares of vines and a new generation of talented people guiding production in Queensland. We are just so lucky to have David Littleproud, Federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources lobbying on behalf of the wine industry. As a long-term Warwick resident, the Minister has an acute understanding of the important role agriculture and small business plays in creating jobs and promoting economic growth across rural, regional and remote Australia,” said Leeanne.

Leeanne Puglisi-Gangemi is an outstanding advocate for Queensland’s burgeoning wine industry and one of Australia’s most influential woman in wine. She has been a voting member of WFA’s Small Winemakers’ Membership Committee and elected representative of Queensland Wine Industry Association for the last seven years. As a third-generation operator of Ballandean Estate, founded by Queensland’s pioneering Puglisi family, Leeanne has worked tirelessly as an industry ambassador for decades. Her influential position is made even more remarkable when despite gender-equal enrolments in wine and viticulture courses, women make up less than 10 per cent of the wine industry workforce, according to a large-scale Australian study by the Curtin Graduate School of Business.

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