from family dream
to sustainable leadership
from family dream
to sustainable leadership
PARALLEL SESSION
Speakers: Martin Brook and Will Brook
Facilitator: Val
Montagnana-Wallace
Date and time: Friday 23 May 2025, 12:15pm - 1:00pm
SESSION OVERVIEW
Sustainability has become a critical priority for organisations across all sectors—not only for environmental stewardship but also for long-term business success. Family businesses have a natural advantage in this regard, with strong values embedded in their practices and strategies, positioning them to lead the way in sustainability and inspire other businesses to follow suit. A prime example of this leadership is Brookfarm. What began as a family dream to move to the country and a passion for quality, healthy food led Pam and Martin Brook to transform a rundown dairy farm in the Byron Bay hinterland into a thriving macadamia farm, all while regenerating an ancient subtropical rainforest. Brookfarm is a multigenerational Australian family business dedicated to regenerative agriculture, embracing sustainable practices, supporting local farmers, and creating all-natural, nutritious breakfasts and snacks for the entire family—while making a meaningful impact on both the environment and the local community. Hear from Martin and his son Will, as they share their inspiring family business story, highlighting their approach to business, their ethos, and the remarkable outcomes that can be achieved when you commit to both product quality and sustainability.
SPEAKERS
MARTIN BROOK
Co-founder, Brookfarm
MARTIN BROOK
Co-founder, Brookfarm
Martin Brook is co-founder of Brookfarm, which he established with wife Pam Brook in 1999. Starting in the family kitchen with a dream to bring macadamia’s to the world through incredibly high quality muesli and granola. From humble beginnings at the Bangalow markets and selling boxes of muesli from the boot of the car, Brookfarm is now a vibrant food producing company with a team of 65 and growing. Brookfarm’s products are sold throughout Australia and exported to 16 countries including the USA, Japan and China. Customers include Domestic & International airlines.
Martin is also a Co - founder of Cape Byron Distillery, makers of the award winning Brookie’s Byron Dry Gin, Cape Byon Whiskey, and a myriad of premium spirits.
A committed environmentalist, Martin Brook is Vice President of the Big Scrub Landcare Group, whose mission is to restore and care for our critically endangered rainforest. The Brook Family have planted over 35,000 native trees on their own macadamia farm at St Helena, overlooking Byron Bay.
Martin is passionate about giving back to the community and sits on the executive committee for the Northern Rivers Rail Trail association.
Martin has a passion for producing delicious real food and making a difference for his community and the environment.
WILL BROOK
CEO, Brookfarm
WILL BROOK
CEO, Brookfarm
Will Brook is the eldest son of the founders of Brookfarm; Pam and Martin Brook. Will has been a part of Brookfarm since day one, from the early days in the family kitchen, labelling bags, baking muesli, and on the farm, planting trees from a young age.
Will has held roles within the business from the production floor, sales, supply chain, QA, and management before transitioning into the CEO from Pam Brook 5 years ago.
Will is passionate about creating exceptional food products, Australian farming, Australian manufacturing, and regional business development.
Will is also a co-founder of Cape Byron Distillery – located in the heart of the family macadamia farm.
From a family perspective, Will is a father of 3, and husband to Jess who also works within the business heading Product development.
FACILITATOR
Val Montagnana-Wallace
Director & General Manager, Hyphen – Stories, Well Told.
Val Montagnana-Wallace has an enthusiasm for language and stories that she has nurtured all her life. To begin with, this meant she wanted to be a librarian when she grew up. Later, it manifested itself in teaching, where she learned that there is truly no better place to learn how to manage competing priorities and the complex needs of people than in a primary school classroom.
Val Montagnana-Wallace
Director & General Manager, Hyphen – Stories, Well Told.
Val Montagnana-Wallace has an enthusiasm for language and stories that she has nurtured all her life. To begin with, this meant she wanted to be a librarian when she grew up. Later, it manifested itself in teaching, where she learned that there is truly no better place to learn how to manage competing priorities and the complex needs of people than in a primary school classroom.
Her career took a left turn after her husband and brother joined forces to found Bounce Books in 2006. Over time, her commitment to her family business grew until in 2019 she stepped into the role of general manager. Since then, she’s discovered that what she loves about her work is exactly what she’s always loved – sharing her love of stories, and teaching (now mentoring, really).
She’s very proud of the role she plays managing and nurturing a team of extremely clever, creative and driven women, plus a raft of freelancers, to run upwards of twenty film, book and installation projects at any given time. (Don’t tell the others, but family business projects are her favourites, because they’re always the best stories.)
Above all, she loves working in a role where she can influence the direction and success of Hyphen – Stories, Well Told, as well as the fact that she seems to have become the grown-up version of what she always wanted to be when she grew up. Lucky her.
all sessions
Explore all the sessions on offer at this year’s Family Business Conference: Asia-Pacific. Each session has been thoughtfully crafted to provide you with real-world tools and takeaways for navigating change in the world of family business. Featuring a range of expert keynote presentations, family business stories, interactive workshops and parallel sessions, every session is designed to equip you with strategies to navigate current challenges, embrace future opportunities, and achieve sustained success for your family business.