Scott Wright’s ‘mailroom to CEO’ journey at Angus Australia is just his latest career chapter.
Story + Photos Kate Newsome
After 4 years of build-up, Brisbane is preparing to host the Olympics of Angus cattle – the World Angus Forum, in May this year. Six hours’ drive away, on the outskirts of Armidale, in sight of the NSW Northern Tablelands’ patchwork of paddocks, Angus Australia’s CEO Scott Wright has been meeting with committees and directors in a long tea-and-jam-drop-fuelled week of strategising for the year ahead and the forum, which is set to be the breed society’s biggest occasion since it was founded in 1919.
Scott’s office is full of binders, boxes, trophy busts and paintings of musters and beasts. Above the desk, a custom A3 printout announces: “The CEO focuses on 3 things: 1) Culture 2) People 3) Numbers.” On a filing cabinet is a framed 2019 Graduate Certificate in Animal Science and a 2015 shiraz merlot from Wright Robertson of Glencoe – the winery that once stood on Scott’s property, near Glen Innes.
“That was one of my last vintages,” Scott explains. “We used to call it ‘black poll shiraz’ after Angus cattle, and then I ended up here.”
Angus Australia has some 4,000 members and 40 staff. Its functions span marketing, education and youth programs, plus developing the breed in northern Australia. With Angus genetics accounting for more than 52% of Australia’s beef industry, the organisation also consolidates a directory of registered cattle and genetic information.
This story excerpt is from Issue #159
Outback Magazine: February/March 2025
