TitleMrGiven NamesRobert MichaelSurnameRyanPost NominalsOAMBiographyPresident Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales 2014 – 2020.
Robert Ryan was elected to the RAS Council in June 1996 and was Chair of the Sheep and Wool Committee from 1996 to 2009 before his election as President in late 2014.
Ryan had an excellent reputation as a ‘sheep and wool man’, having started out as a young auctioneer at Chute Bell Badgery Lumby before rising to become Managing Director and Chairman of that company.
As well as gaining the RAS Presidency in 2014, Ryan was also awarded an OAM for services to the wool industry, an honour he hoped would bring recognition to the whole of the wool industry.
Ryan’s tenure as RAS President delivered ‘The Stables’ as a year-round education, exhibition and event space; a partnership with Cricket NSW for Twenty20 Big Bash matches at Sydney Showground; Primary Preview Day at the Show; and the joint relationship with Junee High for AgVision. When NSW communities suffered through successive droughts, floods and bushfires, the RAS offered over $15 million in support, to assist rural communities to regain their strength and productivity.
With the last-minute cancellation of the 2020 Royal Easter Show due to the Covid 19 global pandemic, Robert Ryan missed out on hosting the final Show of his tenure. He left the role however, knowing that under his leadership and guidance the RAS had invested heavily in the agricultural future of NSW and had also become a member and partner of Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia, enabling the RAS to have a voice in the K-12 school curriculum and thereby a visible role in educating our future agricultural sector leaders.
