MRIC team

The MRIC team is made up of the Centre Director, Co-Directors and staff.

Professor Angus Webb

MRIC Director

Professor in Hydrology and Water Resources

Angus Webb

Angus Webb is a Professor in the Water, Agriculture and Environment Program of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. He has been passionate about natural environments as long as he can remember and originally completed a PhD in marine ecology before switching to freshwater systems. His research centres on the study and restoration of large-scale environmental problems in freshwater systems.

Angus is one of Australia’s leading experts in the monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management of environmental monitoring data, concentrating on environmental flows, where he has been an innovator for more than 15 years. He is centrally involved in the monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management of environmental water delivered under the Australian government’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan, leading the program for the Goulburn River, Victoria since 2014.

He has served on the Board of Directors for the international Society for Freshwater Science and was recently elected as the Vice-President of the Australian Freshwater Science Society. Angus’ 2017 book, Water for the Environment (Elsevier, 2017) brought together 59 authors from around the world to create the first book that covers the entire environmental water management cycle. He is also a co-author of the 2019 book, Environmental flow assessment: methods and applications (Wiley), and has edited two journal special issues on the science and adaptive management of environmental flows (Environmental Management 2018, Freshwater Biology 2018). He has 189 peer-reviewed publications in the international literature, comprising 3 books, 105 journal papers, 10 book chapters, 38 conference proceedings papers, and 33 technical reports.

Find an expert profile

Professor Ashley Franks

MRIC Co-Director

Professor Ashley Franks
Professor Ashley Franks

Professor Ashley Franks is the Co-Director of MRIC, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Capability) and Director of the Securing Food, Water and Environment Research Focus Area at La Trobe University. He has extensive research management experience having served as the School of Life Science’s Research Director and the Academic Coordinator of Research For the College of Science, Health and Engineering. As an Applied Environmental Microbiologist, his has research interests in soils, plant-microbe interactions and sustainability.

La Trobe University profile

David Harris

MRIC Co-Director

General Manager Operations SuniTAFE

David Harris
David Harris

David Harris is a highly experienced Manager of large teams and a successful private business owner. Starting his career as an Electrician has given David broad practical hands on skill base and understanding of trades. After completion of his A Grade Electrical License David entered University and completed a Bachelor of Business prior to commencing as a Qualified Valuer with Knight Frank Australia.

An opportunity then arose to acquire a Real Estate Business in Mildura which David owned and successfully operated for 17 years. A desire to enter the larger corporate market saw David sell the business and move into a Senior Leadership role as a State Manager with LJHooker in 2007.

Managing over 80 offices in Victoria and Tasmania proved a great training ground for overseeing large disparate teams and when a new opportunity arose as a Commercial Manager with Crowe Horwath (Findex) David was a logical choice. Over 6 years with Findex David managed a variety of teams in multiple offices as a Regional Commercial Manager (WA, SA, Tas and NW Vic).

A desire to give back to the Community and to take on a new challenge lead to David’s change to his current role as Chief Operating Officer with SuniTAFE. Acquiring a broad range of skill sets from a wide variety of roles during his career has allowed David to assist SuniTAFE to become widely respected and efficiently run, and has contributed to SuniTAFE’s recent recognition as Large Training Provider of the Year (2019).

Rebecca Wells

MRIC Chief Executive

Rebecca Wells
Rebecca Wells

Rebecca Wells was born in Mildura and raised on a vineyard in Merbein, returning to the region in late 2008 after several years in a media career internationally. Throughout the past decade, Rebecca has re-immersed herself in community and professional networks in the Mallee region.

Rebecca holds a range of leadership and advocacy roles in the region including Chair, Director and representative roles for organisations including Merbein and District Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank and formally Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s Community Bank National Council, Victorian State Government’s Mallee Regional Partnership and as communications manager for Australian Table Grape Association.

Paula Mastrippolito

Business Support Coordinator

Paula Mastrippolito
Paula Mastrippolito

Paula Mastrippolito is the Business Support Coordinator for the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre and is based in Mildura at the Centre’s SuniTAFE offices.

Paula has a broad range of experience and skills in governance, risk management and strategic planning having worked with complex systems and process in several larger organisations.

As the Business Support Coordinator Paula manages the administration support for MRIC and supports the Centre staff in their roles.