Mr Irvin received the prestigious award at a function in Sydney last week.

The awards recognise excellence in agriculture Australia wide and entries are received from “all the big businesses in agriculture especially around grains, meat and wool,” according to Mr Irvin.

“Dairy is obviously very important but there are some big players in the awards and it is really gratifying to be recognised in that company,” he said.

“But more than that, it is recognition of what our company has achieved and the teamwork that goes into it.”

Mr Irvin said for him it meant that the operation he fronts is undoubtedly one of the leaders in the worldwide dairy industry.

“It’s about anyone who has ever had any doubts about whether Bega Cheese has arrived on the entire Australian agriculture landscape – not just the dairy industry – well, here is evidence the company is well respected,” he said.

Over the past 10 years Mr Irvin has led a team which has developed Bega Cheese into a major force in the dairy industry.

From small beginnings as a dairy farmer co-operative, single site operation producing 8000 tonnes of product per year, Bega Cheese now is a multi-site, multi-product unlisted public company producing 200,000 tonnes of product annually.

“We have gone from $80-100 million of revenue heading towards almost $1 billion and solid year-on-year performance,” Mr Irvin said.

“And during the economic crisis we have made two major acquisitions, been very steady with our profits and our business model stood up fairly well.

“We showed that what we were doing was good, even in the face of major international crashes and particularly how it affected our competitors in the market place.”

A combination of organic growth, acquisition and investment in technology and people now sees Bega Cheese servicing markets throughout the world.

Mr Irvin has presided over the development of a product supply agreement with global dairy giant Fonterra, the acquisition of Tatura Milk Industries, and the re-structure of Bega Cheese from a co-operative to an unlisted public company.