AIC Dinner and Conference 2024 - Capturing “added value” within the agri-food supply chain

Phil Bicknell

CEO, UK Agri-Tech Centre

Phil Bicknell was appointed CEO of the UK Agri-Tech Centre as it launched in April 2024. He joined CIEL - one of the three companies which merged to create the UK Agri-Tech Centre - in 2021. Prior to the UK Agri-Tech Centre, Phil has had a varied career across food and farming: he led the 50-strong market intelligence team at the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), equipping farmers and processors with the insight to manage market volatility, profitability and policy change; he was also chief economist at the National Farmers Union (NFU), spearheading the evidence to support a range of lobbying activity. Other roles include specialising in agri-trade issues at the US Department of Agriculture and advising a range of agribusiness clients with Bidwells.  Phil grew up on the family livestock farm has a degree in agricultural economics. 

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Tom Bradshaw

President, NFU

Tom Bradshaw, the newly elected President of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, farms in partnership with his wife, Emily, and his parents in North Essex.  Alongside a small owned farm they run a contract farming business growing a range of combinable crops in North East Essex.  

Tom was Chair of the National Crops Board before becoming part of the Presidential team in 2020, serving 2 years as Vice and 2 years as Deputy. 

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Paul Cherry

Groundswell

Paul Cherry farms 1,000 hectares with his brother in North Hertfordshire.

He is passionate about soil health and in 2011 they moved the arable operation to a completely no-till system and have since gone away from using any insecticides. The farm grows a range of cereals and legumes using a strictly regenerative farming technique – minimal soil disturbance, use of cover crops whenever possible and integrating livestock into the arable rotation.

They also run a 130 head beef shorthorn suckler cow herd fattening all the young stock on a purely pasture and straw based diet and mob stocking the herd on pastures and herbal leys in the summer months. No fertiliser or wormers are used on the grassland or livestock.

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Alicia Chivers

CEO, RABI

Since joining RABI in October 2018, Alicia has been leading the charity through an exciting period of transition to ensure that RABI is best placed to provide enduring, relevant and accessible support. Having initially trained and worked in commercial legal services, Alicia subsequently retrained and worked in practice as a charity specialist Chartered Accountant before moving into her first direct charity management role. Bringing over 15 years of experience of senior leadership across the voluntary sector, Alicia has also served as a Trustee and Treasurer on the boards of several national charities.

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Henry Dimbleby

Henry Dimbleby is the author of Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape. Published in March 2023, this analysis of the food system – how it is malfunctioning it, and what to do about it – builds on the work he did in the independent National Food Strategy, described by Prue Leith “the best government document that’s ever come out”. 

Dimbleby is the managing Partner of Bramble Partners, co-founder and former CEO of Leon restaurants. He also co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the charity Chefs in Schools, which brings restaurant chefs into school kitchens. In 2013, he co-authored The School Food Plan, a blueprint for government setting out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. It resulted in the introduction of free school meals for all children up to the age of eight, and cooking lessons being made obligatory for all children up to 14. 

From 2018 to 2023, Dimbleby was the lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, serving under Michael Gove, Theresa Villiers, George Eustice, Ranil Jayawardene and Thérèse Coffey. He has also advised the Labour party on how to improve the sustainability and security of the food system. 

Henry previously worked as a Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked with businesses on strategy, performance improvement and organisational design. Before that he worked as a journalist at The Daily Telegraph and a chef at the Michelin-starred Four Seasons Inn on the Park. 

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Jim Fairlie MSP

Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity,

Jim Fairlie was born in Perth and has lived and worked in the area all his life. He began his career as a shepherd before becoming a hill farmer. He built a successful food and events-based catering business and has extensive experience in urban and rural affairs. He was elected to represent Perthshire South and Kinross-shire at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. 

He was appointed Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity in February 2024. 

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The Rt Hon Sir Robert Goodwill

Sir Robert Goodwill was the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee from 2022-2024. He was also Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 5 March 2019 to 25 July 2019. He served as Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby from 2005 and 2024.

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Tom Heap

Television and Radio Reporter,

Tom Heap is a broadcaster, journalist and author. He is a regular on BBC1's Countryfile presenting the current affairs films and co-host of the Radio 4's new environment series and podcast 'Rare Earth'.  

He devised and presented 'The Climate Show with Tom Heap' on Sky News and YouTube. His new book - 'Land Smart' -  has just been published in which he looks at how we can win the race for space on Earth.   

He was the creator of the climate change solutions radio series '39 Ways to Save the Planet' and wrote the accompanying book. Tom spent many years at BBC News becoming both 'Science and Environment Correspondent' and 'Rural Affairs Correspondent'. Outside work he likes to hike, bike, grow chillies, watch movies and bodge carpentry. 

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Will Jennings

General Manager, Rabo Bank UK

Will joined Rabobank in 2007 working in Risk Management Markets, looking at Rabobank’s structured credit portfolio. In 2011 Will moved to the Corporate bank establishing the European Risk Monitoring Unit before becoming the Chief Risk Officer for Region Europe in 2015. In this capacity, Will was responsible for ensuring a consistent 2nd line market, credit and operational risk framework was in place across the Region.

From January 2021, Will became General Manager of Rabobank UK one of the largest and most dynamic Branches of the Bank outside of the Netherlands; he is the first ‘local’ and permanent general manager in the branch's 40 year history. Will is a vocal advocate of promoting leadership throughout the organisation, supporting and enabling people to realise their full potential and have the greatest positive impact possible in their communities, in society and beyond.

Will earned a BSc. from the University of Brighton and has over 20 years of banking experience beginning his career at Lloyds TSB in 2001.

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Professor Per Ola Kristensson PhD

Professor of Interactive Systems Engineering, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Per Ola Kristensson is a Professor of Interactive Systems Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a co-founder and co-director of the Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. He is interested in designing intelligent interactive systems that enable people to be more creative, expressive and satisfied in their daily lives. 

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Emma Loder-Symonds

Director and owner, Nonington Farms Ltd

Emma Loder-Symonds co-owns and directs LEAF demonstration farm Nonington Farms with her husband, James.

She heads up both the educational and environmental elements of the farm, hosting thousands of people each year on their carbon negative farm wanting to gain a better understanding of regenerative agriculture and how to produce food sustainably, for which she won recognition as both NFU Farming hero in 2022, and LEAF-Bayer education award in 2019.

Nonington Farms recently won the title of Farmers Weekly Environmental Champion. She has started milling wheat grown on the farm and selling it to local restaurants and bakeries.

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Vicky Robinson

Head of Sustainability, AIC

Vicky Robinson is Head of Sustainability and is responsible for leading and co-ordinating AIC's work on sustainability. 

A 2019 Nuffield Scholar, Vicky was previously Technical Director at Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF), which followed 22 years working for Natural England and its predecessors on agri-environment delivery, policy development and implementation.

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Robert Sheasby

AIC Chief Executive, AIC

Robert Sheasby was appointed the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) Chief Executive in May 2018.  In this role Robert has overall responsibility for all aspects of the AIC, across its political lobbying, member representation and the six trade assurance schemes it runs on behalf of the agricultural supply sector.  Robert joined the AIC after 17 years at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) where he had held various roles, most recently as NFU Regional Director for East Anglia.  Prior to this Robert had been Regional Director in the North West and NFU Surveyor for England & Wales.

Robert studied at Seale Hayne Agricultural College and holds a degree in Rural Estate Management as well as being a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).  Prior to joining the NFU in 2001 Robert worked in the South West and the Thames Valley for firms of chartered surveyors as land agent and auctioneer.  Robert is also a member of the Agricultural Law Association (ALA).

Robert is experienced in agricultural political lobbying both at a national and European level.  He has been involved in the development of national policy with Government, shaped European policy, as well as worked with national infrastructure companies to develop framework agreements for national use.

In addition to his daytime role Robert is a Governor at Easton and Otley Agricultural College which covers Norfolk, Suffolk and beyond.  This role provides not only insight to the future of our industry but also enables him to contribute something in return to the industry.

In his personal life Robert is married to Anna and they have three daughters, Olivia, Matilda and Isabelle.  Away from work Robert enjoys rugby, cycling and mountain walking.

: https://www.agindustries.org.uk
: robertsheasby
: @Agindustriesuk

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The Rt Hon Daniel Zeichner MP

Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Daniel Zeichner was appointed Minister of State (Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs) at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 8 July 2024. His brief includes farming, food security, agri-science, and the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMs).

 

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