About Us
Members
HC
Chair - Professor Tina Barsby, OBE
Professor Barsby, a plant geneticist well-known for her scientific achievements and significant experience in the agricultural crop sector, is a former CEO of NIAB.
Professor Barsby has led and managed multifaceted, product driven, research and development programmes in North America and UK/mainland Europe. She has a first degree in agricultural botany from the University of Wales at Bangor, and a PhD from the University of Nottingham.
Professor Barsby is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Society and was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology.
She was awarded an Honorary Professorship in Agricultural Botany by the University of Cambridge in 2021.
HC
Sarah Bell
Sarah Bell is a farmer and independent strategic adviser for the agricultural supply chain. With a passion for building sustainable businesses on the three Ps – people and planet as well as profit – Sarah is a dynamic communicator and analytical strategist who leads businesses through organisational as well as digital transformation.
An OFC Emerging Leader and alumni of the Cambridge University Institute for Sustainability Leadership and the Windsor Women in Leadership Programme, Sarah has spoken at the Financial Times Global Food Systems Summit and is an articulate voice on digital leadership in agriculture and bringing diversity to the board table.
Sarah is a non-executive director of the AHDB board, as well as sitting on NFU Council and the Agrimetrics Advisory boards.
HC
Dr Susannah Bolton
Dr Susannah Bolton is Vice Principal for Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange at SRUC. She has 30 years’ experience working in knowledge exchange and research translation for agriculture. Until December 2021, she was Research Director for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), responsible for a programme of applied research on behalf of farmers and processors across the arable, horticulture, ruminant and pork sectors of the UK. The work is designed to deliver technological improvements in performance in Crop health and IPM, Animal Health and Welfare, and Environment, underpinned by technical decision support services, genetics evaluations and data capture tools. Prior to that, Susannah was Knowledge Exchange Director and oversaw the development of the AHDB Farm Excellence Platform, a farmer network of over 70 farm businesses, delivering knowledge exchange, peer to peer learning and benchmarking. She has a PhD in Tropical Agroforestry and spent 3 years working with the research provider EMBRAPA in North East Brazil, following which she was responsible for international relations and external communications at Rothamsted Research.
HC
Sarah Cowlrick
After a career in farm business management and working for a fertiliser company developing on farm computer systems and early benchmarking, Sarah first became involved with AICC in 1985 and became CEO in 2003 and has been one of the main drivers in the expansion and national recognition and considerable market share of independent agronomy in the UK. With her strong organisational and communication skills she has supported AICC agronomists with their business and training needs as well as new income sources from outside contracts and developed the well known and highly respected national AICC conference over several years. Sarah sits on the LEAF Advisory Board, the BASIS Board and is involved in various other committees supporting the role of the independent adviser.
HC
Hugh Crabtree
Hugh is well known and respected in the UK pig industry and has more than 40 years of commercial experience in supplying technology to farmers. He joined the Pork Council in May 2022. Having gained a first-class honours degree at Reading University, Hugh continued with postgraduate research into thermal performance in pig buildings. He was a founder member of Farmex Ltd. in 1980, and the company has gone on to become the market leader in ventilation systems for pig production in the UK. Three-time winner of the New Equipment Award at the British Pig & Poultry Fair, Farmex is now at the forefront of real-time production monitoring in the UK and the USA. Hugh has led three UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded collaborative R&D projects and is active in the field of precision livestock farming and the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture. He is now the sole owner of Farmex Ltd. and a co-owner/director of Dicam Technology Ltd. Additionally, Hugh is a Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers and was recently awarded a Lifetime Fellowship of the National Pig Association (NPA).
HC
Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies is Managing Director and Co-Founder of YAGRO, the UK leader in farm data intelligence. He is Chair of iSDA Africa, a pan-African pioneer of digital soil agronomy services. Until 2021 he was Trustee and Member of the Board for the Royal Agricultural Society of England, a charity awarded the Queen's Charter in 1840 to be the independent voice for science and best practice in agriculture. Previously at Syngenta in Switzerland, Gareth led the Global Food Security unit exploring novel business and investment models to serve smallholder farmers across the world. He has also worked in top-tier strategy consulting across a wide range of industries, particularly global agribusiness. His NGO experience includes working in West Africa with the microfinance platforms Kiva and Global Brigades.
Gareth holds a First Class MSc in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a scholarship MBA from the London Business School.
HC
Dr Helen Ferrier
Dr Helen Ferrier is Chief Science and Regulatory Affairs Adviser at the National Farmers’ Union, leading the NFU’s policy and advocacy work on agricultural and horticultural science and research, biotechnology, data, and food safety. Helen is a non-executive Director of the NIAB Board and is a member of many other boards, groups and panels in the agrifood and research community. Before joining the NFU in 2004, Helen was a research scientist at Imperial College London, working on probabilistic modelling of dietary exposure to pesticides. She has an academic background in environment and human health, epidemiology and environmental science.
HC
Poul Hovesen
Poul Hovesen is Chairman of Catalyst Farming. A group of five farming companies who work in collaboration to use their data to enhance production, financial and ecological measures. The group also works with research and commercial partners to test, discuss and use best practice.
Poul is a Director of Holkham Estate and the Raynham Farming Company and is on the Management Board of the Salle Estate. He recently joined the Board of Vaderstad in Sweden, an international machinery manufacturer represented in over thirty countries throughout the world, where he advises on agricultural systems and concepts.
Poul is a member of the Agri-TechE Stakeholder Board and a past Director of Morley Research Centre. In 2014 he won the Farmers Weekly Arable Farmer of the Year award together with the Farmer of the Year award.
HC
David Hutchinson
David Hutchinson is chairman and co-owner of Hutchinsons, a market leader in agronomy services, supplies, and farm digital systems. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford (Agricultural and Forest Sciences), a Chartered Accountant, former Chairman of the Agricultural Industries Confederation and a Director of Oxbury Bank plc
HC
Council Co-Ordinator Dr Julian Little
Dr Julian Little is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Julian has worked in plant science and food production for over thirty years. After a successful career in a number of crop protection and seed companies, he now helps a range of individuals and organisations improve their communications and public affairs activities in relation to scientific research and innovation in agriculture.
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