The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, set up and now runs Sancroft, a Corporate Responsibility consultancy working with blue-chip companies around the world on environmental, social and ethical issues. Lord Deben is Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change and Valpak Limited.

He was the longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment the UK has ever had (1993-97). His sixteen years of top-level ministerial experience also include Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Minister for London, Employment Minister and Paymaster General in HM Treasury. He has consistently championed an identity between environmental concerns and business sense.

Ash Amirahmadi is one of the most high-profile leaders in the UK food and farming sector. Since 2018 he has been the Managing Director of Arla Foods UK, a cooperative owned by farmers which is the biggest dairy firm in the country and one of Britain’s largest food and beverage companies. He is also the current Chair of the boards of both Dairy UK and IGD.

Chris is the Senior Director Sustainable Supply Chains for ASDA. Previous to this appointment he held positions in Government and at the Meat and Livestock Commission where he was Beef Strategy Manager.

He moved into retail as Agricultural Technologist with Marks and Spencer before joining ASDA. His remit covers supply chain standards development, Greenhouse Gas management and new product development. He was a member of the Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Strategy Advisory Panel of the BBRSC (2016 -2022).

David runs Kingston Hill Farm Ltd, his family-owned farming company operating dairy and beef farming enterprises in the Thames Valley some 10 miles to the west of Oxford. After graduating from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1990 he spent 9 months milking cows in New Zealand before joining the family business which farms 1600 acres of rented land on which 950 cows are milked and up to a further 1300 cattle are reared.

He is a former chairman of the Maize Growers Association, has been a director of the Orion Farming Group (a farm input buying group), was a farmer director of Milk Link and is now a member of the Board of Representatives for Arla. He sits on the Midlands and East Regional Advisory Board for the NFU Mutual and chaired it from 2017 to 2022. He is an advisor to Reading University for the National Institute for Research into Dairying Trust.

David is a Trustee of the Oxfordshire Agricultural Society Trust, a charity which gives financial assistance for training and development to young people living in Oxfordshire and engaged in the agricultural sector. He is married to Catherine and they have three children, Thomas age 25, Matthew age 21 and Nancy age 16. In any spare time left after the above he acts as an unpaid taxi driver for his daughter and suffers the emotional rollercoaster of being a Gloucester Rugby fan.

An active speaker, trainer, facilitator and a trusted advisor to food system thought leaders, Roxi Beck helps audiences think differently about earning trust. As consumer engagement director for The Center for Food Integrity and president of Look East, Roxi brings nearly 20 years’ experience working with clients across the food system, directing strategy and activities for consumer-facing food and agriculture initiatives.

Whether working with registered dietitians, toxicologists, corporate executives, communication directors, restaurateurs, farmers, non-profit leaders, even consumers, Roxi connects the dots on the varied pressure points that shape today’s food system and helps organizations incorporate transparency principles and trust-growing approaches into their culture.

Roxi received bachelor’s degrees in psychology and public relations from Coe College. She serves on the board for Iowa State University’s Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative, is a graduate of the Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute, is past-president of the National Agri-Marketing Association’s Iowa Chapter, and most importantly, is wife to Chris and mom to two active kids.

Jukka has around 15 years of experience in the dairy sector, food industry and EU affairs. He has been heading Eucolait, the voice of the European dairy trading community with more than 400 members, since 2014.

His responsibilities include the day-to-day management and representation of the organisation, dairy policy and market analysis, as well as advising member companies. In addition to his role in Eucolait, Jukka is the treasurer and a member of the presidium of CELCAA, the European Liaison Committee for Agri-Food Trade. Jukka has previously worked as a Legal & Policy adviser at Eucolait and on fisheries policy at the European Commission. He holds a Master Degree in European and international law from the University of Nice and a Management Diploma from the Solvay Business School in Brussels.

Łukasz has worked in the dairy industry topics for last 10 years now. He is the General Manager of “IFCN AG – The Dairy Research Network” and not only a member of the IFCN AG management for strategic decision & company development but also a specialist in the dairy market analysis.

His focus is on the dairy value chain analysis, dairy market forecasts and structural dairy market development.

David leads the dairy operations at Grosvenor Farms, producing safe, healthy nutritious food while ensuring the highest standards of health and welfare of its animals. Employed by Grosvenor Farms for over 30 years, David has gained a wealth of experience, particularly in cattle housing and infrastructure.  

In 2010 a review of the dairy enterprise was undertaken with a decision to create Grosvernor’s state-of-the-art dairy unit, Lea Manor Farm, committing to the future of dairying on the estate and to the wider industry for future generations. David was tasked with leading a team to research, design and ultimately create the new facility.  

David is currently a non-executive board member on the AHDB dairy board. 

He studied at Reaseheath College, one of the leading specialist land-based colleges in the UK. 

Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, Head of Sustainability at Kite has worked for over fifteen years in the food and farming sector. Most recently, Hayley became the youngest appointed non-executive board member of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, where she stayed for three years.

On leaving AHDB Hayley started her own agri-policy consultancy business, focusing largely on providing sustainability advice to farmers and food businesses. In August 2022 Hayley was ministerially appointed to the board of the Food Standards Agency.

Ms Dorothee Boelling, PhD, is an internationally experienced agronomist with diversified working experience in scientific research and livestock development in various countries around the world, especially in Nepal, Cambodia, and Latin America. Her practical work experience in dairying includes long-term farm stays in several European countries, New Zealand, and Peru.

She has proven research skills in animal breeding and economics, particularly in the dairy sector, data collection and analysis of large data sets. Since 2011, she has worked as a consultant with the International Farm Comparison Network Dairy Research Center, regularly collecting and analysing dairy data at sector and farm level in over 100 countries. Her work focusses on the development of the dairy sector in different countries, based on the evaluation of the economic, environmental, and social performance of dairy farms.  

Philipp is working since 2017 at IFCN and is focusing on modelling the milk production and price developments.

He started as a dairy economist analysing, presenting and collecting dairy sector data in over 100 countries, he is now the Lead of Product Development, managing, planning, analysing and developing the IFCN data services and insights.

Visiting Lecturer at VU School of Business, Amsterdam, independent dairy consultant)

Erik has been Director of Strategic Analysis in Friesland Campina up to Dec. 2018, where he worked for 20 years. He is now independent consultant to the global food industry, having among others consulted to five of the world’s top-20 dairy companies in the last 2 years. He is also a visiting lecturer at the Free University Amsterdam, School of Business & Economics, Faculty Management & Organization.

Dr. Torsten Hemme is the founder and CEO of the IFCN Dairy Research Network.
He studied agricultural economics at the University of Göttingen in Germany and at Texas A&M University in USA.

His doctoral thesis set the basis for the IFCN, whose mission is to create a better understanding of the dairy world by providing comparable data, knowledge and inspiration.

In 2022, researchers from more than 100 countries participated. Moreover, more than 140 agribusiness companies are members of the network and use its data and knowledge base for their strategic planning.

Mike Jerred is a Global Technology Manager – Dairy for Cargill Animal Nutrition where he is involved global dairy technology development, application, and deployment. He has been in this role for 12 years and has been with Cargill for 28 years.

His current position allows him to connect his passion for the dairy industry with his interest in global dairy markets along with diet formulation and dairy management software development. Current projects include dairy MAXTM and Dairy EnteligenTM. His various roles in Cargill have given him the opportunity to visit dairy operations in over 25 countries.

Mike was raised on a dairy farm in central Wisconsin and earned a B.S. and M.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Dairy Science where he worked primarily in high-quality forage utilization. In his spare time, he enjoys supporting his wife with her business called Forage to Fromage which promotes the dairy industry to consumers through artisan cheese education and consulting.

Guilherme is dsm-firmenich’s Global Business Development for its Delvotest brand. Responsible for helping drive its business strategy, he acts as a Key Account Manager and Digital Innovation Product Owner for exciting new products soon coming to market.

Guilherme takes pride in spearheading Delvotest’s end-to-end digitalisation, and is committed to helping make the dairy industry become even more sustainable. A true purpose and performance driven young leader working to transform industry for more equitable futures, he’s keen to talk about the role animal-level testing can play to enhance safety whilst significantly reducing structural costs in our times of high inflationary pressure and shifting consumer demand.

Having joined the business in 2010 Rob has held senior roles in operations, logistics, milk supply and commercial giving him knowledge of the whole supply chain from farm gate to customer.

In 2019 Rob became Chief Operating Officer covering the entire end to end supply chain and led the successful restructuring and transformation of the MMI business.

Rob is now Chief Executive Officer with overall responsibility for MMI.

He is married with two sons and enjoys watching and coaching rugby along with spending time with family and friends.

Tara McCarthy is Global VP of ESG at Alltech having joined the organisation in 2022.

She had previously operated as the Chief Executive of Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board since 2017 and brings with her over 25 years’ experience in the wider food industry. She was formerly Chief Executive for Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Ireland’s seafood development agency and has lived and operated in overseas markets such as Germany, France and Belgium for over 10 years.

• Tara’s hallmarks are her unwavering belief in people and her passion for the opportunities to be found within sustainably produced food. She has led capability initiatives for students, early career executives and entrepreneurs within the food industry for over a decade with successful partnerships formed both nationally and internationally. In 2019 she co-founded Agdif an industry initiative championing diversity in the Irish food industry. She has represented Ireland’s food industry globally speaking of Origin Green, Irelands unique national sustainability programme and in 2021 led the establishment of the Origin Green Global Council.
• Tara holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from UCG with an MBS in Marketing from Smurfit Business School, and is an affiliate of IMD Business School, Switzerland. Tara has been recognised with a number of awards including UCG Alumna of the Year for Business and Commerce in 2017, Fellowship of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and Top 25 Irelands Most Powerful Women – Public Sector Leaders Award in 2018 and the 2019 UCD Smurfit School ‘Alumna of the Year’

Tara lives in Dublin with her husband Didier and three children.