Please click on their name to find out more about each speaker
James studied as a microbiologist and immunologist then quickly swapped the hospital lab coat (no global pandemic back then) for a pair of white wellie boots and set of overalls. He has spent the last 25 years working from the shop floor through most of the different functions and positions in food manufacturing across the globe, spending many years as part of the General Mills Global Food Safety team. James now works at Calysta, the microbial single cell protein farmers who are pioneering methane gas loop fermentation.
In the process he has become a SME for Pest management, Sanitation, Chemical Contaminants, Plant Toxins, HACCP, Food Safety Training, and Inspection. James has worked in over one hundred countries worldwide and on most product platforms. He continues to passionately champion Food Safety and especially doing the basics right every day.
Barbara Bray MBE FIFST is a Registered Nutritionist and food safety consultant driving and delivering food safety and nutrition strategy for agri-food businesses. Her leadership roles have included being Co-Chairman of the Oxford Farming Conference and representing the Private Sector Mechanism in interventions at the UN Committee for Food Security in Rome. She is also a Fellow and committee member of IFST and a trustee of the Nutrition Society. In 2017, Barbara was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship and travelled to Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Israel, UK and USA to study international food and farming systems. In 2019, Barbara was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her 'Services to Food Nutrition’.
Barbara is currently researching diets to protect health of older adults in a doctoral training programme at the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast.
Sterling has 35 years of experience working in the field of food safety and global supply chain governance. He started his career in government before a successful track history in retail. Sterling’s experience as a regulator, retailer, brand owner and food manufacturer has given him a unique perspective of the challenges of the global food supply network.
He has previously served as Vice President of the Institute and, until recently, chaired its Food Safety Special Interest Group. He was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Institute in 2020 for his contribution to the food sector. He is also a member of the CIEH food expert panel and sits on the IFST, CIEH and FSA COVID advisory groups.
At the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Oliver works at the intersection of human health and environmental sustainability. Through GAIN’s programmes in 11 countries, he focuses on ensuring that all people – especially the most vulnerable – have access to nutritious, safe, sustainable diets. He is also actively involved in the global food systems advocacy agenda, including the multilateral processes like UNFCCC COPs and other food-system-focused summits. He has a background in the private sector and consultancy, where he worked towards food systems transformation – which he believes will help us to make exponential progress across the SDGs.
Kate Halliwell is the Food and Drink Federation’s Chief Scientific Officer, and is accountable for the food safety, food regulation and diet and health policy briefs.
Kate leads a team who work closely with food and drink manufacturing companies to develop cross-industry positions and provide the food industry perspective to government on a range of policy asks, as well as helping smaller companies navigate the legislative landscape. She also works with academics, particularly those researching how food systems need to change to move towards healthier more sustainable diets.
Previously Kate led the FDF’s diet and health policy work, and before that worked for the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency on a range of nutrition and legislation policies. Kate is a registered nutritionist, a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, and Chairs their Food Science and Nutrition Special Interest Group.
Dr John Ingram is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford. His interests are in the conceptual framing of food systems; the interactions among the many food system actors and their varied activities, and the outcomes of their activities for food security, livelihoods, enterprise and business, and environment; scenario analysis; and food system resilience. In addition to leading the Food Systems Transformation Research Group within Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, he leads the multi-university post-graduate ‘Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning’ (IFSTAL) and the TUKFS BeanMeals programmes; co-leads the Foresight4Food (F4F) and Food System Impact Valuation (FoodSIVI) programmes. He also coordinated the Global Food Security 2016-2021 £15m programme ‘Resilience of the UK Food System’.
Vicki is a Public Health Nutritionist with expertise in retail big data analytics and prior experience working in the food industry and charity sector. She holds Masters degrees in both Public Health and Data Analytics, and in spring 2022 she completed her PhD exploring the utility of supermarket loyalty card data as a tool for monitoring population dietary habits.
Currently, her postdoctoral research is partnered with the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) on their Healthy and Sustainable Diets programme, which works closely with UK grocery retailers to understand how small nudges can shift customer purchase behaviours.
James Lloyd-Jones is the founder and CEO of Europe’s largest vertical farm. The Jones Food Company (JFC) is on a mission to grow the huge volumes of food necessary to feed the world’s population sustainably, locally and affordably. JFC has overcome one of the key challenges in the sector: scalability and profitability. This is why the company has built the largest high-care vertical farm in Europe capable of growing hundreds of tonnes of herbs and leafy greens a year.
Wayne holds the post of Associate Professor for the Food Insights and Sustainability Group at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing where he directs a team of researchers delivering applied food system demonstrations with industry partners.
His doctorate in biochemistry awarded in the early 90's at the University of Sheffield, following post doctoral research at the Universities of Florida, Purdue and Rothamsted, Wayne then led technical information services at Levington Agriculture in Suffolk working with our fertiliser (‘all terrestrial life depends on soil and water’) industries.
Wayne has led teaching for food defence and sustainability at NCFM using innovative delivery that opens new ideas and connects skills and the behaviours we will need in our Industry 4.0 to 5.0 transition. Notable research outcomes from the Martindale portfolio of work have included co-leading the first carbon footprint certification of a meat free brand in 2012, co-leading the first sustainability assessments of frozen food brands in 2015 and leading the first publicly reported integration of carbon zero technologies in food manufacturing in 2021. These have only been made possible by the sound mentoring and learning from highly motivated early career research leaders (younger than me) who continue to bring new ideas and lead science and technology solutions.
Wayne is a trustee and Honorary Secretary for the Institute of Food Science and Technology.
Andrea is the Deputy Director responsible for food policy at the BRC. She has worked on most areas of food policy, from food safety to diet and health. She currently looks after labelling and consumer communication, public health, agriculture, both technically and strategically.
She has represented retailers in many national and internal fora. She now seats in Food Data Transparency Partnership. Prior to Brexit she chaired several committees in the retail European trade organization. Since Brexit, her work covers all 4 UK countries.
Julie joined FSS in 2020. Alongside her role as Deputy CEO she has oversight of its Public Health Nutrition and Field Delivery functions. As DCEO she works closely with the CEO and FSS Board to ensure FSS delivers on its objectives across its whole range of functions from ensuring food safety and business compliance to Local Authority delivery.
Her previous career was in business representation with a focus on high profile sectors such as Scotch Whisky and Scottish Salmon where her focus was to support industry excellence, grow and continually improve. She was CEO of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Association and previously spent 12 years in the Scotch Whisky Association, latterly as interim CEO.
Julie is passionate about driving excellence in Scotland’s food & drink and how it is farmed, caught, processed, packaged, marketed and sold and ensuring that good regulation can enhance further the reputation of Scotland and its food and drink sector.
Joanna is Head of Consumption at WWF-UK, where she identifies and tests policy solutions that aim to deliver a shift toward more sustainable consumption at scale. Her expertise lies in healthy, sustainable diets, food systems, and behaviour change. Joanna has a PhD in Sustainability where she explored how food retailers can enable the adoption of more sustainable consumer diets in the UK, using the lens of ‘less and better’ meat and dairy. As well as influencing national policy and engaging with a range of food businesses to guide their corporate sustainability strategies, Joanna has experience in shaping multilateral policymaking processes. In 2020-21 she was elected to the leadership team of the UN Food Systems Summit Sustainable Consumption Action Track, and she is currently part of the first FAO World Food Forum Young Scientists Group.
With experience working in the food and beverage industry both in kitchens and service Naomi witnessed every day the enormous amount of edible food that is being thrown away. This has led her to commit herself to reducing the avoidable food waste in this sector. The environmental impact that KITRO could have inspires her to push it to its full potential and leave a positive footprint.
Since starting KITRO, everyday has been an exciting learning experience, full of inspiring individuals and new discoveries. The opportunity to build something you can proudly stand behind and fully believe in has so far been an incomparable experience for her!
The idea behind KITRO originated during Naomi’s educational studies at the Ecole de hôtelière de Lausanne. Since then, she together with co-founder Anastasia Hofmann have been vigorously working to bring the hospitality industry a solution to tackle this growing issue of food waste. Their goal is to bring back the value of food, so that all food is appreciated and not wasted.
Parita is Deputy Director of the 'A Healthy Life' mission team at Nesta, the UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems, changing millions of lives for the better. With the 'A Healthy Life' mission's goal being to increase the average number of healthy years lived in the UK, with a focus on improving food environments.
Prior to Nesta, she spent many years working at and supporting a number of social enterprises within the health and social care sectors. She has led teams strategically and operationally to understand the problem, design solutions, implement products and services, work with partners and improve their impact. Her early career was spent working at a strategy consultancy within the financial services industry.
Nathan Barnhouse has been the Director for the Food Standards Agency in Wales since 2019. He joined the FSA to be a part of delivering the vision of “food we can trust”, working with partner departments, local authorities, food businesses and the public.
He is passionate about collaborative working and building and maintaining strong relationships. Prior to joining the Food Standards Agency, he worked for the Welsh Government since 2006, holding several pivotal, leadership roles improving transport infrastructure across Wales.
In his role in as Director of FSA in Wales, Nathan is keen to press ahead with an interesting and collaborative agenda, recognising that there will be unique challenges ahead whilst maintaining an ability to move quickly to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.
Nathan is proud to be a White Ribbon Ambassador, a champion of the FSA’s Accessibility Network and an advocate for greater equality and diversity.