This is Rowan. He joined us in 2001 and has since held a number of senior roles at Tate & Lyle from strategy, corporate affairs and communications to HR and company secretariat. He became our EVP, Corporate Affairs, in November 2014.

With over 20 years of Tate & Lyle experience, Rowan has a deep knowledge and understanding of our company and industry. Rowan and his team are responsible for our global external and digital corporate communications, our global government and community relations and bringing our purpose of Transforming Lives Through the Science of Food to life. Rowan also leads the company’s sustainability programme. Prior to joining Tate & Lyle, he worked for The Royal Bank of Scotland, National Westminster Bank, Linklaters and Deloitte.

A History graduate from York University, Rowan is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Rowan is partial to a prawn cocktail, should it feature on the menu!

Lisa Spicka de Bevacqua is a sustainability leader in the natural products industry and the Global Director of NSF’s Sustainability Consulting group. She helps clients design and integrate sustainability strategies that address ESG reporting, climate action, and supply chain integrity. These solutions enable the scaling of services and products that measurably improve environmental and social impacts, reduce risk, increase brand equity, and contribute to a circular and regenerative community.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Nebraska and a Master of Business Administration in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management with a sustainable supply chain development specialization. Her expertise revolves around supply chain sustainability integrity and corporate strategy and reporting, with a deep understanding of food manufacturing operations, organic and food safety regulations, and corporate sustainability. Her prior experience includes global leadership in operations and project management, non-profits, supplier management, and sustainable supply chain development.

Helen farms in a family partnership on a mostly tenanted organic farm in Wiltshire with dairy, beef, pigs, cereals, agroforestry and small scale horticulture. Her products are sold through the Helen Browning’s Organic brand in retailers as well as through her hotel and restaurant/pub on the farm.

Her book ‘PIG; tales from an organic farm’, written with her partner Tim Finney, tells more about the trials and tribulations of their farming and food life.

She has been Chief Executive of the Soil Association since 2011, after a long involvement with the charity in a variety of exec and non-exec roles. Prior to rejoining the Soil Association, Helen was Director of External Affairs for the National Trust.

She is currently a Commissioner and trustee of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission and has had a number of roles in agri-politics over the years, including the Government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (‘the Curry Commission’), chaired the England Animal Health and Welfare Implementation Group and the Food Ethics Council. Helen was awarded an OBE in 1998 for her services to organic farming.

Robin grew up as a retailer, running commercial categories for both M&S and Tesco between 1998 and 2015. He joined Just Eat UK in 2015 to set up their restaurant partner perks programme building value through partnerships beginning with food wholesale, finance, card payments & utilities. Other areas of responsibility followed from sustainability and FMCG to grocery and partner e-commerce

David created 600 strategy to help purposeful businesses find their missions beyond profit, and organise themselves to deliver. Having worked with a range of landowners across the UK, he sees the potential for well-managed land to meet society’s needs for food, fibre, timber, biodiversity, climate and more. But it takes effort from land managers, who also need a fair reward for their work.

David has a PhD in ecology, an MSc in environmental management systems and is a Chartered Environmentalist. He’s a Trustee for the John Lewis Partnership Foundation and chairs their Nature Fund Committee, and is a Trustee for the National Park City Foundation.

Samantha Deacon leads Ramboll’s ecological risk assessment practice in the UK and is a core member of Ramboll’s ecosystem services task force. She has over 15 years’ experience in environmental regulation, consultancy and research in the assessment of chemicals in the environment. Her recent work at Rambollincludes advising clients on ecosystem services analysis, environmental damage under the Environmental Liabilities Directive, chemical risk assessments for REACH, ecological risk assessment of contaminated soils, river and harbour sediments, and the risk assessment of composting bioaerosols (as expert witness in a national planning inquiry). Samantha has previously managed a regulatory programme of research to develop a decision-making framework for assessing risks to ecosystems from land contamination. In her eleven years in regulation, she contributed to over 65 publications, scientific papers and conference presentations including more than 50 Environment Agency technical reports. She holds an MSc in Ecotoxicology of Natural Populations from the University of Reading and a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Royal Holloway, University of London

Ivan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 25 years and he is the co-founder of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on consumer Foodtech.

He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution, to the reduction of food waste.  At Five Seasons he invested, among others, in Butternut Box (DNVB pet nutrition), THIS.co (plant-based meat alternatives), Cortilia (D2C fresh food retailer), La Fourche (D2C organic groceries), Air-Up (reusable water bottle + flavour pods), KoRo (D2C natural healthy snaking), YFood Labs (meal replacements) and Just Spices (D2C spices; acq. by Kraft Heinz)

His experience includes structuring investments, organizational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. 

In his spare time, he enjoys family life, fly fishing, and practicing jiu-jitsu with his son Adam.

Dr Emma Keller is Head of Sustainability for Nestlé UK&I, focusing on delivering the ambitious net zero climate commitment and driving the business to be a force for good. Prior to joining Nestlé, Emma led a team at WWF on food system transformation and before that was in Unilever’s sustainability team working on bringing the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to life. She also holds a doctorate in supply chain sustainability.

Mark specialises in the rural business, agriculture, horticulture, food manufacture, education and healthcare industries as well as supporting organisations from a wide range of sectors to develop and deliver impactful sustainability and ESG strategies. 

As one of the authors of the firm’s Dynamic ESG service suite, Mark is well placed to guide business leaders through the process of integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into their operations with an emphasis on measurable outcomes and RoI.  

Mark has worked in both the public sector and private enterprise, bringing a dedication and enthusiasm to the unique challenges each provides. With an auditor’s eye for detail, he has become known for his sharp insights and capacity for business transformation. 

Mark has won numerous awards for his work including National Finance Director of the Year 2007, the ICAEW’s National Accounting for Sustainability award in 2012, Finance Director magazine’s National Business Finance Director 2014, the Institute for Fiscal Turnaround’s Public Sector Award 2016 and the Institute of Directors’ Blue Ribbon for Governance and Finance Excellence in 2018. 

He is also a trustee of a charity delivering education in Ethiopia, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, a Member of the Guild of Freemen and a Member of the CBI’s South East Council. 

Mark re-joined MHA again in 2019 having originally trained here in 1997.

David, who was Senior Technical Manager at Winterbotham Darby (now part of the newly formed Compleat Food Group) brings with him over 20 years of experience working in the food production industry. Previous roles include Senior Business Development Manager at Oritain; Head of Technical Supply Base at New England Seafood, and he also spent over eight years at Sainsbury’s in various technical roles.

David will be leading on the development and delivery of The Compleat Food Group’s new ESG strategy, as the newly formed group seeks to create great quality, tasty food in a sustainable way that delivers a positive impact on the world..

Ivo Mulder leads UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit (CFU) which focuses specifically on the need to transition to sustainable land use from a climate, nature and livelihood perspective. The unit covers a growing portfolio of (blended) finance instruments, business incubators and other initiatives that have actively unlocked >USD 1 billion in public and especially private capital over the past 5 years towards sustainable agriculture, forestry, restoration and other sectors in developing countries with demonstrable positive impact on climate, nature and people. The team consists of 15 staff and consultants based in Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta, Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

Ivo also co-founded the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA), which was launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012 and signed by CEOs of more than 40 finance institutions. It paved the way for the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the nature equivalent to the TCFD. Ivo has published extensively in the field of nature, climate and sustainable finance, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and summits with over 20 years of professional experience working for UNEP, private consulting firms and with non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Sue is the Chief Executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Sue leads the organisation in its mission to bring people together to act on the climate, nature and health crises, through fairer and more sustainable food systems, and a just transition for rural communities and the countryside.

Sue’s background is in combined research and practice in leadership and organisation development for systems change, working with leaders across public, private and not for profit organisations, especially on complex partnership projects.

She is a Trustee of CoFarm Foundation and is an independent Governor at Royal Agricultural University. Living on an organic farm in Wales, Sue and her family raise livestock and farm for conservation.

Camilla is an experienced sustainability professional with international experience working in sustainable agriculture in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Having grown up on a sheep and beef farm in rural New Zealand she is particularly passionate about ensuring a just transition for farmers. She has a strong record of driving organisational change and collaborating across the value chain to deliver progress on sustainability. She currently leads the sustainability agenda for Arla Foods in the United Kingdom as Senior Sustainability Manager.

In her spare time, Camilla loves hiking, wild swimming and searching for the world’s finest baked goods.

Marija Rompani is a Director of Ethics and Sustainability at John Lewis Partnership where she is driving and delivering change critical to achieving its purpose ‘For a happier world’ for two much loved Waitrose and John Lewis brands. 

Marija joined the Partnership in 2021 with over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies across retail, FMCG and finance sectors. 

Marija is passionate about nature, transforming the food system and driving responsible consumerism.  In 2022 Partnership renewed its focus on protecting and restoring nature and published a Plan for Nature outlining new commitments and recognising the urgency to stop biodiversity loss. 

Prior to joining John Lewis Partnership, Marija worked at Federated Hermes, Sainsbury’s, Reckitt, UBS and BSI. She is also a trustee of John Lewis Foundation and Waitrose Foundation. Marija holds M.Eng in Environmental engineering and B.Eng in Chemical engineering from Belgrade University, Serbia.

Oonagh has 30+ years of experience working in international and UK retail and customer focused brands. Following her MSc at Manchester University, she started her career in Boots, progressing in to senior PR, communications, CSR and marketing roles. She currently leads the health and sustainable diets campaign agenda for Tesco, working across the business and with leading external partners to deliver impact led strategies.

Oonagh has also gained considerable charitable trustee and charitable giving experience, working with leading UK and North American NGOs.

Allan is a dairy farmer’s son from North Yorkshire. A graduate in Agriculture from Aberystwyth University, he started his career working for the Milk Marketing Board’s Farm Management Services in Leicestershire, before joining the Agriculture team at Midland Bank in 1988. Allan was appointed Head of Agriculture for HSBC in 2010. As Head of Agrifoods, he has led our UK sector specialism for the whole food chain since 2015.

Allan has sat on a number of industry bodies and is currently Trustee of The Prince’s Countryside Fund and Chair of the Farm Advisory Group, a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Farmers and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies.

This is Rowan. He joined us in 2001 and has since held a number of senior roles at Tate & Lyle from strategy, corporate affairs and communications to HR and company secretariat. He became our EVP, Corporate Affairs, in November 2014.

With over 20 years of Tate & Lyle experience, Rowan has a deep knowledge and understanding of our company and industry. Rowan and his team are responsible for our global external and digital corporate communications, our global government and community relations and bringing our purpose of Transforming Lives Through the Science of Food to life. Rowan also leads the company’s sustainability programme. Prior to joining Tate & Lyle, he worked for The Royal Bank of Scotland, National Westminster Bank, Linklaters and Deloitte.

A History graduate from York University, Rowan is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Rowan is partial to a prawn cocktail, should it feature on the menu!

Lisa Spicka de Bevacqua is a sustainability leader in the natural products industry and the Global Director of NSF’s Sustainability Consulting group. She helps clients design and integrate sustainability strategies that address ESG reporting, climate action, and supply chain integrity. These solutions enable the scaling of services and products that measurably improve environmental and social impacts, reduce risk, increase brand equity, and contribute to a circular and regenerative community.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Nebraska and a Master of Business Administration in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management with a sustainable supply chain development specialization. Her expertise revolves around supply chain sustainability integrity and corporate strategy and reporting, with a deep understanding of food manufacturing operations, organic and food safety regulations, and corporate sustainability. Her prior experience includes global leadership in operations and project management, non-profits, supplier management, and sustainable supply chain development.

Helen farms in a family partnership on a mostly tenanted organic farm in Wiltshire with dairy, beef, pigs, cereals, agroforestry and small scale horticulture. Her products are sold through the Helen Browning’s Organic brand in retailers as well as through her hotel and restaurant/pub on the farm.

Her book ‘PIG; tales from an organic farm’, written with her partner Tim Finney, tells more about the trials and tribulations of their farming and food life.

She has been Chief Executive of the Soil Association since 2011, after a long involvement with the charity in a variety of exec and non-exec roles. Prior to rejoining the Soil Association, Helen was Director of External Affairs for the National Trust.

She is currently a Commissioner and trustee of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission and has had a number of roles in agri-politics over the years, including the Government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (‘the Curry Commission’), chaired the England Animal Health and Welfare Implementation Group and the Food Ethics Council. Helen was awarded an OBE in 1998 for her services to organic farming.

Robin grew up as a retailer, running commercial categories for both M&S and Tesco between 1998 and 2015. He joined Just Eat UK in 2015 to set up their restaurant partner perks programme building value through partnerships beginning with food wholesale, finance, card payments & utilities. Other areas of responsibility followed from sustainability and FMCG to grocery and partner e-commerce

David created 600 strategy to help purposeful businesses find their missions beyond profit, and organise themselves to deliver. Having worked with a range of landowners across the UK, he sees the potential for well-managed land to meet society’s needs for food, fibre, timber, biodiversity, climate and more. But it takes effort from land managers, who also need a fair reward for their work.

David has a PhD in ecology, an MSc in environmental management systems and is a Chartered Environmentalist. He’s a Trustee for the John Lewis Partnership Foundation and chairs their Nature Fund Committee, and is a Trustee for the National Park City Foundation.

Samantha Deacon leads Ramboll’s ecological risk assessment practice in the UK and is a core member of Ramboll’s ecosystem services task force. She has over 15 years’ experience in environmental regulation, consultancy and research in the assessment of chemicals in the environment. Her recent work at Rambollincludes advising clients on ecosystem services analysis, environmental damage under the Environmental Liabilities Directive, chemical risk assessments for REACH, ecological risk assessment of contaminated soils, river and harbour sediments, and the risk assessment of composting bioaerosols (as expert witness in a national planning inquiry). Samantha has previously managed a regulatory programme of research to develop a decision-making framework for assessing risks to ecosystems from land contamination. In her eleven years in regulation, she contributed to over 65 publications, scientific papers and conference presentations including more than 50 Environment Agency technical reports. She holds an MSc in Ecotoxicology of Natural Populations from the University of Reading and a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Royal Holloway, University of London

Ivan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 25 years and he is the co-founder of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on consumer Foodtech.

He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution, to the reduction of food waste.  At Five Seasons he invested, among others, in Butternut Box (DNVB pet nutrition), THIS.co (plant-based meat alternatives), Cortilia (D2C fresh food retailer), La Fourche (D2C organic groceries), Air-Up (reusable water bottle + flavour pods), KoRo (D2C natural healthy snaking), YFood Labs (meal replacements) and Just Spices (D2C spices; acq. by Kraft Heinz)

His experience includes structuring investments, organizational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. 

In his spare time, he enjoys family life, fly fishing, and practicing jiu-jitsu with his son Adam.

Dr Emma Keller is Head of Sustainability for Nestlé UK&I, focusing on delivering the ambitious net zero climate commitment and driving the business to be a force for good. Prior to joining Nestlé, Emma led a team at WWF on food system transformation and before that was in Unilever’s sustainability team working on bringing the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to life. She also holds a doctorate in supply chain sustainability.

Mark specialises in the rural business, agriculture, horticulture, food manufacture, education and healthcare industries as well as supporting organisations from a wide range of sectors to develop and deliver impactful sustainability and ESG strategies. 

As one of the authors of the firm’s Dynamic ESG service suite, Mark is well placed to guide business leaders through the process of integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into their operations with an emphasis on measurable outcomes and RoI.  

Mark has worked in both the public sector and private enterprise, bringing a dedication and enthusiasm to the unique challenges each provides. With an auditor’s eye for detail, he has become known for his sharp insights and capacity for business transformation. 

Mark has won numerous awards for his work including National Finance Director of the Year 2007, the ICAEW’s National Accounting for Sustainability award in 2012, Finance Director magazine’s National Business Finance Director 2014, the Institute for Fiscal Turnaround’s Public Sector Award 2016 and the Institute of Directors’ Blue Ribbon for Governance and Finance Excellence in 2018. 

He is also a trustee of a charity delivering education in Ethiopia, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, a Member of the Guild of Freemen and a Member of the CBI’s South East Council. 

Mark re-joined MHA again in 2019 having originally trained here in 1997.

David, who was Senior Technical Manager at Winterbotham Darby (now part of the newly formed Compleat Food Group) brings with him over 20 years of experience working in the food production industry. Previous roles include Senior Business Development Manager at Oritain; Head of Technical Supply Base at New England Seafood, and he also spent over eight years at Sainsbury’s in various technical roles.

David will be leading on the development and delivery of The Compleat Food Group’s new ESG strategy, as the newly formed group seeks to create great quality, tasty food in a sustainable way that delivers a positive impact on the world..

Ivo Mulder leads UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit (CFU) which focuses specifically on the need to transition to sustainable land use from a climate, nature and livelihood perspective. The unit covers a growing portfolio of (blended) finance instruments, business incubators and other initiatives that have actively unlocked >USD 1 billion in public and especially private capital over the past 5 years towards sustainable agriculture, forestry, restoration and other sectors in developing countries with demonstrable positive impact on climate, nature and people. The team consists of 15 staff and consultants based in Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta, Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

Ivo also co-founded the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA), which was launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012 and signed by CEOs of more than 40 finance institutions. It paved the way for the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the nature equivalent to the TCFD. Ivo has published extensively in the field of nature, climate and sustainable finance, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and summits with over 20 years of professional experience working for UNEP, private consulting firms and with non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Sue is the Chief Executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Sue leads the organisation in its mission to bring people together to act on the climate, nature and health crises, through fairer and more sustainable food systems, and a just transition for rural communities and the countryside.

Sue’s background is in combined research and practice in leadership and organisation development for systems change, working with leaders across public, private and not for profit organisations, especially on complex partnership projects.

She is a Trustee of CoFarm Foundation and is an independent Governor at Royal Agricultural University. Living on an organic farm in Wales, Sue and her family raise livestock and farm for conservation.

Camilla is an experienced sustainability professional with international experience working in sustainable agriculture in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Having grown up on a sheep and beef farm in rural New Zealand she is particularly passionate about ensuring a just transition for farmers. She has a strong record of driving organisational change and collaborating across the value chain to deliver progress on sustainability. She currently leads the sustainability agenda for Arla Foods in the United Kingdom as Senior Sustainability Manager.

In her spare time, Camilla loves hiking, wild swimming and searching for the world’s finest baked goods.

Marija Rompani is a Director of Ethics and Sustainability at John Lewis Partnership where she is driving and delivering change critical to achieving its purpose ‘For a happier world’ for two much loved Waitrose and John Lewis brands. 

Marija joined the Partnership in 2021 with over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies across retail, FMCG and finance sectors. 

Marija is passionate about nature, transforming the food system and driving responsible consumerism.  In 2022 Partnership renewed its focus on protecting and restoring nature and published a Plan for Nature outlining new commitments and recognising the urgency to stop biodiversity loss. 

Prior to joining John Lewis Partnership, Marija worked at Federated Hermes, Sainsbury’s, Reckitt, UBS and BSI. She is also a trustee of John Lewis Foundation and Waitrose Foundation. Marija holds M.Eng in Environmental engineering and B.Eng in Chemical engineering from Belgrade University, Serbia.

Oonagh has 30+ years of experience working in international and UK retail and customer focused brands. Following her MSc at Manchester University, she started her career in Boots, progressing in to senior PR, communications, CSR and marketing roles. She currently leads the health and sustainable diets campaign agenda for Tesco, working across the business and with leading external partners to deliver impact led strategies.

Oonagh has also gained considerable charitable trustee and charitable giving experience, working with leading UK and North American NGOs.

Allan is a dairy farmer’s son from North Yorkshire. A graduate in Agriculture from Aberystwyth University, he started his career working for the Milk Marketing Board’s Farm Management Services in Leicestershire, before joining the Agriculture team at Midland Bank in 1988. Allan was appointed Head of Agriculture for HSBC in 2010. As Head of Agrifoods, he has led our UK sector specialism for the whole food chain since 2015.

Allan has sat on a number of industry bodies and is currently Trustee of The Prince’s Countryside Fund and Chair of the Farm Advisory Group, a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Farmers and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies.

This is Rowan. He joined us in 2001 and has since held a number of senior roles at Tate & Lyle from strategy, corporate affairs and communications to HR and company secretariat. He became our EVP, Corporate Affairs, in November 2014.

With over 20 years of Tate & Lyle experience, Rowan has a deep knowledge and understanding of our company and industry. Rowan and his team are responsible for our global external and digital corporate communications, our global government and community relations and bringing our purpose of Transforming Lives Through the Science of Food to life. Rowan also leads the company’s sustainability programme. Prior to joining Tate & Lyle, he worked for The Royal Bank of Scotland, National Westminster Bank, Linklaters and Deloitte.

A History graduate from York University, Rowan is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Rowan is partial to a prawn cocktail, should it feature on the menu!

Lisa Spicka de Bevacqua is a sustainability leader in the natural products industry and the Global Director of NSF’s Sustainability Consulting group. She helps clients design and integrate sustainability strategies that address ESG reporting, climate action, and supply chain integrity. These solutions enable the scaling of services and products that measurably improve environmental and social impacts, reduce risk, increase brand equity, and contribute to a circular and regenerative community.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Nebraska and a Master of Business Administration in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management with a sustainable supply chain development specialization. Her expertise revolves around supply chain sustainability integrity and corporate strategy and reporting, with a deep understanding of food manufacturing operations, organic and food safety regulations, and corporate sustainability. Her prior experience includes global leadership in operations and project management, non-profits, supplier management, and sustainable supply chain development.

Helen farms in a family partnership on a mostly tenanted organic farm in Wiltshire with dairy, beef, pigs, cereals, agroforestry and small scale horticulture. Her products are sold through the Helen Browning’s Organic brand in retailers as well as through her hotel and restaurant/pub on the farm.

Her book ‘PIG; tales from an organic farm’, written with her partner Tim Finney, tells more about the trials and tribulations of their farming and food life.

She has been Chief Executive of the Soil Association since 2011, after a long involvement with the charity in a variety of exec and non-exec roles. Prior to rejoining the Soil Association, Helen was Director of External Affairs for the National Trust.

She is currently a Commissioner and trustee of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission and has had a number of roles in agri-politics over the years, including the Government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (‘the Curry Commission’), chaired the England Animal Health and Welfare Implementation Group and the Food Ethics Council. Helen was awarded an OBE in 1998 for her services to organic farming.

Robin grew up as a retailer, running commercial categories for both M&S and Tesco between 1998 and 2015. He joined Just Eat UK in 2015 to set up their restaurant partner perks programme building value through partnerships beginning with food wholesale, finance, card payments & utilities. Other areas of responsibility followed from sustainability and FMCG to grocery and partner e-commerce

David created 600 strategy to help purposeful businesses find their missions beyond profit, and organise themselves to deliver. Having worked with a range of landowners across the UK, he sees the potential for well-managed land to meet society’s needs for food, fibre, timber, biodiversity, climate and more. But it takes effort from land managers, who also need a fair reward for their work.

David has a PhD in ecology, an MSc in environmental management systems and is a Chartered Environmentalist. He’s a Trustee for the John Lewis Partnership Foundation and chairs their Nature Fund Committee, and is a Trustee for the National Park City Foundation.

Samantha Deacon leads Ramboll’s ecological risk assessment practice in the UK and is a core member of Ramboll’s ecosystem services task force. She has over 15 years’ experience in environmental regulation, consultancy and research in the assessment of chemicals in the environment. Her recent work at Rambollincludes advising clients on ecosystem services analysis, environmental damage under the Environmental Liabilities Directive, chemical risk assessments for REACH, ecological risk assessment of contaminated soils, river and harbour sediments, and the risk assessment of composting bioaerosols (as expert witness in a national planning inquiry). Samantha has previously managed a regulatory programme of research to develop a decision-making framework for assessing risks to ecosystems from land contamination. In her eleven years in regulation, she contributed to over 65 publications, scientific papers and conference presentations including more than 50 Environment Agency technical reports. She holds an MSc in Ecotoxicology of Natural Populations from the University of Reading and a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Royal Holloway, University of London

Ivan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 25 years and he is the co-founder of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on consumer Foodtech.

He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution, to the reduction of food waste.  At Five Seasons he invested, among others, in Butternut Box (DNVB pet nutrition), THIS.co (plant-based meat alternatives), Cortilia (D2C fresh food retailer), La Fourche (D2C organic groceries), Air-Up (reusable water bottle + flavour pods), KoRo (D2C natural healthy snaking), YFood Labs (meal replacements) and Just Spices (D2C spices; acq. by Kraft Heinz)

His experience includes structuring investments, organizational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. 

In his spare time, he enjoys family life, fly fishing, and practicing jiu-jitsu with his son Adam.

Dr Emma Keller is Head of Sustainability for Nestlé UK&I, focusing on delivering the ambitious net zero climate commitment and driving the business to be a force for good. Prior to joining Nestlé, Emma led a team at WWF on food system transformation and before that was in Unilever’s sustainability team working on bringing the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to life. She also holds a doctorate in supply chain sustainability.

Mark specialises in the rural business, agriculture, horticulture, food manufacture, education and healthcare industries as well as supporting organisations from a wide range of sectors to develop and deliver impactful sustainability and ESG strategies. 

As one of the authors of the firm’s Dynamic ESG service suite, Mark is well placed to guide business leaders through the process of integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into their operations with an emphasis on measurable outcomes and RoI.  

Mark has worked in both the public sector and private enterprise, bringing a dedication and enthusiasm to the unique challenges each provides. With an auditor’s eye for detail, he has become known for his sharp insights and capacity for business transformation. 

Mark has won numerous awards for his work including National Finance Director of the Year 2007, the ICAEW’s National Accounting for Sustainability award in 2012, Finance Director magazine’s National Business Finance Director 2014, the Institute for Fiscal Turnaround’s Public Sector Award 2016 and the Institute of Directors’ Blue Ribbon for Governance and Finance Excellence in 2018. 

He is also a trustee of a charity delivering education in Ethiopia, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, a Member of the Guild of Freemen and a Member of the CBI’s South East Council. 

Mark re-joined MHA again in 2019 having originally trained here in 1997.

David, who was Senior Technical Manager at Winterbotham Darby (now part of the newly formed Compleat Food Group) brings with him over 20 years of experience working in the food production industry. Previous roles include Senior Business Development Manager at Oritain; Head of Technical Supply Base at New England Seafood, and he also spent over eight years at Sainsbury’s in various technical roles.

David will be leading on the development and delivery of The Compleat Food Group’s new ESG strategy, as the newly formed group seeks to create great quality, tasty food in a sustainable way that delivers a positive impact on the world..

Ivo Mulder leads UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit (CFU) which focuses specifically on the need to transition to sustainable land use from a climate, nature and livelihood perspective. The unit covers a growing portfolio of (blended) finance instruments, business incubators and other initiatives that have actively unlocked >USD 1 billion in public and especially private capital over the past 5 years towards sustainable agriculture, forestry, restoration and other sectors in developing countries with demonstrable positive impact on climate, nature and people. The team consists of 15 staff and consultants based in Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta, Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

Ivo also co-founded the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA), which was launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012 and signed by CEOs of more than 40 finance institutions. It paved the way for the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the nature equivalent to the TCFD. Ivo has published extensively in the field of nature, climate and sustainable finance, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and summits with over 20 years of professional experience working for UNEP, private consulting firms and with non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Sue is the Chief Executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Sue leads the organisation in its mission to bring people together to act on the climate, nature and health crises, through fairer and more sustainable food systems, and a just transition for rural communities and the countryside.

Sue’s background is in combined research and practice in leadership and organisation development for systems change, working with leaders across public, private and not for profit organisations, especially on complex partnership projects.

She is a Trustee of CoFarm Foundation and is an independent Governor at Royal Agricultural University. Living on an organic farm in Wales, Sue and her family raise livestock and farm for conservation.

Camilla is an experienced sustainability professional with international experience working in sustainable agriculture in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Having grown up on a sheep and beef farm in rural New Zealand she is particularly passionate about ensuring a just transition for farmers. She has a strong record of driving organisational change and collaborating across the value chain to deliver progress on sustainability. She currently leads the sustainability agenda for Arla Foods in the United Kingdom as Senior Sustainability Manager.

In her spare time, Camilla loves hiking, wild swimming and searching for the world’s finest baked goods.

Marija Rompani is a Director of Ethics and Sustainability at John Lewis Partnership where she is driving and delivering change critical to achieving its purpose ‘For a happier world’ for two much loved Waitrose and John Lewis brands. 

Marija joined the Partnership in 2021 with over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies across retail, FMCG and finance sectors. 

Marija is passionate about nature, transforming the food system and driving responsible consumerism.  In 2022 Partnership renewed its focus on protecting and restoring nature and published a Plan for Nature outlining new commitments and recognising the urgency to stop biodiversity loss. 

Prior to joining John Lewis Partnership, Marija worked at Federated Hermes, Sainsbury’s, Reckitt, UBS and BSI. She is also a trustee of John Lewis Foundation and Waitrose Foundation. Marija holds M.Eng in Environmental engineering and B.Eng in Chemical engineering from Belgrade University, Serbia.

Oonagh has 30+ years of experience working in international and UK retail and customer focused brands. Following her MSc at Manchester University, she started her career in Boots, progressing in to senior PR, communications, CSR and marketing roles. She currently leads the health and sustainable diets campaign agenda for Tesco, working across the business and with leading external partners to deliver impact led strategies.

Oonagh has also gained considerable charitable trustee and charitable giving experience, working with leading UK and North American NGOs.

Allan is a dairy farmer’s son from North Yorkshire. A graduate in Agriculture from Aberystwyth University, he started his career working for the Milk Marketing Board’s Farm Management Services in Leicestershire, before joining the Agriculture team at Midland Bank in 1988. Allan was appointed Head of Agriculture for HSBC in 2010. As Head of Agrifoods, he has led our UK sector specialism for the whole food chain since 2015.

Allan has sat on a number of industry bodies and is currently Trustee of The Prince’s Countryside Fund and Chair of the Farm Advisory Group, a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Farmers and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies.