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Oxford Farming Conference Directors and Honorary Advisors If you are interested in becoming a Director of the OFC, download an application form here.  | CHRISTINE TACON CBE - Chairman (Cheshire)
Christine Tacon is Managing Director of The Co-operative Farms, which is owned by the consumer-owned Co-operative Group. The Co-operative Farms is Britain’s biggest farmer and farms over 50,000 acres. Its ”Grown by Us" range of fruit and vegetables is grown on its own farms and sold exclusively in Co-operative food stores. The Co-operative Farms takes a lead role on issues such as climate change and community engagement; a windfarm on its Coldham Farm provides10, 000 homes with green energy, whilst educational projects like From Farm to Fork, make the link between farming, food and healthy eating for local children.
Christine joined The Co-operative Group in September 2000 from a background in marketing fast-moving-consumer-goods, having started her career in engineering. Christine was awarded a CBE for services to agriculture in 2004. She is married with two children and lives in Macclesfield, on the edge of the Peak District.
|  | VINCENT HEDLEY LEWIS - Honorary Treasurer (Lincolnshire)
Vincent is a director of a number of agribusiness companies involved in the farming, processing and research sectors. He runs a family farm and contracting business in South Lincolnshire and sits on the Board of the CLA and is Chairman of the CLA Game Fair. He is a Chartered Accountant | .jpg) | DAVID DOUGLAS (Ayrshire)
A native of Ayrshire, graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in Agriculture. Joined SAC and spent nearly 12 years in Agribusiness consultancy with them in Scotland. Moved to Clydesdale Bank in 1987 and have held various roles involving credit, business development and team leadership. Responsible for driving the bank's Agribusiness expansion strategy in England in the last 10 years and took up the current position of Regional Director and Head of Rural Business in April 2006. David still lives in Ayrshire on a small sheep farm, running a small flock of pedigree Lleyn ewes. |  | WILL GEMMILL (Essex)
Will Gemmill is the Managing Partner for both the Chelmsford and St Albans offices of Strutt & Parker. He is a farmlng consultant dealing mainly with farmers and landowners with regards to the management, agronomy and the property issuer of their farm and estate business. Will is also Head of Agronomy and Farm Recruitment Services. He graduated from a London University (Wye College) with a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture. His initial career was in farm management with Velcourt Limited managing their trials and open day farm. Will is currently the National Chairman of the lnstitute of Agricultural Management as well as belng a qualified agronomist and a qualified agricultural valuer and is Chairman of a number of committees relating to the professional farming community. He is marrled with three children. |  | MIKE GOODING (Oxfordshire)
Mike was born in Guildford and spent his early years in farming on the chalk of Hampshire. He graduated from Seale Hayne Agricultural College in the late 1980s and has spent his career in agricultural marketing and public relations, with particular involvement in the livestock sector, farmer owed trading businesses and food processing. As Managing Director of FAI Farms Ltd and its sister business – Woodland – he responsible for commercial farming operations based at Wytham in Oxfordshire, along with research and development programmes, and consultancy that focuses on future sustainable agriculture. |  | JANE KING (London)
Jane King is the Editor of Farmers Weekly and oversees editorial content across the Farmers Weekly Group, which consists of 4 magazines, the website fwi.co.uk and a projects division. Farmers Weekly is a UK business to business magazine with a 70-year-old heritage and it is read by around 200, 000 producers and rural people every week. Jane became the first female editor of the magazine and the first without an agricultural background in January 2005. She started her career as a reporter in the provincial press and has over 20 years experience as an editorial manager leading teams through change. Her publishing background includes award-winning magazines, websites and campaigns for a diverse range of sectors and audiences including retail, local government, employment law and medicine. | | | |  | ROBERT LAW (Hertfordshire)
Robert farms 3,500 acres on the Herts/ Cambs/ Essex borders as well as managing a further 1200 acres in Nottinghamshire and an involvement with an estate in Invernesshire, Scotland. The farming business in Hertfordshire is mixed. Livestock includes a 2,500 ewe breeding flock with up to a further 3,000 store lambs bought in for winter finishing. Arable crops extend to 3000 acres being mainly cereals with Sugar Beet. Robert is a first generation farmer, he studied Agricultural Marketing and Business studies at Harper Adams Agricultural College and then won a travel award to study farming in Australia and New Zealand. He returned to manage his present farm in 1981 before starting to farm it in his own right in 1988. Since then he has expanded his farming business to its present size through purchasing land, share farming, renting and management agreements. Robert is a NFU Sugar Board member as well as a Regional Livestock Board member. He is chairman of the Conservation Grade advisory committee. In 2006 he won the Farmers Weekly 'Farmer of the Year’ award. |  | Professor BILL McKELVEY (Edinburgh)
Bill is Chief Executive & Principal of SAC (the Scottish Agricultural College) and holds the Chair in Agriculture at Glasgow University. SAC has an annual turnover of around £45m per annum and employs 850 staff involved in applied research for the land-based industries, consultancy for farm businesses and landowners and education for students in the agricultural, environmental and social sciences. Bill is a veterinary surgeon by profession, having worked in general veterinary practice before holding academic research positions at both the Rowett and the Macaulay Institutes. In SAC he headed up the Veterinary Services Group and Corporate Operations before taking up the post of Chief Executive & Principal in 2002. He has served on various government advisory bodies, including the Cabinet Secretary's Agricultural Strategy Group and the Scottish Animal Health & Welfare Strategy Group. |  | CEDRIC PORTER (Kent)
Cedric Porter is managing director and founder of Supply Intelligence, a consultancy that assists retailers, food processors and investors develop agricultural supply arrangements and relationships. Until recently he was the editor of Farm Business magazine, a leading UK food and farming management and marketing magazine. He has also edited Dutch-based Meat International magazine. Cedric grew up and worked on a Hampshire farm, before studying agriculture and journalism. He was a member of the 2006 Institute of Agricultural Management’s Leadership course and sits on the LEAF policy committee. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and commentator on UK and world agriculture. |  | NICK TAPP (Kent)
Nick has recently taken on the roles of Executive Chairman of GH2, a grain storage and marketing business in Kent, and of Finance Director for Magyar Farming, a UK holding company with subsidiaries farming over 12,000ha in Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine. Nick also sits on the Potato Council; is a Nuffield Scholar (‘Market Opportunities for Liquid Bio-Fuels’); was a founder Director of the British Association for Bio-Fuels and Oils; and for many years served as MD of St. Nicholas Court Farms, a family farming and potato packing business supplying fresh potatoes to Tesco. Nick has also just completed 3 years as Chair of the Kent branch of the CLA, and now sits on the Policy Committee. |
Consultants working with the Oxford Farming Conference are as follows:  | Secretary: Elizabeth Kerrigan (Surrey)
Consultant working across the agri-food industry providing a broad range of services for agriculture and associated industries, particularly in the field of farm assurance administration and conference organisation. |  | Media relations & marketing: Jane Craigie (Aberdeenshire)
Marketing and media relations consultant working with a range of clients within the agri-food sector, including BASF plc, the Royal Show, the Cereals Event, Fruit Focus, EFFP and Anglian Water. Responsible for OFC marketing. media relations and the OFC website. |
Accountants: The Hutchinson Partnership, The Bull Pen, Amberley Court, Sutton St. Nicholas, Hereford HR1 3BX Bankers: Barclays Bank plc, Britannia Warehouse The Docks, Gloucester GL1 2EH Solicitors: Mills & Reeve, 1 James Court Whitefriars Norwich Norfolk
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