Alec Kyriakides, Independent Food Safety Consultant

Alec Kyriakides was head of quality, safety and supplier performance at Sainsbury’s for 28 years, with expertise in microbiology. He now works as an independent consultant to the food industry, advising businesses, large and small on all aspects of food safety and quality management. He is a board trustee of the IFST, a non-executive board director of Campden BRI, and Chair of the BRCGS International Advisory Board.

Alison Johnson, Managing Director & Founder of Food Forensics

Alison Johnson is the Managing Director and founder of Food Forensics, a UKAS-accredited testing laboratory and solution provider. With 15 years of experience in the meat industry, Alison identified a critical gap in the market for authenticity testing solutions and established Food Forensics in 2012. Under her leadership, the company has grown into a leading authority in its field, offering comprehensive testing, insights, and intelligence to manage food risks and protect brand integrity.

Amy Wilkinson, Independent Coach / Co-Host of Oh for Food’s Sake Podcast

Amy Wilkinson is founder of Fearless Foodies and cohost of the award winning “Oh for Food's Sake podcast”, which helps foodies across manufacturing and retail with their personal and professional development. Her own career spans 24 years in Food manufacturing roles across multiple different functions, including NPD, marketing and commercial. Amy’s mission is to make the food industry a happier place to work.

Andy Richardson, Board Chair at Welsh Food & Drink Industry

Andy Richardson was educated at Magdalen College School followed by an honours degree in agriculture. He joined Unilever in 1989, then BOCM PAULS where he held several commercial roles including marketing manager. In 2000, he joined Volac, the dynamic UK dairy nutrition business, becoming director of corporate affairs and sustainability before leaving in February 2023.

Ash Stretton, Food Regulatory Affairs Manager at Marks & Spencer

Ash joined M&S in early 2022 having previously spent 15 years in manufacturing working with some of the largest manufacturers in the world in both full time and consulting roles. During this time, Ash worked in variance roles from Production, Operations, Process Improvement to Quality and Technical Management.

Ash is a labelling and regulatory expert responsible for regulatory compliance across the food part of the business, developing policy, providing business support, reviewing emerging risks, providing governance and compliance framework and external discussions with government and NGOs. Ash is a fellow of the IFST, RSPH and ILM, a Chartered Scientist and Charted Quality Person holding several degrees including, BA (Hons), PG Cert, PG Diploma(s), MBA, LLM and MSc.

Bethan Grylls, Editor of Food Manufacture

Beth has been working as a professional writer for more than a decade, with the last five dedicated to food and drink. She is Food Manufacture’s editor, leading a small but proficient team of two. Alongside FM, she is also responsible for National Butcher’s Week, a social event operated under the MTJ brand, that celebrates retail butchery in the UK.

Charlotte Langdon, Partner at Menzies LLP

As a Partner at Menzies LLP, Charlotte manages a diverse portfolio of SME and PE backed clients, focusing on the manufacturing and construction industries, and serves as the Head of the Manufacturing sector. Beyond audit and compliance, she provides proactive advice and commercial solutions to help clients navigate challenges.

Chris Gilbert-Wood, Food Technologist at CGW Food Tech

Chris Gilbert-Wood is a Registered Food Safety Principal and now works as a consultant. He is also a fellow and trustee of the IFST and chair of its External Affairs Committee. His career spans across 40 years, including roles at M&S and 2 Sisters.

Claire White-McKay, Food Development Manager at Quorn

Claire is excited by the magic of mycelium and the potential impact we can all have on the planet by switching to eating this sustainable, nutritious and versatile protein source. She is a hands-on leader and thrives on activity that demands resourcefulness, collaboration and the realisation of ideas that are ‘beyond imagination’.

Corinne Toyn, Registered Dietician and Founder of Chickpea Marketing

Corrine is a Registered Dietitian and founder of Chickpea Marketing, a marketing and nutrition consultancy on a mission to grow healthy food, beverage and wellness brands. Corrine has worked in the food and drink industry for 6 years, previously working for Abbott and M&S. Corrine also led the UK healthcare professional marketing team at Benecol Ltd, owned by the Raisio Group. She utilises her dietetic insight to help brands connect with health-conscious consumers and champion evidence-based nutrition through the power of marketing.

Daksha Stancilas, Talent & Development Partner at Pret A Manger

Daksha is passionate about inspiring and preparing young people for their futures, regardless of background, and is committed to providing great career opportunities in the hospitality sector and with Pret.

David Lloyd, Senior R&D Manager at Huel

David has both a degree in chemical engineering and an engineering doctorate in formulation engineering. Before joining Huel he worked at Unilever, carrying out R&D projects on ice cream and ready-to-drink iced tea.

David Moore, Head of ESG at The Compleat Food Group

David’s had more than two decades of experience working in food production. In his current position, Moore leads on the development and delivery of The Compleat Food Group’s new ESG strategy.

Donna Fordyce, Chief Executive at Seafood Scotland

Donna Fordyce is the Chief Executive of Seafood Scotland, the national trade marketing body for the Scottish seafood industry. Prior to that, she held a number of roles with the organisation, initially as an industry engagement specialist before moving into the leadership role.

Fran Ball, VP for Production UK at Arla Foods

Fran Ball is VP for Production UK at Arla Foods, a farmer owned global dairy cooperative. Fran is passionate about developing people, diversity and culture to enable manufacturing excellence and this is something she is looking for from this year's entries into the Employers of the Year Award.

Arla has already launched a clear strategy across its supply chain to attract, retain, develop and create more positive gender representation and is committed to helping attract and promote food manufacturing as a career choice amongst a more diverse population.

Fran is delighted to be part of Judging panel this year at the FME Awards for Employer of the Year, ESG Excellence and Health Hero Awards selecting the best in our industry from the entries in these categories.

Gwen Ridler, Multimedia Journalist at Food Manufacture

While Gwen regularly writes news and features for the Food Manufacture website, her main passions are the multimedia projects she is involved in, including the new podcast series started in February and the fresh take on Me and My Team in a video documentary style format.

Jaclyn Bowen, Chief Executive at Clean Label Project

Jackie was the researcher and co-author behind the largest academic peer-reviewed study ever conducted on lead and cadmium in baby food and infant formula. Before coming to Clean Label Project, she held numerous technical, standards development, food safety, quality, and executive roles.

Jodie Craig, ICF Accredited Coach and HR Executive

Jodie is passionate about helping leaders and teams transform into exceptional communicators, collaborators and peak performers. She works side-by-side with teams to facilitate, train and coach in a way that delivers with the results needed. With 20 years experience leading large teams and partnering with business leaders, she has a track record of developing high performing teams in complex, international organisations.

Jon Poole, Organisational and Leadership Development Consultant at Step Change Consultancy

Alongside Step Change, Poole chairs SALSA, the third-party supplier assurance scheme for small and micro businesses in the UK. He has also written and published three books on leadership, business coaching and career development and now writes ‘The Talent Poole’ monthly column for Food Manufacture.

Kate Clawson, Head of Operations at Sleaford Quality Foods

After a successful spell in an admin role, Kate became Production Manager in 2004 taking on full responsibility for the running of the factory. In 2016 Kate became Head of Manufacturing taking on additional responsibilities throughout the next seven years, however her role as Factory Manager was still central to her success, and in 2024 Kate became the inaugural winner of Food Manufacture Excellence Factory Manager of the Year Award!

Konstantina Karagkika, Director at Coca-Cola

Konstantina has held a number of technical roles during her career, ranging from ready meals, to nuts and specialty ingredients. She has a master’s degree in food safety and quality assurance; and before joining Coca-Cola, headed up innocent’s food regulatory, safety and emerging risks function.

Laetitia Rocha, Global R&D Internal Capability Director at PepsiCo

Laetitia is an R&D expert and registered nutritionist, with experience in front-end innovation, technology innovation and M&A to product launch. She now leads a cultural transformation initative within her role at PepsiCo.

Lisa Fox, Group Learning & Development Manager at Nomad Foods

Lisa has more than 20 years’ experience in operational performance, talent progression and optimising people and performance. Her specialism is within leadership development, coaching and mentoring and enabling teams to flourish.

Louis Bedwell, Future Food Movement

Louis Bedwell joined Future Food Movement in 2024 and supports the business in scaling its membership across the food industry. Future Food Movement exists to support food companies in closing the climate skills gap and has reached more than 1 million people, supporting companies like Sainsbury's, Greencore, SSP, and many others.

Mark Baggaley, Operations Director at Butcher's Pet Care

Mark has worked in the food industry for nearly two decades, with his experiencing stretching across a range of roles, from shop floor all the way up to board room level. His career in food started at Carlsberg in 2005 at the Tetley brewery site in Leeds town centre.

Mark Schubert, Managing Director at Coriolis

Mark has 16 years of global consulting experience and says the true art of consulting is simplifying the “perceived” complexities. He takes a hands-on approach and believes that in order to succeed, consultants must demonstrate more than proven methodologies.

Martin Macfarlane, R&D Director - Head of Global Formulation at Unilever Ice Cream

Martin has worked for Unilever for 20 years. He originally focussed on ensuring the safety of products and manufacturing for consumers, employees and the environment for various products across Personal Care and Foods. He then moved to Ice Cream Design, developing recipes and technologies to give new consumer benefits and experiences. After 4 years as Head of R&D for the Europe, AMESAA and NASEA regions in the Pepsi Lipton Joint Venture, Martin has now returned to Ice Cream where he leads the Global Formulation Team.

Mathew Thewlis, Operations Director at Yeo Valley Farms

Mat is responsible for working with the Yeo Valley Farm team to set and deliver upon the product fulfilment strategy, helping the brand to fulfil its purpose of nurturing and nourishing people and planet. His experience is vast, including 17 years in ambient drinks with Britvic.

Mehdi Adjiri, Head of Technical Accounts at Compleat Food Group

Originally from France, Mehdi Adjiri graduated with a MSc in food science in 2005. He emigrated to the UK in 2006, where he started a career in the food industry as part of the Bakkavor technical graduate scheme. Over his 17-year career, he covered a wide range of product categories and now works as Head of Technical Accounts at Compleat Food Group.

Nicola Thomas, Director of the UK Food and Drink Exporters Association (FDEA)

Nicola is an award-winning food and drink export specialist with over 25 years experience of helping ambitious SMEs and mid-market companies accelerate their expansion into overseas markets. She works alongside management teams to break through the ‘pain points’ associated with exporting and to achieve sustainable and profitable international growth.

Ramona Hazan, Founder of Ramona's Kitchen

Ramona founded her business, which specialises in houmous and falafel, based on her family’s traditional recipes. Today, over 20 years on, her ‘Heavenly Houmous’ product claims the no.1 spot within its category in the UK.

Richard Clothier, Managing Director at Wyke Farms

Rich represents the third gen of the Clothiers, a family who have been making cheddar on their Somerset farm since 1861. Today, Wyke Farms is recognised as one of the leading environmentally focused privately-owned UK food businesses.

Richard Singleton, Finance & Sustainability Director at Menzies

As the Finance & Sustainability Director at Menzies, Richard helps clients design ESG strategies that enhance competitive advantage, increase top and bottom-line growth, improve stakeholder engagement, and create supply chain robustness, all while maintaining strong financial controls and performance.

Rod Addy, Director General at the Provision Trade Federation

Rod spent 20 years in the trade press, cutting his teeth as an award-winning journalist helping to launch The Grocer online in the middle of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis. Over his writing career, he covered all aspects of the supply chain, from the Horsemeat Scandal to the impact of Brexit and the pandemic. Now, as head of the PTF he has vaulted the fence to bring his skills to bear on supporting the industry, advising it on political and regulatory issues and lobbying government on its behalf.

Rupert Ashby, Chief Executive at British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF)

In his early career, Rupert was responsible for running several of the Co-Operative Group’s framing businesses, before moving to the Manchester HQ as marketing project manager. He joined the BFFF following several years at the Country Land and Business Association.

Stephen French, Scientific Policy Director, IFST; Owner, Scientific Intelligence Ltd.

Stephen is responsible for leading IFST policy development and engagement on scientific and technical issues, and policy relevant to IFST mission in education, skills and professional recognition; liaising with key government departments from the UK nations, key opinion leaders, and food sector industry leaders to support the IFST mission.

Tim Watsham, CEO at Butcher's Pet Care

Tim Watsham began his career as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, before moving into industry where he has spent the majority of his working life. He has held senior finance positions in Tesco in the UK, and spent over 5 years with Dyson in Finance & Operations roles, including 3 ½ years living in Shanghai, China driving rapid growth in the local market through a focus on retail and supply chain excellence.

Returning to the UK, Tim joined Butcher’s Pet Care, initially as CFO, before becoming CEO in 2021. Butcher’s operates a large food factory in the heart of the country, where they make natural wet food for cats & dogs – with the leading dog food brand in the UK, and the fastest growing premium cat brand. He is passionate about authentic brands that deliver real points of difference for consumers – offering products that go a step beyond the mainstream.

William Dodds, Deputy Editor at Food Manufacture

William Dodds is the Deputy Editor of Food Manufacture, a title which commands the largest audience of any online platform dedicated solely to readers working in the UK food and drink manufacturing industry. Prior to joining Food Manufacture (part of the William Reed group) in June 2023, he worked as the Editor for B2B title Zag Daily, while he also spent time as a freelance writer for various outlets.