Farming

Agricultural Advisory Board Chair | Agricultural Advisory Board Prof.

Tina is internationally recognised for scientific achievements in crop science. After 18 years with Group Limagrain, she became Director of National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) from 2008 to 2021. She has extensive experience as a Trustee and Board member, including being a Director of Future Biogas prior to its acquisition by 3i Infrastructure in 2023. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Society. She is Honorary Professor of Agricultural Botany at the University of Cambridge, UK. Tina was awarded the OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to agricultural science and biotechnology.

Tina is committed to supporting sustainable and profitable agriculture, and from her background in genetics has developed a broad understanding of farming and the related industry, having worked for and with farmers and landowners for the past four decades.

She works part-time for the G’s group of companies and is committed to Fenland SOIL.  She is a Trustee of the John Innes Foundation and also chairs Farm Data Principles.

Owner – Hub Rural Ltd

By qualification, Hugh is a Rural Practice surveyor, aka, a Land agent [MRICS/FAAV]. He is owner of Hub Rural Ltd, which is based near Spalding, South Lincolnshire. The Hub team, which is now seven, concentrates on delivering a range of services to clients including land agency, farm business consultancy, and strategic/non-exec type input. Typical clients are usually large, complex, and multi-faceted rural asset-based businesses involved in farming, food & fuel production, and rural diversification.

Hugh’s day job includes running Hub, alongside undertaking a mixture of professional activity, but with a focus on Trustee, Chair and Non-exec roles within client businesses and/or their families.

Director – Agri-TechE

Belinda is driven by the belief that innovation is a vital driver for agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and economic growth. Starting her career in crop research, she developed experience at the interface between industry, innovation and government, and became determined to bring farmers, researchers and technology developers closer together to improve the effectiveness of communication and mutual understanding, and to accelerate the adoption of new innovations on farms. For the last decade she has led the creation and expansion of the award-winning membership network which is Agri-TechE.

In 2021 she received the Timothy Colman Prize for “outstanding leadership in the agri-tech sector” and was awarded an OBE in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours List for Services to Agri-Technologies and Farming.

Farmer

James Goodley has farmed in the Stiffkey Valley in North Norfolk for the past 15 years.

Through expanded botany, reduced cultivations and allowing soil to become the driver of production, he has systematically reduced his farm’s dependency on chemical inputs.

Continuing to grow crops for both food and energy, James hopes to continue to improve the sustainability of the family farming enterprise that he owns and runs. James has grown both maize and rye for Future Biogas since the Egmere plant in North Norfolk was built and commissioned in 2013.

More recently, James has become a speaker in the sustainable agronomy sector, speaking at events such as Groundswell among others.

Director – Julian Little Communications

Dr Julian Little FRSB has 35+ years’ experience in plant science and agriculture and currently helps individuals and organisations improve their communications and public affairs activity, their media and political outreach confidence, and to help affect genuine management change where it is really needed.

Until 2020, Julian was Head of Communications & Public Affairs for Bayer Crop Science in the UK. He worked initially in company R&D as a plant and fungal biochemist both in the UK and France, moved into project management, and then into science communication. The latter involved multi-stakeholder (media, political, retailer, NGO, etc) outreach around what was then the ground-breaking work on GM field trials here in the UK, defending the company’s insecticide portfolio, and more recently on bee-friendly farming practices. A regular commentator on BBC TV and radio, as well in print media, he has also submitted written and given oral evidence to a large number of Parliamentary Select Committees.

Julian was long-term Chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council and headed the communications groups of both EuropaBio and CropLife UK for nearly ten years.

Today, he is working with a number of companies and organisations including public affairs at the Norwich Research Park, leading the communications efforts at AlphaBio Control, coordinating the newly created Farm Data Principles Ltd. and up to very recently, change management at the John Innes Centre. He is an active member of the agricultural advisory group for Future Biogas, the advisory group of Science for Sustainable Agriculture, and was a recent advisory panel member for Agri-TechE.

Chief Commercial Officer – Oxbury Bank

Matt was brought up on his family’s 4^th generation sheep & arable farm just outside of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand, he attended Lincoln University (NZ) then joined ANZ Bank NZ Ltd as an Agri bank manager in 2005, since then Matt has run large customer portfolios, managed large regions & teams for both Rabobank and ANZ Bank with specialisations in irrigation & farm syndication financing, along with offshore lending projects in the Pacific Islands and SE Asia.

In Feb 2020 Matt joined Oxbury Bank Plc and assisted the business in gaining its banking license through to its successful launch in Feb 2021, and since then put together Oxbury’s national sales force and continues to lead the customer facing team to major lending and revenue milestones.

Farms Director

Having grown up in Wiltshire on a farm managed by his father, agriculture has always played an important and central role in Oliver’s life. Having gained a diploma in Agriculture at Lackham College and graduated from Harper Adams university with a degree in Agri Food Marketing, Oliver went on to travel and work on farms in New Zealand and Australia. Upon returning to the UK, Oliver has since managed farms at Holkham, Thelverton, Bradford Estates and latterly Mawley Hall LLP.

With sustainability and the environment playing an ever-increasing role in farming, Oliver has been immersed within regenerative practice in order to carefully balance margin alongside farming for the future. Oliver strives to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and encourage the younger generation in order to strengthen the agricultural industry.

As focus shifts to sustainable practice, Oliver believes that incorporating anaerobic digesters into farming systems will ultimately improve efficiency by creating renewable energy, effectively utilising all outputs and producing additional organic matter. Ultimately supporting a circular farming system.

Head of Climate Mitigation Science – Defra

Harley Stoddart is Head of Climate Mitigation Science at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). He leads scientific input to evidence-based net zero policy and coordinates research across agriculture, forestry, biomass, peat and soils, waste, wastewater, and F-gases.

He previously led work on agricultural emissions at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and has held roles in environmental policy at Defra and bioeconomy strategy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (now DESNZ).

Harley is a Chartered Biologist and a Member of the Institute of Agricultural Managers.