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.

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.

David has a distinguished career working with farmers, policy makers and stakeholders to advance food systems transformation both in the UK and internationally.

He joins FFCC from WWF-UK where he was Director of Food Strategy, also serving on WWF International’s Food Practice Leadership team. Before that, David was the Assistant Director in the Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit, working to advance sustainable agriculture and urban food policy, including helping to set up the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact in 2015

Before gaining his Masters in the Practice of Sustainable Development and working as a development consultant in Liberia, Kenya and Malawi, David's early career was spent providing market insight to major food and drinks brands in the UK as key account manager for Kantar.

David is also a proud Trustee of both The Food Foundation and SUSTAIN.

He lives in Dorking with his wife Elizabeth and two boys, and can usually be found either tending his vegetable patch, or cycling up and down the Surrey Hills.

Tom is Professor of Rural Policy & Strategy at the Royal Agricultural University, where his focus is on informing national and international policy relating to the land-based sector, the environment and food. He has a particular interest in developing policy to support farmer-led innovation. He is a director of the new Centre for Effective Innovation in Agriculture, alongside colleagues from our partners at Reading, Warwick, Newcastle and Harper Adams universities and also supports FFCC as an advisor.

Tom was previously Director of Innovation at the Soil Association, where he founded the Innovative Farmers network, which supports practical ‘field labs’ by farmers, and led an overhaul of organic standards.

From 2003-2011 he was Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council, which received the BBC Food & Farming Derek Cooper Award for its Food & Fairness Inquiry. He has served on various advisory groups and boards, including for the Cabinet Office’s Food Matters report, ScienceWise, the BBSRC, Sustain and the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership.

He has a PhD in geography from the University of Manchester, where he investigated the use and abuse of science in food regulation.

Rebecca is a stakeholder, marketing and communications specialist with experience across the creative industries, higher education, arts, and charity sectors. She began her career in public relations, but has specialised over the years into developing brand narratives, advocacy and communications strategies for purpose-led organisations. She worked for many years at Channel 4 and then moved to working in higher education and for a range of charities including the Dartington Trust. She is particularly interested in how to build a community around an organisation so that they develop a shared purpose and mission.

Mhairi is a Registered Nutritionist specialising in public health and food policy who is passionate about creating healthy food systems that support the health of people and the planet. She leads food and health work for the Commission, including the Food Conversation. Prior to joining FFCC, she led policy and international workstreams at Consensus Action on Salt, Sugar and Health. There, she developed and advocated for policy proposals to reduce excess and unnecessary levels of salt and sugar from foods and drinks sold in the UK, and collaborated with stakeholders in Malaysia, Morocco, China and Peru to translate this work globally.

Mhairi holds a BSc in Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and a Masters in International Public Health Nutrition at the University of Westminster. She is now a PhD candidate with Queen Mary University of London, evaluating food and health policies in the UK.

Outside of work, Mhairi can often be found hiking, gardening, and dedicating a disproportionate amount of time to preventing her cats from interrupting work calls.

Tim is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey, and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). CUSP builds on Tim’s vision over three decades to explore the moral, economic and social dimensions of prosperity on a finite planet. He’s served as an advisor on sustainability to numerous commercial, government and intergovernmental organisations. During five years at the Stockholm Environment Institute in the early 1990s, he pioneered the concept of preventative environmental management—a core principle of the circular economy framework—outlined in his 1996 book Material Concerns: Pollution Profit and Quality of life. From 2004 to 2011, Tim was Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), where he led the Commission’s work on redefining prosperity. His work for the SDC culminated in the publication of his ground-breaking book, Prosperity Without Growth, which has subsequently been translated into 17 foreign languages. A substantially revised second edition has been published recently. In 2016, he was awarded the Hillary Laureate for exceptional international leadership. In addition to his academic work, Tim is an award-winning dramatist with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.

Ian J. Bateman OBE, FRSA, FRSB, is Professor of Environmental Economics and Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter Business School, UK. Ian has been awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award and is a Member of the Natural Capital Committee (reporting to the Chancellor of the Exchequer) and the Board of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. He led the economics team for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK-NEA) and leads NERC SWEEP programme bringing together business and policy decision makers with research experts to examine natural environment and economic issues.

Tim Benton leads the Energy, Environment and Resources programme at Chatham House. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow, when he was also dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds, where he still remains a professor.

From 2011-2016 he was the “champion” of the UK’s Global Food Security programme which was a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies (government departments, devolved governments and research councils) with an interest in the challenges around food.

He has worked with UK governments, the EU and G20. He has been a global agenda steward of the World Economic Forum, and is an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment.

Tim Lang has been Professor of Food Policy at City University of London’s Centre for Food Policy since 2002. Hill farming in Lancashire UK in the 1970s formed his interest in the relationship between food, health, environment, culture and political economy. He is co-author of Sustainable Diets (2017), Food Wars (2015), Unmanageable Consumer (2015), Ecological Public Health (2012) and Food Policy (2009). He was policy lead on the EAT-Lancet Commission (The Lancet, 2019). His Feeding Britain (Pelican, 2020) explores the UK as a case study of a rich economy uncertain about food security. Probing the UK food system’s defences, supply, consumption and capacities, it concludes that, whichever risks are dissected, sustainability, health and social justice should be central to policy and planning, which they have not been.

Janet is Professor of Rural Policy at the University of Gloucestershire's Countryside and Community Research Institute, where she directs and undertakes research related to agriculture, the environment and rural development.

Her research expertise centres on European and UK rural development policy and practice, with particular interest in integrated approaches, environmental sustainability and institutional adaptation. Janet is well-known in policymaking circles in the UK and EU, has skills in facilitation and consensus-building, and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

Formerly Director of the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) for eight years, Janet previously worked for more than a decade in a government agency and an independent policy think-tank. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a founder and steering group member of the Uplands Alliance, a Director of Rural England CIC and an advisor to Green Alliance and DEFRA on rural and agricultural issues. Janet held the Presidency of the UK Agricultural Economics Society from 2021-2022.

Professor Monder Ram OBE is the Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He is a leading authority on small business and ethnic minority entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subjects and has extensive experience of working in and acting as a consultant to small and ethnic minority businesses. Monder is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences, and advises the government on the importance and value of ethnic minority businesses through his position on the APPG for BAME Business Owners. He also holds visiting positions at Warwick University and the University of Turku.

Kevin Morgan is Professor of Governance and Development in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, where he is also Dean of Engagement. Kevin’s research interests revolve around multilevel governance, urban and regional development and sustainable food systems. He is the co-author of Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in the Food Chain (Oxford University Press) and The School Food Revolution: Public Food and the Challenge of Sustainable Development (Routledge). In addition to his academic work, Kevin is actively involved in the worlds of policy and practice, having been the founding chair of the Bristol Food Policy Council and a former member of the Food Ethics Council.

Professor Michael Lee is an expert in sustainable livestock systems, defining their role in securing global food security at the same time as protecting environmental health (Livestock’s role in human and planetary health). He graduated with first class honours in Animal Science from University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1997 and gained a PhD in ruminant nutrition (protein and energy metabolism) from the University of Aberdeen in 2001. Michael is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor of Harper Adams University. Previously, he held a joint appointment between Rothamsted Research and the University of Bristol as Head of Site at North Wyke and Chair in Sustainable Livestock Systems. He has published over 300 research articles and papers including recent articles in Nature and Science. He was awarded the Sir John Hammond Memorial Prize in 2015 for services to Animal Science. He is currently President of the European Federation of Animals Sciences Livestock Farming Systems commission and Vice President of the British Society of Animal Science.

Our program in Cambridgeshire is co-chaired by FFCC Commissioner Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE. Fiona is Chair of the National Audit Office, coming to the role after a long career in the voluntary sector, latterly as Director-General of the National Trust from 2001 to 2012 and Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 2012 to 2022. During her time as DG she made the Trust warmer and more welcoming, bringing the houses to life and raising the profile of the Trust’s work in the countryside.

Before this, she was Director of the Women’s Unit in the Cabinet Office from 1998 to 2000, Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) from 1987 to 1998 and Secretary to the Council for National Parks (now Campaign to Protect National Parks) from 1980 to 1987.

Fiona also holds a number of non-Executive roles. She is a Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate, a Non-Executive Director of Wessex Water, Chair of the Green Alliance, the International National Trusts Organisation, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England and Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden. A Member of the Advisory Panel for the Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity. She was a Panel Member for the Glover Review of Protected Landscapes and Adviser to the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission.

Marg is currently Chief Executive of Mytime Active, a social enterprise focused on improving the health and wellbeing of local communities.

Marg has always been committed to social progress and supporting organisations to achieve their social objectives by applying commercial disciplines. She enjoys the challenge of managing both aspects to create a better world in a way that can be financially sustained.

Originally trained as a Chartered Accountant, her early career was as a finance professional, later Finance Director, for two leading Housing Associations during a decade of rapid growth in that sector. Marg then moved to the British Council as the Director of Finance and Resources globally. In 2008, Marg took up the role of Chief Executive of VSO, the international development NGO that works through volunteers.

Marg has held a range of non-executive board roles including Chair. She is currently Treasurer of Community Leisure UK as well being on the Board of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.

John Woods provides the secretariat for the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission in Northern Ireland. He is a public policy consultant with a particular focus on sustainability and wellbeing. Recent work has included the Carnegie-QUB Roundtable on Measuring Wellbeing in Northern Ireland, work on community planning for local authorities and the future of health and social care. For his work on environmental issues in Northern Ireland he was named by the Independent on Sunday as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists.

John is a Belfast Climate Commissioner, a Lay Magistrate, an Independent Assessor for the Commissioner for Public Appointments, a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen's University Belfast and a Fellow of the RSA. In his spare time he is an enthusiastic grower of fruit and vegetables.

Will Frazer is a new entrant farmer from Northern Ireland and has recently returned there to take on the management of the family farm, aiming to establish a new horticultural enterprise and transition from intensive grassland systems to a more regenerative set of enterprises.

Over the past five years he has been representing the business interests of 1100 farms in Gloucestershire for the National Farmers Union and prior to that Will spent four years in the farming press at Farmers Weekly. He started his career at Forum for the Future developing advice on farming and climate change for the Farming Futures project. Will holds a Master's degree in Geography from the University of Bristol and in 2014 completed a 15,000 mile cycling journey around the world.

Charlie is an experienced researcher and writer with a professional and personal background in food and farming.

He has a PhD in History from Birkbeck, University of London, specializing in food production, trade and consumption in the past. Before joining FFCC, he was a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, part of an international project on the history of food and drink in Ireland. His first book, on London’s street food sellers, was published in 2023.

Previously, Charlie worked as a business and farming journalist. He was a reporter at Farmers Weekly, mainly covering the dairy, beef, sheep and pig industries, and his writing has appeared in a range of national and trade publications.

He was brought up on his family’s dairy farm in Devon, where they make very good ice cream. He now lives with his partner and son in North London.

Georgie leads the Land Use and Countryside programme at FFCC. She advocates for a Land Use Framework to help meet the UK’s climate, biodiversity, food and housing policy goals with limited land, and supports equitable and resilient rural development.

With a background in climate and food, she has campaigned at the intersection of Agriculture, Food and Land Use (AFOLU) and climate policy for many years. Prior to joining the FFCC, she worked at the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and the European Climate Foundation, focusing on the UN biodiversity and climate summits, as well as land use change in developing countries - particularly in Latin America, India and China.

Georgie has a master’s degree in Governance, Development and Public Policy from the Institute of Development Studies, where she focused on bottom-up approaches to climate policy and polycentric governance to tackle wicked problems. She lives in the West Country and spends as much time as possible walking moors, hills and coastal paths.

Emily works part time at FFCC, helping drive the work of the Farming Futures team with Dr Charlie Taverner.

Emily was awarded a Batchelor of Veterinary Science from the University of Bristol in 2006 and has over 15 years’ experience working as a farm animal veterinary surgeon. She also gained a certificate in cattle health and production from the University of Liverpool in 2015. Emily has developed strong working relationships with the farmers she visits on a regular basis and believes this first-hand experience will help her bring practical solutions to the challenges ahead. She continues to work 2 days a week as a practising farm vet throughout Devon and Cornwall.

In 2021, Emily was invited to join the Oxford Farming Conference’s Inspire programme which has allowed her to engage with a diverse group of people from across the farming sector. She thrives on motivating others and enjoys communicating with a wide range of stakeholders, believing all voices need to be heard and considered to bring about lasting and widespread change.

Emily lives with her husband and 2 young children on the Devon/Cornwall border and enjoys running the coastal paths and windsurfing whenever time and conditions allow. She is also trying to train her young Labrador to be a working gundog with variable success!

Ella has an MSc in Food Policy from City, University of London – her dissertation focused on whether urban food policy is adequately addressing issues of food justice.

She’s also a volunteer and cook at Sitopia Farm in south east London, a judge at The Great Taste Awards, and an occasional writer on food policy issues. She spends as much time as possible on the west coast of Cornwall and Ireland.

Kenny has a wealth of experience in managing complex projects and programmes, taking a systems thinking, collaborative, and embodied approach to delivering change. He works part-time for FFCC as Programme Manager of the Food Conversation - an exciting UK wide programme of citizen engagement exploring what citizens really want from food.

He is an anthropologist and has over a decade of experience working in social change. He likes to work at the interface of personal, cultural and systemic change believing it's in the messy, human and complex in-between spaces where transformation lies. He is also a facilitator and UKCP trainee therapist. Outside of FFCC he facilitates citizen dialogues; is on the facilitation team for Healthy Human Culture; and holds a private Psychotherapy practice in Bristol.

When not working, he's figuring out how to be a Dad and find space for surfing.

Nigel Scollan is Director of The Institute for Global Food Security and Professor of Animal Science at Queens University, Belfast. The Institute addresses key challenges around paradigm shifts in agricultural practices. global food integrity and nutritional challenges of the twenty-first century.

Professor Scollan conducted his PhD at The University of Edinburgh, followed by a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada before joining Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth in 1993 and subsequently Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) Aberystwyth University in 2008. He held a numbers of posts at IBERS including Waitrose Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Professor of Public Engagement with Science at Aberystwyth University, group leader Animal Systems and Director of Enterprise.

Professor Scollan’s research is primarily related to designing improved systems for ruminant livestock, through the use of improved nutrition and genetics to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of the production systems. Improving nutritional quality is an important aspect of the research. Professor Scollan works closely with producers and other key stakeholders across value chains.

Nigel is a Past President of the British Society of Animal Science, a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society in the UK and a Director of the Oxford Farming Conference.

Professor Rt Hon Carwyn Jones retired as First Minister of Wales in December 2018 and brings with him extensive expertise as a leader and advisor. As First Minister, he led a government that introduced landmark legislation including the Human Transplantation (Wales) Act and Well-being of Future Generations Act, and prior to that he was Wales’s Environment Minister. As a seasoned politician and speaker he has been involved in events at the United States Congress, The United Nations, European Parliament, European Commission and more. Stepping down from his parliamentary duties in March 2021, he is now developing a new portfolio, in broadcasting, business and public life. A fluent Welsh speaker, his early career was spent as a barrister specialising in criminal, family and personal injury law and he is now a Professor of Law at Aberystwyth University.

Dawn Austwick OBE has been the Chief Executive of the National Lottery Community Fund since 2013, overseeing the distribution of £600 million of funding to communities across the UK each year, including the creation of the Fund’s £100 million Climate Action Fund. Prior to the National Lottery, she was the Chief Executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation from 2005, and, before that, had established her reputation in the museum sector having been the Deputy Director of the British Museum, led reviews of English Heritage, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery for government and as Project Director oversaw the creation of Tate Modern. She is currently on the board of a range of organisations including the Kiln Theatre, the National Lottery Forum, London Marathon, University of Bath Institute of Policy Research, and the Rand Foundation, among others.

Freya previously led the design and delivery of the Natural Capital Measurement Catalogue while working with the Food and Land Use team at Climateworks Centre in Australia.

By engaging with academic and industry experts, as well as decision-makers across government, financial institutions, and food supply chains, Freya worked to embed more consistent metrics to support the scaling of natural capital measurement across Australia.

Freya holds a Bachelor of Science majoring in Ecology and Conservation, and a Diploma of Languages; in Spanish and Latin American Studies. In her spare time, you'll find her hiking or on the lookout for local, sustainable eating recommendations!

Joanna provides support to the Chief Executive and to the Commission's Board, and is working with the team to assist the FFCC’s transition to an independent charitable organisation.

With a background in operations management, Joanna joined the FFCC from the Royal Household and has a wealth of experience in events and hospitality, alongside supporting senior executives.

Jon Parker is Director of FFCC Wales. He’s spent 25 years working in the agri-food, fisheries and aquaculture sectors with the Welsh Devlelopment Agency and Welsh Government before leaving to set up CamNesa Consulting in 2011.

Most recently Jon has been CEO at one of Wales’s oldest environment charities, The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, where he has taken the organisation through a full strategic review and set the foundations for incorporation. Having just stood down as Industry Panel Chair for Seafish Industry Authority after six years, Jon brings board level experience within a UK non-governmental public body.

Outside FFCC, Jon leads on advocacy for Aquaculture Industry Wales trade consortium and manages a 30 acre holding with his partner and daughter in Ceredigion.

Amanda joined FFCC as their Office Manager in March 2024.

Previously she’s worked in a broad range of roles with organisations creating and advocating for social change and education, including Social Investment Business, Big Issue Invest, the Healthcare Commission, CityLit, Morley College, and the RSA, where she supported the development of the project from which FFCC would one day be born.

Outside work, she loves live music, photography, and exploring new places.

Jess holds an MSc in Society, Politics and Climate Change from the University of Bristol. She is specifically interested in the role of social research methods in revealing interrelated environmental and social justice crises and tackling them where they intersect. Her MSc focused on the food system at multiple scales, the complex challenges facing the UK, and the relationship between food security, climate change, and social policy.

She recently conducted a research report for Rory’s Well, a charity empowering small-scale farming, local food production and agroforestry in Sierra Leone.

She loves teaching yoga, surfing and being in the sea.

Kirsty is an experienced developer in urban and rural community practice. She enjoys supporting action on the ground and shaping policy based on real-life experiences. Kirsty has been interested in the connection and relationship between people, land, and nature for many years, stemming from her upbringing on a tenant farm in Perthshire. She has previously worked as a Good Practice Adviser for the Scottish Land Commission, where she implemented Scotland's Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement (LRRS). Kirsty has also worked for the Carnegie UK Trust, where she delivered their rural community development program, community land ownership support, and the Ecology Centre in Fife, a land-based community charity.

Maki holds an MA in Ecology, Culture, and Society from the University of Goldsmiths, where they wrote about the politics and ethics of seaweed and octopus aquaculture.

Outside of work, Maki can be found facilitating creative nature-based workshops, writing multispecies SFF novels, and eating various spicy, soy-based dishes.

As Countries Coordinator, Georgia supports the delivery of FFCC projects in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Georgia’s experience covers many roles in project facilitation and management. Her background is in horticultural education and community food work, with a focus on connecting urban growing with climate and social justice. She is completing an MSc in Sustainable Food and Natural Resources and holds a BA Honours in French and Spanish.

She lives in Glasgow and is usually either playing football or taking her kayak out on nearby lochs.

Dan is the Director of Nature Service Wales, a fledgling organisation being ‘incubated’ by FFCC through its initial development phase. Nature Service Wales aims to build a national movement in service of nature, while creating a stronger foundation for nature recovery through bringing greater visibility, accessibility and cohesion to the sector.

As a freelance ecologist and director of Spectrum Ecology, he has provided ecological services across Wales, including regularly providing advice and services to the film industry when shooting at ecologically sensitive locations.

Passionate about reconnecting people with the magic of the natural world, Dan has also designed and delivered creative landscape interpretation schemes at sites across south and mid Wales. He is also a Green Flag Award judge and a TEDx speaker.

When not engaged in these pursuits, Dan will be somewhere out in nature with his family, or busy tending to his wildlife garden at his home near Porthcawl, South Wales.