Assured Food Standards (AFS) Board members
David Gregory
Chairman, AFS
Appointed AFS Chairman, 1st December 2009.
David brings with him a wealth of experience in food production and consumer-facing initiatives having previously worked with Marks & Spencer for over 25 years, most recently as the Director of technology for the Food Division of M&S until his retirement earlier this year.
He has also held several key industry positions during his period, such as a Governor of the Institute of Food Research and a Governor of the British Nutrition Foundation. He has a proven track record of identifying consumer trends, and leading businesses, and their suppliers, through changing attitudes and delivering successful outcomes.
Meurig Raymond
Vice Chairman, AFS
Meurig Raymond farms 2,800 acres in Pembrokeshire in partnership with his twin brother. The farm grows 1,600 acres of combinable crops and 130 of acres of potatoes. There are 600 dairy cows, with 300 followers. The farm also has 600 head of beef cattle and around 2,500 store lambs, fattened during winter.
Meurig, 55, was elected local branch Chairman of the NFU in 1979 and Pembrokeshire County Chairman in 1989. In 1992 he became the Welsh NFU Treasurer and served as the Pembrokeshire delegate on NFU Council between 1995 and 2004.
He served as Vice-Chairman of the NFU's Cereals Committee between 1999 and 2001 and on the Agricultural Wages Board for six years from 1998. He was elected as Vice President of the NFU in 2004 and became Deputy President in 2006.
Meurig represented Wales on the Home Grown Cereals Authority between 1997 and 2004 and served on the council of Food from Britain between 1997and 2003. He became a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society in 2000 and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours in January 2005 for his services to agriculture.
Meurig is a Board member of Flood Risk Management Wales, and serves as a Trustee of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI).
He is married to Hilary and they have three grown-up children. His eldest son, Paul, is involved in the family farming business. Nicola is working as a PR executive in Melbourne, Australia, and Jonathan is an investment banker with UBS in London.
Sector Directors
Philip Richardson
Chairman, Red Tractor Farm Assurance- Pigs 
Following a farm management degree at Reading, Philip joined the family farming partnership in Norfolk in 1969. The partnership continued until 2000, when its arable farming interests were passed to the next generation. Philip retained the pig enterprise until 2008, when he retired from active farming.
Philip has been associated with BPA, NFU pigs and NPA producer committees for 30 years. He was a member of the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) Pork and Bacon Promotion Council, the MLC Research Steering Committee and the MLC Pig Strategy Council (the predecessor to BPEX). He chaired the technical committee that led to the first English assurance scheme and has been associated with assurance, either on technical committees or as a board member, ever since. He was given the David Black Award for service to the pig industry in 2006.
Philip retired in 2005 as Chairman of TAG, the largest independent arable research group in the country. He remains a trustee of three agricultural charities and is a member of the steering group of AFCP, which seeks to maximise the value of charitable funds to the industry through coordination and representation.
Tom Campbell
Chairman, Red Tractor Farm Assurance- Dairy
Tom Campbell farms 230 acres in West Kilbride, Ayrshire. A third generation dairy farmer, he has 100 Holstein Friesian cows and followers, producing over 700,000 litres per year.
Tom is a non-executive farmer director of First Milk Limited, where he chairs First Milk Academy, the professional development programme, promoting skills development for producers.
Tom is Chairman of Assured Dairy Farms, which sets audits and monitors food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection standards for all the major milk processors and over 12,000 dairy farms. He represents the farming unions and the dairy industry as a non-executive director of Assured Food Standards Ltd.
Tom is an active member of the Royal Highland Education Trust, an educational charity which aims to create the opportunity for each child in Scotland to learn about the countryside.
He is married to Marion and they have one son, David, who is at secondary school.
John Thorley O.B.E
Chairman, Red Tractor Farm Assurance- Beef and Lamb
Appointed AFS Beef and Lamb Sector Chairman 1 December 2009.
In 1968 John joined the National Sheep Association (NSA). From 1976-1985 he was Secretary of the National Cattle Breeders Association and for two years he was additionally General Manager of British Semen Export Company. John’s enthusiasm for farming and his outstanding services to the sheep industry have been reflected in his array of awards. In 1988 the NSA presented him with the George Hedley Memorial award, two years later he received the Giovanni Marcora prize by the Italian Government, in 2002 he was awarded the Royal Smithfield Club bi-centenary Award and in 2006 he received his O.B.E for services to sheep farming. In addition to this, during 2006, the Royal Agricultural Society of England awarded him their National Agricultural Award.
Professor Mark Tatchell
Chairman, Red Tractor Farm Assurance- Fresh Produce
Professor Mark Tatchell is the independent chairman of the Assured Produce Scheme. His career has been devoted to horticulture and agriculture, initially as a research entomologist and more recently as a senior research manager. He has worked at Horticulture Research International (now Warwick HRI) and Rothamsted Research developing and implementing integrated crop management programmes.
Mark has been an independent consultant since 2004 to science-based organisations. Customers have included Defra, Central Science Laboratory, Royal Horticultural Society, Horticultural Development Council, Research Councils, Rothamsted Research and the Scottish Government. His expertise is in the review and direction of research programmes. Mark is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick.
David Joll
Chairman, Red Tractor Farm Assurance- Poultry 
David Joll became Chairman of Assured Chicken Production in December 2008.
David came to the role independent of any particular interests having retired from the industry in 2005. He has a wealth of experience of the sector having held positions with Bernard Matthews Holdings Ltd, Ross Foods and Birds Eye Foods from which he brings strong contacts with all links in the supply chain. David also has a long track record working with Government departments and the EU Commission, welfare organisations and industry bodies. He is a Fellow of The Institute of Grocery Distributors (The IGD) and a Member of The Institute of Food Scientist and Technology.
Matthew Read
Chairman, Red Tractor Farm Assurance- Crops & Sugar Beet 
After leaving the Royal Agricultural College in 1989 Matthew Read joined the family farming business. Matthew, 40, now farms 3200 acres on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border partly on his family owned farm, as a Tenant and as a Contract farmer. The farms grow a range of combinable crops, including wheat, spring barley, oilseed rape and linseed.
As well as farming, Matthew is the Managing Director of an agricultural bulk haulage business in conjunction with a local grain merchant.
Matthew was elected Chairman of the Assured Combinable Crops Board in 2008, having sat on the board for the past three years. He also represents cereal producers at regional level, having sat on the NFU South East Regional Crops Board since it’s formation in 2004 and been Vice Chairman since 2008.
Matthew is married to Jenny and they have two young children.
Food Chain Directors
Richard Davis
Farming
Richard Davis farms 125 hectares in North Bedfordshire. He has 120 pedigree Holstein Friesian cows and 70 head of youngstock. The farm runs alongside the Great Ouse River and produces good crops of maize as well as winter wheat and grass.
Richard is represents the farming unions as a non-executive director of Assured Food Standards Ltd.
Richard recently joined both the NFU National Dairy Board. representing East Anglia, and Defra’s National Standing Committee for Farm Animal Genetics.
He is married to Debra, and they have two children at secondary school - Ellie and James.
Stuart Roberts
Meat Processing
Philip J Wilkinson OBE
Poultry Processing
After studying agriculture at Askham Bryan, Philip chose the dairy industry for his career. Starting as a management trainee at the Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales, he progressed through a range of different roles within the industry, culminating in that of commercial director of Arla Foods plc. In parallel with this career, he studied Agribusiness at Harvard Business School.
During his career Philip held several industry positions including chairmanship of the Dairy Council and National Dairy Farm Assured Ltd. He was awarded an OBE for services to the dairy industry in 2003.
Upon leaving the dairy sector, Philip became managing director of Grampian Country Food Group’s integrated chicken business and more recently joined 2 Sisters Food Group, a privately owned chicken business supplying a range of products across all industry sectors. He is a director of Assured Chicken Produce and the British Poultry Council.
Liz Kynoch
Retail
Liz Kynoch was appointed to the Board of Assured Food Standards as the representative of the British Retail Consortium in 2004.
Brought up and educated in Stirlingshire, Liz studied Microbiology at Strathclyde University in the 1980s and moved to London to join Marks and Spencer as a food technologist.
Liz spent 13 years with M&S’s Food Group before leaving retail for manufacturing, joining Express Dairies as Technical and Research and Development Director. She then returned to retailing, this time with a remit covering food and non foods as Safeway’s Technical Director, before taking up her present role as Group Technical and Trading Law Director with Tesco.
Liz’s role at Tesco covers product quality assessment, ethical standards, stores and distribution centres’ operational policy and standards, consumer regulatory and scientific affairs, as well as product integrity for the Tesco Group worldwide.
John Cross
Levy Bodies
John Cross – Chairman of the EBLEX Board and EBLEX Beef and Better Returns Steering Committee.
A fifth generation farmer, John farms a mixed livestock and arable enterprise in Norfolk. He previously served on the National Farmers’ Union Livestock Committee for seven years and is a former Chairman of both the Lamb Promotion Council and the merged Beef and Lamb Promotion Council. John sits on the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and is Chairman of the EBLEX Board. He also chairs the EBLEX Beef Betters Returns Programme Steering Committee.
Independent Directors
Diane McCrea
Consumer Representative
Diane McCrea was appointed to the Board of Assured Food Standards in 2007 to represent the consumer sector.Diane was brought up in South Wales and initially studied in Cardiff, moving to London for postgraduate work in nutrition. The early part of her career was spent in education, research and management at Middlesex University where she was programme head in science and technology policy, before moving to the Consumers’ Association (now Which?) where she spent five years as Head of Food and Health Research. For over ten years she has been an independent consultant on food and consumer policy, working on food projects and consumer representation for consumer organisations in the UK, Europe and internationally. These have included the European Commission, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation. Her particular interests are in consumer information, food labelling, quality schemes and consumer input to regulatory affairs.
Diane has been an independent commissioner of the Meat and Livestock Commission. She is a member of several government committees including the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee and the Food Standards Agency’s research and animal feedingstuffs committees. She is also a member of the governing body of the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. She has been on the advisory board of several EU-funded research projects and managed the Consensus Workshops project for BEUC - the European Consumers’ Association. She has published extensively on consumer policy and co-edited two handbooks on organic food standards and marketing.
Having eventually returned to Wales to live in Cardiff Bay, Diane is now on the Board of the Consumer Council for Water and Chair of its Wales Committee.
Malcolm Thomas
Regulatory Bodies
Professor Alan Malcolm
Science Representative
Alan Malcolm has been Chief Executive of the Institute of Biology since 1998.
His background is in academic biochemistry, with particular reference to medical applications, followed by seven years in food research. He has held posts as Director of the Institute of Food Research and as Director General of the Flour, Milling and Baking Research Association. During his time as Chair of Biochemistry at Charing Cross and Westminster Hospital Medical School, he also held the chairmanship of the Biochemical Society and was Chair of the Scientific and Research Committee of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council.
Alan was a member of the COMA Committee on Folate in the Diet. He was Chairman of the British Nutrition Foundation from 1998 to 2000, and a member of the Government's Food Advisory Committee for seven years. He is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for Novel Foods and Processes and was Vice-Chairman of the Food and Drink Technology Foresight Panel for six years. He has been an expert adviser to Select Committees in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and is currently a Vice President of the Parliamentary Scientific Committee.
He is a member of the European Commission Standing Group on Fresh Fruit and Vegetables. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine.
Alan has published more than 200 scientific papers and is a frequent contributor on radio, television and other news media. He is a member of the editorial boards of several review journals including Outlook on Agriculture and Science in Parliament.
AFS executive staff
David Clarke
Chief Executive, AFS
David Clarke worked in the food service industry for over 20 years after originally graduating as a microbiologist. Most of his early career was in the Forte Group where he was ultimately Technical Director with particular responsibility for supply chain management.
Moving on in 1997, he spent a year with the United Kingdom Accreditation Service establishing the principles for accreditation of inspection and certification in the food industry. Much of this work involved certification in assurance schemes and in 1998 he became directly involved in the livestock schemes, becoming chief executive of Assured Food Standards a couple of years later.
David has been a member of several industry and governmental advisory bodies and has been a regular contributor to trade publications and other texts.
Barry Cox
Financial Controller, AFS 
Barry Cox joined assured Food Standards as Financial Controller in March 2004. He qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants in 1982, became an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in 1983, and has been a Member of the Chartered Management Institute since 1985.
His initial post-qualification experience centred on a number of financial appointments within subsidiaries wholly owned by quoted PLCs in various industrial sectors, with more recent experience in a number of senior roles in privately owned businesses.
Barry spent a significant part of his first year at AFS dealing with transitional matters on scheme integration and the provision of financial information to the Board. He is enthusiastic about the prospects for AFS and the future of food assurance in the UK.
Barry is married to Jane and has one son who is at senior school.
Julia Mooney
Head of Marketing, AFS
Julia has extensive senior marketing experience in transforming the performance of some of the UK’s leading brands.
Graduating from the University of Bath with a BSc in Home Economics and Food Science, she has also been awarded an MSc in Management Science from the University of Southampton.
Leading the marketing for Associated British Food’s flagship brand Twinings, Julia delivered innovative marketing strategies that resulted in exceptional performance by the brand’s core speciality tea business and a dominance in the high-growth herbal tea sector.
Following this success, Julia was invited to drive a series of important strategic marketing initiatives for the BBC. Over nine years with the Corporation, Julia transformed the marketing performance in a number of different services including BBC Radio 2, BBC Proms in the Park, BBC News and BBC central strategic marketing and planning.
Julia is married with two children and lives in West London. She has worked for Assured Food Standards since 2006.
Liz Kerrigan
Schemes Secretariat, ACCS, AP, ACP, ABP
A farmer’s daughter and graduate of London University with a BSc in zoology, Liz joined the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) as a graduate trainee. She set up the NFU’s fish farming section and the Salmon and Trout Marketing Association, before going on to work for the United Kingdom Agricultural Supply Trade Association (UKASTA) in 1977. Initially she had responsibility for the organisation and establishment of the British Agrochemical Supply Industry Scheme Ltd (BASIS). She then managed the UKASTA Arable Sector and until 1994 she was Secretary General of UCEPCEE (the European Trade Association representing the interests of distributors of fertilisers and other agrochemicals).
Liz was appointed to provide the secretariat services for the Assured Crops, Assured Produce and Assured Chicken Production schemes from their inception in 1997. The Assured British Pigs scheme joined the portfolio in June 2003. All of these schemes have now become integrated in AFS as the Sector Boards for crops, chicken, fresh produce and pigs. Liz provides the administration and management of standards development for all of these commodities and undertakes liaison with stakeholders, certification bodies, scheme members, government departments and the public.
Derek Kennedy
Executive Officer, ADF
Derek is contracted to Assured Dairy Farms (ADF), formerly the National Dairy Farm Assured Scheme (NDFAS), from the Dairy - Select Services team within the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC). In his position as ADF Executive Officer, which he has held since 2003, he manages all the administration and assessor training functions of the scheme on behalf of the ADF Board. His role involves liaison with a wide range of people and bodies including the scheme directors, members (first purchasers), farmers, assessors, certification bodies, Assured Food Standards, other assurance schemes, government departments and the public.
From a farming background, Derek has worked in the dairy industry for 21 years. This has included work as a nutritionist and consultant. In his work with one milk purchaser, he had a key role in introducing assurance to the company’s supplying farmers and was a qualified farm assessor. With these perspectives he has seen a lot of progress in assurance in the dairy sector. During this time, he has been involved with the EN45011 accreditation process for the scheme, the integration of dairy farm assurance into Assured Food Standards and the technical and operational development of AFS.
Philippa Wiltshire
Strategy and Technical Manager, ABM
Philippa, a farmer’s daughter from Buckinghamshire, is a graduate in agri-business management from Newcastle University. Her early work experience included being Manager of British Cereal Exports (BCE), the export promotion division of the Home-Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA). Prior to joining ABM in 2002 she was Chief Executive of the FABBL Farm Assurance Scheme for four years, responsible for the management of the scheme and recruitment of members. Philippa is married with two young children.