Julius combines his role of managing director of Greens with a number of non-executive directorships at Management Development Services, G’s Growers and other farming companies. As the UK subsidiary of Spearhead International, Greens farm across 6,000ha. Contract farming arrangements involving cereal and sugar beet cropping are an integral part of the business, built on long term relationships with farmers.

Angela has more than 35 years’ experience in crop genetics and breeding for food and bio-renewables. Her recent research career focused on optimising the sustainable yield and composition of perennial biomass crops (especially willows) for bioenergy, biofuels and other industrial products, under low-input arable systems. She has more than 130 refereed publications, co-authored a text book on genetics, and is co-editor of books on genetics and bioenergy. In 2007, she received the Royal Agricultural Society of England Research Medal and, in 2008, the Alfred-Toepfer Prize for her research achievements.

Tim Whitehead works for Velcourt, Europe’s largest farm management and advisory company and is the Farm Manager on Vine Farm in Hertfordshire. The farm is 1300 Ha and grows winter wheat, winter oil seed rape, spring beans, peas, spring barley and sugar beet in nutrient rich clay soil, which gives good yields. 100 Ha of the farm is currently being converted into a solar farm for the National Grid. Tim also provides agronomic advice to a large farmer-owned co-operative in Northern France.

Andrew Francis is senior farm manager of Elveden Estates. Elveden is a 22,500 acre country estate, of which over 10,000 acres is farmland. The farm grows potatoes, onions, carrots and parsnips and cereals such as rye, barley and wheat. The farm annually carries out a range of agronomic and technological trials to ensure the soil condition is enhanced, farmed sustainably and remains fertile and productive for generations to come.

Brian and his cousin Patrick run Lodge Farm, a family farm partnership. The farm is run on a 12-year rotation including winter wheat for feed, spring barley, herbage grass seed, oilseed rape and a break crop of beans, linseed or peas. Using this traditional crop rotation with a grass ley and no root crops allows the soil to thrive and produce great harvests.

Andrew was born and raised in vegetable farming, attending Shuttleworth Agricultural College before moving on to do every role imaginable in Fresh Produce. Andrew is a big fan of Environmental Farming, including organic. He is currently on the NFU Horticulture Board and has served on the LEAF board, Soil Association, AHDB & British Carrot Growers.

Sue Lockhart is the Head of Agriculture at Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s has built relationships with more than 2,200 UK farmers and growers over the last 7 years with the aim of producing great quality, safe, nutritious food for their customers, whilst ensuring that the company’s sourcing values are observed throughout the chain and using data to help farmers and growers identify how they can improve their efficiency. The company recognises the critical role that technology and innovation can play in increasing resilience in the food chain and Sue will talk about some of the projects Sainsbury’s has taken in this area.

Jackie Hunter is the Chief Executive of BBSRC, the main funder of world-leading UK bioscience research and training. BBSRC aims to promote innovation in the bioeconomy, creating economic growth and social benefits. BBSRC is committed to fund key strategic areas, one of which is agriculture and food security. BBSRC drives innovation in the biosciences by fostering interactions, collaborations and technology transfer between the science community and end users.

Clifford Dive studied Engineering Science at Oxford University and has since pursued a broad-ranging career in hi-tech product development, in recent years focusing on product management and business development, currently as VP Business Development at Argon Design. Argon is an electronic product design services company with a successful record of helping our customers to develop products for a broad range of markets including medical, industrial control, wireless communications and consumer products. With core skills in electronic and software design, we have particular world-class capability in video and image processing and products for the Internet of Things.

Matthew Smith is an ecologist in the Computational Science Laboratory at Microsoft Research. He is working on the application of computer modelling to a number of agricultural challenges, including better matching supply with demand, in order to develop improved systems for prediction and forecasting.

Simon Cassia is the CEO of Plextek Consulting, one of the largest independent electronics design consultancies in Europe. It currently provides an electronics design service for security and defence, medical, automotive and the Internet of Things applications and is looking to apply its capabilities and experience within agri-tech.

Chris joined Rothamsted in October2013 and was instrumental in the creation of RoCRE. He has been CEO since September 2015 and leads a multi-skilled team who work to facilitate and foster meaningful connections for the benefits of all in the agri related research sectors.

Prior to joining Rothamsted, he was Head of NPD and Marketing at Ipsos Retail Performance, bringing online analytical products to global markets. Chris was founding director of The Sparc Technology Network and Bright Sparc Awards for Technology Led businesses and has a background in technology and research related business incubation, running a number of successful incubation and high growth programmes, leading teams in both start-ups and global organisations.

Tina is a plant geneticist well-respected for her scientific achievements and significant experience in the agricultural crop sector. She has led and managed multifaceted, product driven, research and development programmes in North America and UK/mainland Europe.

She is also a member of the Agri-Food Technology Council.

Tina has a first degree in Agricultural Botany from the University of Wales at Bangor, and a PhD from the University of Nottingham.

Meurig Raymond has been President of the NFU since 2014 and farms 3,400 acres in Pembrokeshire. With over 55,000 members across England and Wales, the NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members.

Belinda has led the development and growth of Agri-Tech East from its conception and brings tremendous experience of science and its translation into business opportunities. Originally trained as a plant scientist, Belinda is a Fellow of the Society of Biology and a Chartered Biologist.

Belinda has held senior positions in a number of innovation driven organisations including the role of Lead Technologist for biosciences at Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board). She is a council member for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and a trustee of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association.

Her first degree was in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and her PhD was awarded from the John Innes Centre through the University of East Anglia.