Elected Directors 2011-12

Peter Taylor (Chairman)

Julian Gibbons (Vice Chairman)

Charles Tomkins

Helen Ferrier

Paul Miller

Andrew Watson

Board Member Profiles

Elected Directors

Peter Taylor is an Independent crop consultant on 6000 ha’s of land in  Essex/Herts border and South Cambs. Specialising in all aspects of combinable crops, farmer technical meetings and benchmarking. Executive President of AICC, BASIS Board member, CEL Wheat committee (term of office just completed), and Vi Steering Group member.

Julian Gibbons graduated from Wye College in 1984 and joined the family farming business. All arable about 820ha of arable land . Julian sat for 10 years on the NFU’s national cereals committee and currently sit on the South-East Regional Crops board. Board member of the HGCA from 1997-2002 and chairman of it’s Market Development Committee 2002- 2008. He is an non-exec director of Openfield Producers and a long time member of RRA (Long Ashton Members Association).

Charles Tomkins is a Northamptonshire arable farmer and sits on the TAG R&D committee and the Morley New Farming Systems steering group.

Dr Helen Ferrier is the NFU’s Chief Science and Regulatory Affairs Adviser. She has worked for the National Farmers’ Union since June 2000.  Her main areas of policy expertise in the NFU are agricultural science and research, biotechnology, food labelling and nutrition. Helen is chair of the Agri-Food Panel at Campden BRI and is a member of the Boards of Rothamsted Research Association and of RUMA (Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture). She is a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. Before joining the NFU, Helen was a research scientist at Imperial College London, in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology.

Paul Miller currently leads the Silsoe Spray Applications Unit that is part of the NIAB/TAG Group and is involved with all aspects of agricultural chemical application.  He is an agricultural engineer and has worked in research development for more than 35 years on topics including sugar beet harvesting, grain drying, precision farming, fertiliser and spray application.  While most of his work has been UK-based he has also been concerned with spray application work in other countries including Brazil, USA, Australia and Africa.  Paul is a past president of The Institution of Agricultural Engineers and is also currently involved with the work of The Douglas Bomford Trust.

Appointed by the Board in 2010

Julian Hasler Julian Hasler farms in the Cotswolds. He is vice-chairman of HGCA’s R&D Committee and chairs the Knowledge Transfer and Evaluation Groups. He sees RRA as an example for others of how to reconnect the researcher in his laboratory with the farmer in his field and how to make them useful to each other.

Sarah Cowlrick is the CEO for the AICC (Association of Independent Crop Consultants) and has been involved with the AICC for 15 years. As CEO Sarah sits on various committees in the industry representing the AICC. Life in the industry started after qualifying in administration and later farm management and starting her own business in 1985.  She provides some consultancy advice to farmers. Sarah is passionate about improving the mechanisms for knowledge transfer from the scientists to the practitioners. Married to an independent agronomist and has 3 children. Became Company & Membership secretary to RRA in November 2009.

Dr Susannah Bolton has been working in the promotion and dissemination of research relevant to agriculture for over 16 years. She has a doctorate in tropical agronomy.  From 1993 she was responsible for the development of international research proposals and science communication and knowledge transfer activities at Rothamsted. She is passionate about the importance of high quality science and its application in agriculture. She joined HGCA as Head of Research & Development and KT in September 2009. Susannah lives with her husband and 2 sons in Hertfordshire.

Co Opted by the Board

Andrew McShane is the Managing Director of Hutchinsons the 2^ndlargest employer of agronomists in the UK. He is also a member of the AIC Chief Executive’s committee for the Crop Protection & Agronomy sector.  Andrew has been for 25 years and still is an active agronomist. He is on the BASIS Professional Register and also holds the FACTS, BETA & Plant Protection Award qualifications. After graduating from Edinburgh University with a B.Sc in Biochemistry, Andrew went on to obtain a M.Sc. from Cranfield/Silsoe (thesis on adjuvants in herbicides Supervisor Dr Colin Merritt) and an MBA. He is very enthusiastic about bring scientific ideas into agronomic practice to sustainably improve crop yields and grower profitability.

Dr Rosie Bryson is the Development Manager for BASF Agricultural Products Europe within the UK, Ireland, Nordics and Baltics region. She manages a team of development agronomists based at Woolpit in Suffolk from where all pre-registration work across crop types is carried out.  Rosie also has a range of outside interests within the science community including being a board member for the Rothamsted Research Association and a panel member for the New Engineering Foundation.  BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company and has an extensive portfolio ranging from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF helps its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful with a strong commitment in B2B partnerships as well as new innovation and knowledge transfer activities.

Niamh Tye is a Specialist Agriculture PR Consultant & Freelance journalist for agricultural press.  Graduated from Nottingham and later Bath.  Provides an Independent PR & Communications specialist service for a range of agricultural clients including BASF plc, AICC, Dalton’s Seeds, RASE, Royal Smithfield Club, Tradecorp UK, Cereals Event.  Previous roles included being press Officer for Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), British Council teaching agriculture in Botswana.  Member of Guild Of Agricultural Journalists.