Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Director operating in the Farming space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Michaela Peicheva
Director, People and Operations of Wefarm
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About Wefarm: Wefarm is a farmer-to-farmer digital network that enables users to share information via SMS.
William de Klein
Director of Agriculture & Business Development of Karro Food Group
With a Food Technical and Production Management background, William has 15 years of experience in senior management roles within meat processing sites. William leads our Agriculture and Trading agenda – ensuring through relationships with our farmers that we deliver meat quality to the exact requirements of our customer. William is also responsible for the profitable growth of our international trade activities.
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About Karro Food Group: Karro Food Group is meat processors with pork processing plants.
Chris White
Commercial Director of Karro Food Group
Chris joined Karro in July 2014 and was promoted to the board as Commercial Director for the group in January 2016. Having been in commercial roles for over 18 years within the food industry he has extensive knowledge of our customer base. Latterly Chris was an Account Director at Cranswick PLC and has over 12 years’ experience in the pork industry. He is responsible for the management of our commercial, marketing and product development functions ensuring we are delivering at all levels for our customers.
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About Karro Food Group: Karro Food Group is meat processors with pork processing plants.
Kate Allum
Non-Executive Director of the Board of Directors of Origin Enterprises
Kate Allum was appointed to the Origin Board on 1 October 2015. Kate is currently a Non-Executive Director at Cranswick plc where she is a member of both the Audit and the Remuneration and Nomination Committee. She has also previously held a number of senior roles in the food and agricultural sector, including Chief Executive of First Milk Limited and Head of European Supply Chain for McDonald’s Restaurants.
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About : Origin Enterprises plc manufactures, supplies, and distributes agri-service products. It offers agronomy, technology, and strategic
Katrin Burt
Executive Director of Grosvenor Food & AgTech
Katrin joined Intersouth Partners in 2004 and works primarily with the technology team. She joined Intersouth from London-based HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world. At HSBC she moved through a series of roles, starting as a foreign exchange trader in London, managing portfolios of treasury products and equities in Tokyo and eventually moving to a business development role managing the annual operating plan for the bank’s billion-dollar Global Markets Europe Division. Katrin serves on the executive committee and board of directors of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), is a director of the North Carolina Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology and lectures at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. She holds a B.A. from Oxford University, an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and an M.S. in Microsystems and Nanotechnology from Cranfield University.
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About Grosvenor Food & AgTech, Syngenta Ventures: Grosvenor Food & AgTech is an international investor in food and agriculture businesses.
Anthony James
Executive Director of Grosvenor Food & AgTech
Anthony joined Wheatsheaf from Grosvenor, where he spent five years as Group Corporate Finance Director. Prior to Grosvenor, Anthony was Head of Energy & Natural Resources M&A at KPMG Corporate Finance where he led a wide range of acquisition, disposal and other strategic advisory assignments across the sector. His previous roles have included senior finance and corporate development positions at Philips Electronics, both in the Netherlands and China
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About Grosvenor Food & AgTech: Grosvenor Food & AgTech is an international investor in food and agriculture businesses.
Zac Gazit
Founder, CEO & Managing Director of ALVATECH
Zac Gazit is the founder, CEO & Managing Director of ALVATECH & he attended The College of Management Academic Studies in 1997.
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About ALVATECH: ALVATECH develops water treatment solutions and technology for effective farming productivity.
Peter Jackson
Director of Redag Crop Protection
Dr. Peter Jackson, also known as Pete, is a Co-Founder of Redx Pharma PLC, RedAg Crop Protection Ltd., ADC Biotechnology Ltd., YProTech Ltd and Reaxa Ltd. Dr. Jackson has over twenty five years’ experience in the sector including the commercialisation of innovative technologies and forming, funding, development and exiting of technology startups. He is a serial life sciences entrepreneur based in the North West of England. He served as Vice President of Piramal Healthcare UK Limited (also known as NPIL Pharmaceuticals (UK) Limited and Avecia Pharmaceuticals Limited) since 2002. He held a series of sales and business management roles in the UK, Europe and Japan with ICI and Zeneca. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Reaxa Ltd. He serves as the Non-Executive Chairman at BiVictriX Therapeutics Ltd. He serves as the Chairman of YProTech Ltd. He provides YProTech with valuable strategic guidance and commercial support. He served as the Chairman of the Board at Redx Pharma Plc. He serves as a Director of Blackley Holdings Ltd, ADC Biotechnology Ltd. and Yorkshire Process Technology Ltd. He served as a Non Executive Director of Redx Pharma Plc since September 2014 until March 31, 2017. Dr. Jackson is a Graduate of the Universities of East Anglia, UK and Massachusetts USA, Dr. Jackson gained his PhD at Durham University, UK before joining ICI Fine Chemicals in 1989.
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About AMR Centre, Redag Crop Protection: The engine of discovery for the agrochemical industry.
Mike Panteli
Financial Director of Engage Agro Europe
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About Engage Agro Europe: Engage Agro Europe specializes in crop enhancement and nutritional products for agriculture, horticulture, turf, and ornamentals.
Derek Stewart
Director of Advanced Plant Growth Centre
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About Advanced Plant Growth Centre: APGC develops science that underpins commercial, economic, and environmental benefits in the agriculture, food, and beverage sectors.
Steven Adams
Research & Development Director of Plant Impact
Steve has a degree in Horticulture and a PhD from the University of Reading. For 12 years he was a Principle Investigator and Protected Crops Commodity Specialist at Warwick HRI (formerly Horticulture Research International), where he managed a team focusing on the physiology of glasshouse crops. The focus of his research was investigating and modelling how the aerial environment affects plant growth and development. He has been a scientific adviser for AHDB Horticulture since 2003, and is a past Associate Editor of the Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology. He has extensive experience of managing research projects, after leading numerous projects funded by DEFRA and AHDB. He holds the Rudolf Hermanns Foundation Award for outstanding achievements in viticultural and horticultural sciences.
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About Plant Impact: products manage a plant’s natural responses to stress factors to build its resilience.
Paul Holliday
Director and Lead Software Developer of Farm Matters
Paul Holliday is the director and lead software developer at Farm Matters.
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About Farm Matters: Farm Matters develops a farm management software for farm record keeping needs.
Paul Brown
Managing Director of Only By Nature
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About Only By Nature: Only By Nature is mission to make healthier natural products without compromising on taste, which is why we’re Only By Nature!
Paul Brown
Managing Director of Only By Nature
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About Only By Nature: Only By Nature is mission to make healthier natural products without compromising on taste, which is why we’re Only By Nature!
Margaret Salmon
Managing Director of Only By Nature
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About Only By Nature: Only By Nature is mission to make healthier natural products without compromising on taste, which is why we’re Only By Nature!
Paul Adams
Technology Director of Evogro
CTO @Evogro. Graduated from Imperial College, London with a MEng, Electrical & Electronic Engineering. 8 years at Altien Ltd, an enterprise software company as a developer, technical consultant, pre-sales, dev lead.
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About Evogro: Evogro makes plant growing systems for chefs
