Who is South West Food & Drink?
South West Food & Drink is a Limited Company, established in 2002 by the South West of England Regional Development Agency. The Board of Directors, comprised of industry and sector representatives, will co-ordinate development initiatives in the region and drive through new programmes, working along side existing and new industry led Sector Groups. These directors give up their time freely to fulfil their roles. Also on the Board is the Chairman and the full time Operations Manager who oversees the running and operation of the organisation. Presently, two Project Managers make up the rest of the team.
Biographies of Board Members of South West Food & Drink
Tom Langdon-Davies - Chairman
After twenty years as Commercial Director of Quickes Tradional, creating the Quickes international niche Cheddar brand, Tom has gone on to chair the Devon Towns Forum, and the South West Market and Coastal Towns Network.
He also works on Sustainable projects at Occombe Farm, the flagship sustainable food and farming part of Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust. Since leaving Quickes he has also advised many local SME food businesses on addressing barriers to growth.
Christine Marshall - Executive Director
Executive Director for South West Food & Drink, Christine has 35 years experience in the Food & Drink and Hospitality sectors. Experiences include working in the catering sector for publicly funded enterprises such as a university in Wales, the MOD in Scotland and hotel management in London. As a classically trained chef, has successfully owned and run both a restaurant and hotel over 21 years in the North West. Moved back to her roots in the South West, (a Devon farmer's daughter) and engaged with the local Food & Drink Industry by joining South West Food & Drink in 2003.
Brian Pocock
Brian Pocock After graduating in Business Studies, spent over 30 years in the dairy industry, holding senior positions in production, distribution, strategic planning, and procurement. He is well known in the South West as a leader in farm and food assurance and was a significant contributor to the creation of the National Dairy Farm Assured Scheme.
He owns a consulting practice focusing on business strategy and development. Currently, he is a Fellow of, and Lecturer at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester and advises a number of food businesses and organisations in the South West and nationally. He is also Chairman of a Trust which supports tertiary education in the dairy industry. Brian also breeds Simmental cattle on his farm in Cornwall and has a daughter who is a practising vet.
Jim Barnard
Jim Barnard has 20 years experience in the UK food sector specialising in niche dairy products. In the last decade he has worked abroad advising governments, United Nations and the World Bank on development issues in the food and agriculture sector on a national level. He is an experienced scientist.
He is currently director of a number of UK, including a farming company, and overseas companies and is a member of the South West Industrial Development Board.
David Lattimore
David Lattimore has over 30 years experience in the Dairy industry working with all members of the supply chain. Currently he is a Director of Forgefirst Ltd offering a range of business services to industry with primary focus on the Dairy Sector and a Smallholder.
Latterly he was a Council Member of the Milk Development Council and has worked closely with the Defra sponsored Dairy Supply Chain Forum. David was a member of the team that successfully launched the first Ukrainian company onto the UK stock exchange - AIM market, Ukrproduct Group Ltd. David leads the Finance Committee for South West Food and Drink and works closely with the Dairy Sector Group.
Deirdre Makepeace
With over 20 years experience in marketing management, Deirdre comes from a tourism background, having worked as Marketing Manager for Paignton Zoo and Head of Tourism for the English Riviera, where she has worked closely with the teams behind Occombe Farm and the new Brixham fish market.
Other experience includes, 2 years as Marketing Communications Manager for Riverford Organic Vegetables, Chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Overseas Marketing programme and various lecturing and training work.
Yvonne Burgin
Having studied Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Surrey, Yvonne has held a number of senior positions in the UK's food manufacturing industry.
Yvonne's experience includes managing major processes and organisations in a number of blue chip companies including Northern Foods and Alpha Flight Services. Yvonne's career moved on to run her own major Devon company supplying ASDA and Somerfield with a large proportion of their chilled pastry products and employing 400 local people.
Recently Yvonne has started up a brand new food business Brocklebanks of Devon Ltd which, produces and supplies desserts to premium catering outlets.
David Morgan - Company Secretary
David started his first food business when he was 23. The company Interfreeze, grew to two depots covering North West London and the surrounding counties. Subsequently, he built Foodcall a supplies business, distributing frozen products to retail bakers in the South West and Brittons a Bath based manufacturer of chilled vegetarian products for health food shops and supermarkets.
As an owner manager, both buying and selling food products throughout the South West for 20 years, David has a keen appreciation of the difficulties and joys of this way of life. He is keen advocate of all things local.
Currently David advises SMEs on finance, development and restructuring with a particular interest in social businesses.
Denise Pascoe
Denise Pascoe is a Director of Brian Etherington Meat Company , supplying fresh meat and frozen food to the catering industry throughout Cornwall, Devon and the Isles of Scilly. She has over 30 years experience in the meat industry.
She is a Professional Trainer in her own Company as well as Internal Verifier for SWFD and Duchy College and is the Chairman of the SWFDSN (South West Food & Drink Skills Network) Management Group. She has also gone through the NVQ process in management and achieved level 5 and is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute.
Denise developed within her own Company one of the first employer based 'Academy of Butchery Excellence' schools for NVQ's in Cornwall; working with the Meat Training Council providing multi skilled butchers for all sectors of the industry.
Recently her Company has won an award for the 'Best Volume Catering Sausage' in the UK under the brand name of 'Cornish Premier Gold' which uses local Cornish pork to produce one of the highest quality speciality sausages in the region.
Gray Olliver
Gray Olliver is currently a Sales and Marketing Director for Branded Drinks Ltd, who bottle and sell beers and ciders from small producers, mainly focusing on the bigger national supermarkets and off-licence chains in the take-home trade. Branded Drinks is based in Gloucestershire but operate nationally.
Gray has also worked as Strategic Services Director at Bulmers and prior to that as Sales and Marketing Director at Showerings Ltd., a subsidiary of Allied Domecq. Other companies worked for; Cadbury Schweppes, Dunlop, Ecolab and Mobil. Most of his experience is in the FMCG sector, international marketing, exports, new product development, PR and market research.