You are in remarkable company.
Welcome to Catalyst. Around this table are people who see food from different sides of the system, and who are willing to share what they know, challenge what they assume and help one another move forward.
Meet your fellow Catalysts ↓One community. Many ways to see the future of food.
Catalyst brings together senior leaders and pioneers across food, farming, retail, manufacturing, finance, talent and innovation. The value is in the perspectives around the table and the connections that grow between conversations.
Bring a question you are wrestling with. Offer something only you can see. Leave with a wider view of what is possible.
The conversation continues beyond the room.
Three roundtables
Candid, cross-sector conversations, beginning in October 2026.
Peer exchange
Make useful introductions, bring your asks and offers, and keep learning from one another.
The wider FFM network
Access Expert Events, Signals Briefings and monthly Field Notes during your Catalyst year.
Meet the Catalysts.
Every member has equal space here. Open any profile to hear what they bring, what they are curious about and where they would welcome your perspective.
Andrew BrodieChief Strategy and Organisation OfficerAvara Foods
What should this group know about you?
Chief strategy and organisation officer at Avara Foods responsible for strategic oversight and. governance, people technology and public affairs. Worked in food sector for over 30 years in private and multinational businesses in the UK and Europe, and a board director since 2010.
What are you curious about right now?
Food security challenges, consumer trends in diet, net zero challenges and the challenge and opportunity of technology in food production.
What do you know a lot about?
Strategy development, people culture and organisation, sustainability, governance and public relations.
What would you love to learn from this group?
More about consumer, market and food production trends and how my peer group is grappling with the same issues we are.
Your Catalyst superpower
Distilling and summarising complex challenges in simple terms.
Beth BrownGroup Strategy DirectorSamworth Brothers
What should this group know about you?
I am the Strategy Director for a major chilled food manufacturer. My original background is Marketing (Kelloggs, and then Marketing Director at Soreen) but I have recently been a Managing Director and am a Non-Exec of a small start-up. I'm passionate about the need to transition the food system to become healthier and more sustainable. I feel this is vital to protect the future of the planet, its people and our businesses.
What are you curious about right now?
How we can apply systems thinking in the transition of the food system. In particular, how we can better join up the corporate and commercial agendas within food retailers and the supply chain that sits behind them.
What do you know a lot about?
Marketing and brands (started my career at an advertising agency leading on brand strategy, and have worked in all aspects of marketing - innovation, comms, commercial activation - over a circa 15 yr career). General management - have been a Board director for 12 years, and was an MD until earlier this year.
What would you love to learn from this group?
Connections with retailers would be really helpful. I am also keen to learn from those who have successfully helped their organisations see long-term, abstract risks as near-term, urgent challenges to drive momentum into food system transition.
Your Catalyst superpower
Understanding brands, how to change consumer behaviour and how we communicate with consumers (plus where we shouldn't!).
Gemma ChappleSustainability Chief of StaffPepsiCo
What should this group know about you?
Transformation, Digital & Ecommerce background across variety sectors from Finance to Telcom with the last 10 years focusing on Food & Bevs. Transitioned to Sustainability 5 years ago to play a role in the worlds biggest transformation!
What are you curious about right now?
How Health & Sustainability are interlinked and how we can leverage consumer motivation to create more action within organizations.
What do you know a lot about?
Embedding Sustainability into a scaled business & designing with people & planet in mind.
What would you love to learn from this group?
a lot of my focus is internal, I would love this group to broaden my thinking and inspire me!
Your Catalyst superpower
Facilitation.
Sophie DaviesHead of ESGRefresco Drinks UK
What should this group know about you?
I lead Refresco's ESG and Corporate Affairs work in the UK. Refresco are a drinks manufacturer, bottling supermarket brands, A-list brands and our own branded drinks. Prior to this role I worked in the Sustainability team at Asda and in a variety of commercial and strategy roles at a number of food manufacturers. From this I bring an understanding of retailer and manufacturer challenges and opportunities and commercial understanding.
What are you curious about right now?
How it can be commercially feasible for manufacturers to decarbonise and move away from using natural gas when the spark gap (price between gas and electricity price) is so high.
What do you know a lot about?
ESG reporting, supplier engagement programmes, implementing government legislation.
What would you love to learn from this group?
More awareness of financing options available for decarbonisation projects; more knowledge of sustainable sourcing.
Your Catalyst superpower
Simplifying complex concepts to engage stakeholders.
Sarah EamesChief Operating OfficerWorld Wise Foods
What should this group know about you?
I oversee procurement, supply chain, technical & internal ops at World Wise Foods with a background in technical and sustainability. Having started my career at Sainsbury's I've worked on both the retailer and supply sides of the food industry. I also spent 3.5 years working in the US and continue to oversee our business there, bringing an international perspective on both markets as well as supply chains.
What are you curious about right now?
I think the big one now is how we build strategy, risk and resilience planning for a rapidly changing environment - particularly how we anticipate and respond to longer term climate shifts and what they mean for our food systems.
What do you know a lot about?
Navigating the complexities - and relationships - in international supply chains. My background is in technical & sustainability, with particular experience in responsible sourcing and seafood.
What would you love to learn from this group?
I’d love to learn from people who are challenging how the food industry operates — particularly how we can turn ambitious sustainability and purpose-led thinking into commercially successful, practical change. I’m keen to broaden my perspective beyond my own part of the industry, build relationships with people doing things differently, and have my own thinking challenged.
Your Catalyst superpower
Connecting people and effectively communicating to "get things done" - joining the dots between individuals or functions and translating it into something practical that people can understand, get behind and deliver.
Vicky Grinnell-WrightFuture Food Systems LeadLloyds Banking Group
What should this group know about you?
I work for Lloyds leading on Future Food Systems, for CIB (Corporate and Institutional) - this is the part of the bank which looks after consumer food and drink corporates. I have the great pleasure of also working on and with Food Tech Innovation and innovators who are solving for some our thornier challenges. I am a Henley qualified Exec Coach and think this is a super exciting time to be in food.
What are you curious about right now?
How best to accelerate the transition to a food secure, sustainable food future.
What do you know a lot about?
Finance, Food Systems, Organisational Change / Teams, Sustainable Business and Human Motivation.
What would you love to learn from this group?
Lots! - the struggles, the opportunities, the unspoken and the unspeakable.
Your Catalyst superpower
systems thinking.
Chris HatcherExecutive Search PartnerRedgrave
What should this group know about you?
For the last 15 years I have been headhunting for companies who work in the food and drink system, including those who grow, process, transport, store and sell. I am typically engaged to appoint individuals to the board or the executive team, and this breadth gives me a rare perspective on the talent across our food system.
What are you curious about right now?
I am particularly interested in how we can develop leaders who are prepared to face the myriad challenges of our industry. This includes engaging children to see that there is a career in food, bringing mid career professionals into and through our businesses, and finally in making sure that the best possible talent can reach positions of ultimate decision-making within our executive teams and boards.
What do you know a lot about?
Anything to do with hiring or developing talent, I will either be able to help directly or point you at someone who can.
What would you love to learn from this group?
Things I don't know! Less flippantly, while I am an advisor to the food industry, I don't work in it myself, so these rooms give me a deeper and more meaningful perspective on what it is like "on the ground".
Your Catalyst superpower
Connecting people.
Rory LaneCommercial Executive and ShareholderPilgrim’s Europe / Westmorland Family
What should this group know about you?
I have worked within the industry for only a few years but have grown up around farming and food businesses throughout my life as well as working currently for one of the market leaders in the meat industry.
What are you curious about right now?
I am curious to see how society’s eating habits may be changing especially with the rise of weight loss drugs etc and also to see how we can start to use AI technology to our benefit in what is still a traditional industry.
What do you know a lot about?
The area I know most about is food retail as well as knowing a little about the meat industry.
What would you love to learn from this group?
Would love to learn and understand other businesses' struggles and wins within the space as well as learning more about people's careers in the industry.
Your Catalyst superpower
My superpower is juggling both being a shareholder and next generation family business owner with trying to forge my own path in an industry leader so I would say I have a unique perspective across different businesses with different values, turnovers and sizes.
Ross MulhallCo-founder and Chief Scientific OfficerCroBio
What should this group know about you?
I'm co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at CroBio, a UK ag-biotech in Macclesfield. We use directed evolution to develop soil microbes that improve crop performance - my background is the microbiology and strain development side, but I also spend a lot of my time on regulatory strategy, fundraising and commercial partnerships. So I tend to bring the view of someone trying to get real biology through both the science and the regulatory/commercial gauntlet at the same time.
What are you curious about right now?
I'm curious about how big corporates plan to actually create sustainability at the farm level, given that the impact sits several steps back up their supply chain in individual growers' fields. Can they genuinely reach back and influence how farmers make decisions, or does it stop at reporting? And if they want to work with startups that have the technology, how do they compress validation and procurement cycles that currently run far slower than a startup can survive?
What do you know a lot about?
Microbial biologicals, end to end - I've spent the last few years taking a directed-evolution strain from the lab through field trials and into markets. The part people usually find most useful is the regulatory side: how non-GMO microbial products get classified in the UK, EU, Brazil and the US, where the routes diverge, and how long each one really takes. Happy to talk about pricing and trial-to-commercial agreements for biologicals too - that's where most of the pain actually is.
What would you love to learn from this group?
I'd value hearing from the people inside large corporates about how sustainability targets actually translate into action at farm level - what you can and can't influence, what evidence you need before a new input gets anywhere near a grower, and who in the organisation genuinely owns that decision. I'd also love a candid view on what makes a startup easy to work with rather than a procurement headache. And connections to anyone running scope 3 or regenerative programmes in food or ag supply chains would be very welcome.
Your Catalyst superpower
Translating between scientists, regulators, investors and farmers. I can sit in a lab meeting about operon expression in the morning and build the financial model or the regulatory strategy in the afternoon — and the useful bit is carrying the meaning intact between those rooms, because most things stall in the gap rather than in any one of them.
Vicky ParryHead of Strategic GrowthBelazu
What should this group know about you?
I head up strategic growth for Belazu with a really strong background in Retail and Export as well as more recently Food Service. I started my career at L'Oréal in Commercial and Marketing before moving the challenger food space where I have worked for the last 10 years before joining Belazu.
What are you curious about right now?
I'm curious to understand how other brands are managing cost of living pressures and rising costs in their P&L to protect their EBITDA beyond just price increases.
What do you know a lot about?
I know a lot about Retail and Commercial!
What would you love to learn from this group?
I would love to learn from the more generalist MD/ CEO population.
Your Catalyst superpower
I am strong in sales and commercial modelling. And build good relationships, working cross functionally.
Dan PearsonCommercial DirectorWestmorland Family
What should this group know about you?
I'm Commercial Director at Westmorland Family, looking after all things product, including buying, category management, pricing, visual merchandising and commercial across our farmshops, butcheries, filling stations, kitchens and food production areas. I came into the role from our hospitality team, so I look at the commercial side through the eyes of the customer as much as the numbers. I care most about building long-term partnerships with our 800 or so producers and suppliers and keeping what makes us different: great local food, sold with real craft and personality.
What are you curious about right now?
How food and health come together, reducing ultra processed ingredients and introducing more protein and fibre into diets.
What do you know a lot about?
Local sourcing, reduction in ultra processed ingredients, working with smaller producers.
What would you love to learn from this group?
Wider industry knowledge, through connections.
Your Catalyst superpower
I'm good at seeing a product from a customer’s side of the counter. Motorway services have a wide range of customers, which has taught me how people actually shop, eat and talk about food, so I can usually tell quickly whether something will sell, how it should be displayed, and what story will make someone pick it up.
Grace RicottiHealth and Nutrition Strategy LeadM&S Food
What should this group know about you?
I lead health and nutrition strategy at M&S, working across product development, innovation, regulation and customer insights to help make healthier choices more accessible and appealing. I'm particularly interested in how large food businesses can use their scale to improve public health outcomes while creating commercial value.
What are you curious about right now?
I'm curious about how we create meaningful shifts towards healthier and more sustainable diets at population level, particularly when consumers are balancing cost, convenience and competing priorities. I'm also interested in what the next generation of food innovation, technology and behavioural science might unlock to accelerate change.
What do you know a lot about?
The intersection of nutrition, food retail and consumer behaviour. I spend a lot of time translating public health challenges into practical actions, whether that's product reformulation, innovation, responsible marketing, nutrition criteria, or finding ways to help healthier choices become easier everyday choices.
What would you love to learn from this group?
I'd love to learn from people working in different parts of the food system who are tackling similar challenges from new angles. In particular, I'm interested in fresh perspectives on driving behaviour change, influencing commercial decisions and creating collaborations that deliver meaningful impact.
Your Catalyst superpower
Translating science for retailers, marketers, policymakers and innovators to find common ground and move from good ideas to practical action.
Jack WarburtonHealth Strategy DirectorWarburtons
What should this group know about you?
Warburtons is my family's business and i'm motivated by continuing to use our business as a force for good and passing it on to future generations. I sit on the board and my day job is Health Strategy Director.
What are you curious about right now?
What do we think the food system will look like in 10-20 years time and how do we prepare for it.
What do you know a lot about?
Integrating sustainability into our business, in particular unlocking the commercial value within it. My areas of interest that I know a fair bit about without having any qualifications: health & nutrition, farming.
What would you love to learn from this group?
I'm looking to build a network that helps me to challenge my thinking. I like to focus on the long-term but the reality is that most people in our business are focused on just trying to get bakery products on the shelves tomorrow. How can i get more people to think long-term in a business that is such a daily operation.
Your Catalyst superpower
I see myself as being purpose-led and I'd like to think that I'm good at (or try my best to) help our colleagues connect with what we are trying to achieve in the long-term as a business.
Alex WhittleCategory Innovation DirectorSamworth Brothers
What should this group know about you?
I am a innovate from a culinary background interested in how we make a difference in food, I have spent time in manufacturing, retail and foodservice always with food at the centre.
What are you curious about right now?
How the needs of the customers will be impacted by external forces like global supply chains, climate change and food availability. Along with their changing lifestyles leading to new need states.
What do you know a lot about?
Innovation, culinary, food. Manufacturing with deep expertise in bakery and chilled.
What would you love to learn from this group?
an understanding of their challenges and perspective on the food industry at the moment and what we need to do to secure it for the long term.
Your Catalyst superpower
I’m good at joining the dots, making complicated things simple and getting people aligned behind a clear way forward.
Lucy WillsChief Operating OfficerFinsbury Food Group
What should this group know about you?
I am COO for Finsbury Food Group, we are a speciality bakery supplier with c£500m turnover and 3.5k people operating across 11 sites. My role has responsibility for everything that sits under the ETE value chain, so all functions from the supply base through to the customer base; my agenda also includes Excellence, risk, people and the sustainability strategy ownership business wide. Ultimately the team I lead ensures delivery of the optimal the operating platform to enable growth.
What are you curious about right now?
Supply chain resilience in a volatile and ever changing world and how this can actually be enabled to be a competitive strength. The evolving skills and capabilities to be a successful leader in the current and future state within FMCG. The increasing importance of the health agenda within food manufacturing.
What do you know a lot about?
ETE manufacturing and supply chain operations and how to develop a best in class Excellence strategy which will deliver performance, maturity and value creation. Creating a high performance culture within a business.
What would you love to learn from this group?
I would like to understand the external stakeholder perspective predominantly customer centric on the challenges, risks and opportunities within food manufacturing and how they need the supply base to really support this. Understand the technology agenda that more established businesses are driving into action and how they are solving the people challenges associated with this. I would like to learn from other adjacent categories where we can adopt / share best practice.
Your Catalyst superpower
Engaging teams behind a common vision and unlocking discretionary effort at all levels of a business.
Profiles are shown alphabetically by surname.
Useful insight, all in one place.
Return here for the reports and regular intelligence available to you as a Catalyst. We will add each new edition as it is published.
Key Takeaways
The strongest ideas, questions and practical implications from Future Food Movement's Expert Events.
Signals Intelligence Briefings
Emerging shifts across food, health, climate, nature and supply, with the questions they raise for leaders.
Weekly News Edit
A curated view of the stories worth your attention and what they could mean for the food system.
Keep this page close.
Find roundtable agendas, practical details and the latest intelligence here as your year unfolds.
Roundtable one
October 2026 · Agenda and joining details to follow.
What is next
Future roundtable dates and materials will be added here when confirmed.