Capability Building // Thinking Partner Network
Thinking Partner Network
For sustainability leaders who need more than technical expertise to drive change inside complex organisations
A professionally facilitated, peer-powered network for leaders in the UK food industry.
The hardest part of leadership today is rarely knowing what the right thing is.
It is navigating competing pressures, influencing across the organisation, building alignment, holding commercial credibility and making decisions in environments where there are no perfect answers.
The Thinking Partner Network (TPN) was created to give sustainability leaders a trusted peer space to think more clearly, strengthen influence and become more effective organisational leaders during one of the most complex periods the food system has faced.
This is not a passive networking group or traditional leadership programme. It is a curated cross-industry peer network bringing together senior leaders from across retail, manufacturing, farming, finance, hospitality and innovation to explore the tensions, decisions and leadership challenges shaping the future of food.
TPN cohorts stay connected beyond the initial programme through an exclusive alumni group, offering ongoing peer support, structured shared learning sessions (2 a year) and a trusted space to sense-check decisions as challenges evolve.
What makes TPN different
Test thinking with peers facing similar commercial and organisational tensions
Facilitated challenge and reflection grounded in real business decisions
Deep dives into commercial and operational tensions
Practical tools that can be applied immediately within role
Exclusive TPN alumni for ongoing shared learning supported by Future Food Movement
What you get from TPN
Strengthen the ability to influence decisions, navigate resistance and create momentum across the organisation
Clear articulation of personal strengths and development gaps
Practical tools to influence decision-making (e.g. stakeholder navigation, trade-off framing, board positioning)
A defined leadership shift or strategic experiment to deliver in role
A trusted pan-industry peer group to share challenges and pressure-test decisions
About the next cohort
We are now taking applications for our next TPN cohort - a curated group of current and emerging sustainability/ESG leader working within food businesses.
TPN cohort 2 will run from September to November 2026. The programme will run across 4 sessions, with 2 in-person in London and 2 online.
After the initial programme participants will be invited to our TPN alumni.
Cost
Silver+ Members: £4,125*
Non-members: £5,500*
*Price includes initial TPN programme and invitation to TPN alumni (FFM membership required to access alumni). All prices exclude VAT.
We are also booking for future cohorts.
Contact us to find out more
TPN gave me space to step back from the day-to-day and properly think through some of the tougher decisions we’re facing as a business.
The mix of perspectives in the room challenged my assumptions in a really constructive way, and I’ve come away sharper, more confident and better equipped to lead those conversations internally.
Sam Thompson
Sustainability and Projects Director
The Billington Group
Benefits to the individual
Increased confidence in board-level and commercial conversations
Stronger ability to navigate finance, commercial, procurement and operational priorities
Greater clarity on how to influence outcomes
Meaningful professional development without stepping away from day-to-day responsibilities
Benefits to the business
Stronger alignment between sustainability ambition and commercial decision-making
Better quality decisions across risk, cost and growth trade-offs
Faster translation of strategy into delivery
Improved retention and effectiveness of high-potential leaders
About the programme
Session 1
September 2026
Sustainability Leader & Skills Assessment
Clarify your development approach using our holistic framework and explore the shared language and tools to succeed.
Date: TBC
Time: 10:30-17:00
In-person, London
Session 2
October 2026
Commercial Perspectives & Influence
Strengthen your ability to translate sustainability intent into commercial relevance, credibility and impact.
Date: TBC
Time: TBC (Half day)
Online, with expert guest speakers
Session 3
October 2026
Landing Change: Change Bets & Peer Clinics
Integrate learning and new perspectives to work through a live organisational challenge and leave with something genuinely progressed, not just discussed.
Date: TBC
Time: TBC (Half day)
Online
Session 4
November 2026
Personal Resilience
Build the personal resilience to lead through complexity and strengthen how you show up, make decisions and hold direction under pressure.
Date: TBC
Time: 10:30-17:00
In-person, London
By joining the Thinking Partner Network, you also get access to the TPN Alumni:
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Spring 2027
Alumni Session
Join TPN alumni peers in a facilitated session focused on tools to navigate a topical tension.
Date: TBC
Time: TBC (3 hours)
In-person: Venue TBC
Autumn 2027
Alumni Session
Draw on shared experience to sharpen thinking and application for real and current challenges, in a facilitated session with your TPN alumni.
Date: TBC
Time: TBC (3 hours)
In-person: Venue TBC
Meet the lead facilitators
Kate Cawley
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Kate Cawley is the founder of Veris Strategies, an award-winning sustainability consultancy, and Future Food Movement. Partnering with leaders across the food industry - from retailers, foodservice, brands and manufacturers - Kate drives insight-led action on climate, health, and sustainability, aiming to make food a force for positive change. Kate’s focus is on challenging leadership mindsets and believes leaders need to think and act quite differently if we are to achieve an industry wide transformation. Kate founded Future Food Movement to boost business competency and confidence to act, bridging the gap from Boardroom to shop floor with a team of experts in climate, nutrition, public health, regenerative systems, behaviour change and governance, empowering the industry to drive meaningful action.
Susan Thomas
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Susan has spent over 25 years in the food industry in a range of commercial, marketing and strategic leadership roles. Formerly the Senior Director Sustainability at Asda, she is now an independent consultant working to bridge the complex landscape for action on food sustainability into industry commercial practices.
During her 8 years at PepsiCo she led strategic partnerships with retailers to shift the snacking category towards healthier options ahead of HFSS regulation, and consulted to many of the world's best known brands and retailers around the world during the first part of her career at Kantar.
Thinking Partner Network Alumni
TPN creates a space which is hard to come by in this industry - one to sense check, tune in, challenge and co-create thinking with peers who really understand the reality of running and transforming complex businesses into sustainable enterprises.
It's not theoretical or highly technical, it's grounded, practical and directly relevant to decisions we're making every day to support our businesses.
Judith Irons
Food Systems and Sustainability Director
Boparan Service Group (part of 2 Sisters Food Group)