Cornwall Farmers

Board of Directors

Dr Geoffrey Vernon – Chairman
Geoffrey farms 155 acres on Dartmoor with his wife Julie. They have a herd of pedigree Red Ruby's and a mixed flock of commercial and Greyface Dartmoor ewes. Geoffrey is a pharmacist and a member of the Veterinary Pharmacy Group of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He has extensive business experience and is Chairman and Non-Executive Director of a number of public and private companies in the UK and abroad. Geoffrey has been a board member of Cornwall Farmers since 2007 was appointed Chairman of the Audit Committee in 2009. He has played a key role over the last 12 months in helping to refocus the business.

Simon Birch – Chief Executive Officer
Simon has 25 years of experience in industry, his previous role being that of Director of Finance, IT and Strategy for a European Division of Imerys Minerals, where his role was split between Brussels, Paris and the UK. Simon is a graduate Engineer and Chartered Accountant, who qualified with Coopers and Lybrand in 1988. Simon's career has encompassed both financial management and management consultancy positions. His other roles include financial management positions at Carnon Holdings (Tin Mining) and South West Water locally, before becoming a Principal Consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in their London office.

Andrew Knott – Director of Finance, Company Secretary
Andrew joined Cornwall Farmers as Finance Director in June 2010. He qualified as an Accountant in industry having held a number of senior financial reporting positions in different business sectors including defence, pharmaceuticals and construction. For the last 12 years he has operated as a Finance Director in a number of companies in the South West. He has also retained an active interest in the tax profession as a Chartered Tax Practitioner.

Jeremy Oatey – CF Member Director
Jeremy is managing director of Agricola Growers Ltd and managing partner of Hay Farm Produce, both based at Antony near Torpoint. Jeremy started Agricola Growers in 2004, a farming company managing 500 acres of tenanted land and 2,100 acres of contract farmed land. Hay Farm Produce supplies vegetables to major bakeries in the South West.

Jeremy is a graduate of Seale Hayne Agricultural College and for eight years was farm manager at Angloflora Farms Ltd near Truro. He has been a director of Kernow Grain Ltd since 2002 and chairman for the last five years.

Adrian Shute – CF Member Director
Adrian joined the board in 2004 and farms 600 acres at Canworthy Water with his parents and three brothers. This consists of a pig unit and single suckler cows plus arable crops.

Ian Tremain – CF Member Director
A Cornishman born and bred, Ian grew up on the family dairy farm near Lanreath in South East Cornwall and was part of the first ever intake of students at Duchy College. Ian has been involved in the feeds business for most of his professional career, starting with WJ Oldacre and Mole Valley Farmers before setting up his own successful feed commodity business in Bridgwater, Tremains Ltd, and selling it to BOCM Pauls eight years later. More recently Ian completed a 12-month appointment as rural business champion for the BBC Village SOS programme. Ian was recently appointed a non-executive director of Wessex Grain Ltd and sits on the UK board of the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust.

Rex Ward – CF Member Director
Rex is a dairy farmer from North Cornwall and for more than 10 years has played a prominent role promoting the dairy industry. He was a founder member, farmer director and vice chairman of the Milk Link co-operative before stepping down last year, having helped grow Milk Link into the UK’s largest producer of cheese with an annual turnover of £586 million and an export market spanning 20 countries. Last year Rex became a main board director of trade association Dairy UK, and is chairman of the Dairy UK Farmers Forum. This is responsible for representing the views of farmers in Dairy UK. Rex was previously on the board of Cornwall Farmers from 1994 to 2002.

Charles Williams – CF Member Director
Charles’ family has owned the Caerhays Estate near St Austell for more than 150 years. In the last two decades it has been transformed into a diversified business with more than 100 employees. It includes Caerhays Castle and Gardens, mail order plant business Burncoose Nurseries and Caerhays Home Farm with 250 cattle, 600 breeding ewes and a variety of arable crops. Charles is chairman of the South West Investment Group with a loan portfolio of £15 million, a past board member of Cornwall Enterprise and previously worked for Lazard & Co investment bank. He is also on the board of his wife’s family business, Hook Norton Brewery.

Jules Hydelman – Professional Independent Director
Jules has led both start up and established businesses to success and profitability in a variety of roles including chairman, chief executive and non-executive director. Based in North Devon he assists his wife to farm a 250 acre organic beef and sheep enterprise. His current roles include non-executive director of Jacobson Group, a major footwear supplier with annual sales of £45 million and Managing Director of Christys Hats, the famous headwear brand founded in 1773.

Jules was also non-executive chairman and a stakeholder of Innocent Drinks from inception in 1998 until 2008, helping to grow the business into the number one smoothie brand in the UK with annual sales of £169 million.

Executive Management

Peter Faulds – Director of Sales and Marketing
Peter has a vast experience in dealing with all aspects of sales and commercial management having spent 30 years with Diageo plc, one of the top 20 companies in the UK. His specialities are Sales & Commercial Management, Focus on Customer Strategy and Sales Capability development. His recent roles have included Convenience and Specialists Channel and Business Unit Director, Sales Capability Director at Diageo Global Sales and Grocery Sales Director at UDV Morgan Furze.

Dr Robin Hawkey – Director of Agriculture
Robin joined Cornwall Farmers in 2008 as a Technical Manager and has recently been appointed as Director of Agriculture, a role which encompasses feed, forage and arable aspects of the business, reflecting the co-operatives core agricultural offering. Robin obtained his first degree and PhD in Biochemistry from Nottingham University. After three years lecturing Animal Science and Production at Harper Adams University College he joined BOCM PAULS in Cornwall. Robin's previous roles include Account Management, Field Sales Manager and Regional Sales Manager. He then joined the forage specialists, Biotal, as Regional Technical Manager, covering the South West of England.

Andrew Bolton – Divisional Manager – Arable
Andrew attended Shuttleworth Agricultural College in Bedfordshire and obtained his National Diploma in Agriculture. Before joining Cornwall Farmers 20 years ago he worked for Fison for a decade where he was involved in chemicals and fertilisers. Andrew’s responsibilities include the procurement and sales of crop protection, fertiliser, seed and other inputs for the arable and horticultural customer base.

Myles Ward – Director of Retail Development
Myles has joined Cornwall Farmers, bringing with him a wealth of retail experience, gained over a distinguished 40 year career. Most recently, Myles was Marketing & Operations Manager for the Tesco Central Europe discount store operation. This was a new operation, launched into over 175 stores. He also developed a new clothing format for the Tesco hyper stores in Central Europe, with a trial store in Budapest, and then a full rollout to over 150 hyper stores. Previously he was Marketing Director for the Littlewoods & Index Stores Group and Director for Littlewoods B2B sales division. Myles early career was spent in store management with W.H.Smiths, Do It All DIY and the Woolworths retail chain.