The Prince's Countryside Fund

Steven McLean, Head of Agriculture & Fisheries, Marks & Spencer plc

Steve became Head of Agriculture & Fisheries Sourcing at M&S in April 2012, and has overall responsibility for agricultural and fisheries supply chain sourcing and supply chain sustainability across the M&S Food business. He initially joined M&S in September 2008 as Agriculture Manager responsible for ruminant livestock supply chains and has worked extensively with the M&S supply base around the world on the M&S ‘Farming for the Future’ sustainable agricultural production programme.

Prior to joining M&S, Steve was Chief Executive of the Texel Sheep Society, the UK’s largest sheep Bred Society and the Business Director of BASCO Data Limited, a collaboration between the UK’s three largest beef & sheep breed societies that managed performance and breed society data. Before that he worked as Lamb Marketing Manager at the ANM Group based at Thainstone in Aberdeenshire.

Steve’s family background has its roots firmly in the Scottish fishing industry, where his brother continues the tradition from the Scottish port of Gairloch on the North West coast. He lives with his wife and two children in rural Oxfordshire, where his wife is a partner in the family livestock farm.

Mark Price, Managing Director, Waitrose and Chairman of The Prince’s Countryside Fund Trustee Board

Mark joined the John Lewis Partnership in 1982 as a graduate trainee. He held numerous posts before becoming Managing Director of Waitrose in April 2007. Prior to this, in 2005 Mark was appointed as the Partnership Development Director (responsible for Strategy amongst other things) when he became a member of the Partnership Board. In January 2011 Mark became Chairman of Business in the Community, a post he will hold for three years. He is also an NED for Channel 4.

Mark Allen, Chief Executive, Dairy Crest

Mark Allen has been with Dairy Crest for over 20 years; during this time he has progressed from business unit Managing Director to CEO. He was appointed to the Board in 2002 and became CEO at the end of 2006. He is Chairman of The Prince’s Rural Action Programme, Vice Chairman of Dairy UK and a Non-executive Director of Howdens Joinery Plc.

Sara Bennison, Marketing Communications Director, Barclays Bank

Sara spent 18 years working in advertising agencies in London and Bangkok on a number of different clients including Unilever, P&G, Nestle, Mars, AOL and Dairy Crest. As Client Services Director at Grey she worked with the BITC on their advertising and was inspired by a ‘Seeing is Believing’ tour to find creative ways to leverage the brands she managed for the benefit of the communities they served. She put this into practice at her next role in the group brand function at BT, developing innovative campaigns for Childline that aligned commercial and community objectives.

Sara joined Barclays as UK Retail Bank as Marketing Communications Director in 2008, leading the brand, advertising and branch marketing teams. Projects she has conceived and led in this role include the Take One Small Competition for Barclays Business which provides inspiration, training and seed funds for new businesses and a pioneering online game which has taken our financial literacy programme to an audience of 350, 000 young people.

Sara lives and works in London and has 4 children. She also has a ‘second life’ in a rural community in Wales where she and her husband have spent the last 10 years bringing back to life a farmhouse that had languished uninhabited for 30 years.

Edwin Booth, Executive Chairman, EH Booth & Co

Edwin Booth is the Chairman of E H Booth & Co Ltd who are proprietors of Booths in the North of England.

Edwin represents the fifth generation of the family that has operated Booths since 1847. He entered the business immediately after school and quickly discovered a hunger for retailing. The purchase of wine became his speciality for many years, enabling Booths to gain national recognition for this important area of the business. Subsequently he developed a successful marketing function prior to becoming Executive Chairman in 1997. Edwin was an HRH The Prince Of Wales Business Ambassador for the North West in 2005 and a finalist for the Ernst & Young Master Entrepreneur of the Year (North). He has also been awarded the Institute of Directors Director of the Year for Lancashire and the North West and been recognised for his business pursuits by the North West Society of Chartered Accounts and as the Lancastrian of the Year in the Be Inspired Business Awards 2009. In 2010 Edwin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Lancaster University for his services to the region and his industry.

Edwin has worked with the Lancashire Universities in the areas of leadership and business change programmes and is presently chairing the Business in the Community (BITC) Advisory Board for the North West. In addition, Edwin is also Chairman (Non-Executive) at Symingtons in Leeds, Chairman of Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership, Vice Chairman of the Harris Charity and President of Myerscough College.

Elizabeth Buchanan, Consultant and Farmer

Elizabeth was, until December 2009, the Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. In addition to managing Their Royal Highnesses’ public life, she was also responsible for His Royal Highness’s work on the environment, agricultural and his relations with the business community. She worked for Their Royal Highnesses for over ten years. Prior to that, Elizabeth worked at Bell Pottinger and as a special adviser to two Secretaries of State for Transport. Elizabeth now works part-time as a special adviser to the Bell Pottinger Group, as a special adviser to Waitrose and she remains a consultant to The Prince of Wales. The remainder of her time is spent managing the family’s organic farm in East Sussex.

Lord Curry of Kirkharle

Lord Curry brings a wealth of knowledge about agricultural issues to the Trustee Board. He has been a board member of the NFU Mutual Insurance Company since 1997 and was Chairman from 2003 until the end of 2011 . In 2009 he became Chair of the Leckford Estate Management Committee – the Waitrose Farm. He chaired the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food reporting to Government in January 2002 and was responsible for overseeing the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food until March 2009. Lord Curry was awarded a CBE for his services to Agriculture in the 1997 New Year’s Honours list, a Knighthood in the Birthday Honours in 2001 and ennobled in 2011.

Stephen Dunmore, Interim Director, Transition, Consumer Focus

Stephen Dunmore is currently Interim Director, Transition at Consumer Focus and Chair of the BBC’s Appeals Advisory Committee.

He was previously Chief Executive of the New Opportunities Fund and the Big Lottery Fund, and before that Director of Regeneration, Transport and Planning in the Government Office for Merseyside Since leaving the Big Lottery Fund in 2008, he has been Interim Chief Executive of the Responsible Gambling Fund, The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and the Lumos Foundation, Chair of Capacitybuilders, Chair of National Family Mediation and a member of the NCVO’s Funding Commission and the Office for Civil Society’s Advisory Body.

Sue Huggins OBE, General Manager Network, Services & Transformation, The Post Office Ltd.

Sue Huggins is currently the General Manager Network, Services & Transformation at the Post Office where her primary focus is the maintenance of the nationwide network of post offices and the delivery of the recently announced modernisation programme.

Sue originally trained as a nurse at the Westminster Hospital in London and, after a brief spell working abroad, joined the Post Office in 1980. Having completed her Masters at Kent in 1998, Sue was appointed Director – Sales & Marketing, Network Bank, and then Executive Director – Strategy, Post Office Ltd. With a keen interest in rural issues, Sue jumped at the chance to manage the 8,100 strong network of rural post offices when the company reorganised in 2001. A job that brought her into contact with many like-minded people and organisations. Sue received the OBE in the New Year’s honours list 2010 for her services to the Post Office and communities across the UK.

More recently, Sue has directed the Network Change Programme and undertaken a strategic review of the network that saw Post Office Ltd developing new post office service delivery models aimed at ensuring a vibrant future for our nationwide network of post offices.

Sue is a long serving member of Business in the Community’s Rural Action Leadership Team, the Pub is the Hub Steering Group and is a Trustee of The Rowland Hill Fund and has two children.

Lizzie Kershaw

As well as a strong understanding of rural issues from her time on The Prince’s Rural Action Leadership Team, Lizzie also brings a strong media and communications background to the Trustee Board. Lizzie began her career at The National Magazine Company in 1982 at Good Housekeeping magazine. Since then Lizzie has been Publishing Director of Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan Groups, and Executive Group Publishing Director, Affluent Group. In 1993 Lizzie was appointed to the Board of NatMag. In 2002 Lizzie was appointed Executive Group Publishing Director, Good Housekeeping and Country Living Group, in 2007 appointed Executive Group Publishing Director of Women’s Interest Group magazines.

Paul Murphy, CEO, Jordans & Ryvita

For the last four years Paul Murphy has been the CEO of the Jordans Ryvita Company. Before that he was responsible for the Twinings business in the UK, North America and Australia. Before his time in Associated British Foods he worked for Bacardi Ltd and Reckitt Benckiser. He began his career in the marketing function. He has lived and worked in both France and the US, and has had both local and international roles. For the past six years, Paul has been a Non-Executive Director on the board of St Georges NHS Trust, in South West London. Paul is married and has four small children.

Brian Stein

Brian gained a taste for the food industry in the 1970s during holiday work as a biscuit packer and QA Inspector while studying Business at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. An interest in people and a desire to change the “them and us” attitude prevalent in the food industry at the time led him into management with Bowyers. He then joined Northern Foods, eventually becoming managing director of Pork Farms and subsequently joined the Northern Foods Executive, before seeking a fresh entrepreneurial challenge at the Leicestershire-based food manufacturer Samworth Brothers in 1995.

Princes Countryside Fund

Trustees