Amanda Burnside is Principal and Chief Executive of Wiltshire College, a Further Education college with 4 campuses (including a specialist landbased campus) located across Wiltshire on sites in Chippenham, Trowbridge, Salisbury and on the Lackham estate near Lacock, where the College operates on 1600 acres incorporating four farms. The College also has 3 outreach centres located across Wiltshire and a specialist motorsport engineering centre at Castle Combe race track. The College serves 12,000 students studying on a range of courses from entry level through to degree programmes and has a rapidly growing number of apprentices in wide range of professions reflective of Wiltshire’s economic mix.
Amanda is active in promoting the skills agenda regionally and nationally and is a board member of the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) and chair of the SWLEP Skills and Talent sub group, a board member of Landex and a board member of Inspire, the Wessex Chambers of Commerce. She is also chair of the board of The Colleges’ Partnership which specialises in military apprenticeships.
Prior to joining the College in 2014, Amanda worked in a number of senior positions in the education and skills and private sectors.
Beverly is Group HR Director at G’s. Since graduating from Newcastle University with a BSc in Agriculture, she has worked as an HR professional throughout the food supply chain and has created an extensive training framework to develop skills for people working in agriculture as part of the ASF. Beverly is actively involved in developing managers for the future through an in-house international graduate and apprentice training scheme and accredited leadership programmes. She is a Director of MDS Ltd and a visiting lecturer at London’s CASS Business School, delivering leadership and team training to post-graduate students. She champions sound ethical working practices throughout the supply chain, securing a reliable supply of seasonal labour. She is also a trustee of Rural Cambridgeshire Citizens Advice Bureau and Ely Cathedral Business Group.
Charles Matts is a partner on the family arable and sheep farm at Creaton, Northamptonshire and Managing Director of Brixworth Farming, a joint venture arable contracting business, owned by T C Matts & Sons and four other farms, which manages 2,200 ha for its clients. He was the founding chairman of the Joint Venture Farming Group, a past chairman of both the NFU and NFU Mutual Regional Boards. He served on the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Board until March 2016 and is a trustee of the Farm Safety Foundation.
Chris Moody has been Chief Executive of Landex since February 2011. Prior to that, he was Principal of Moulton College in Northamptonshire: a post that he held from 1992 until 2011. Moulton College was Ofsted “Outstanding” and a Beacon College from 2004.
Chris is a graduate of Aston, Bath and Bristol Universities and holds a master’s degree in Education Management. After a short time in industry he taught, and was then Head of a Science Department and Housemaster, in a Secondary School before holding posts as Senior Warden, Development Manager, and Vice-Principal in Land based Colleges. He has a particular interest in the application of business principles to the management of colleges. He was awarded an OBE in the 2007 New Year honours list for services to further education and training.
He was Chairman of Landex – ‘Colleges Aspiring to Excellence’ from its formation in 2006 until 2008, having previously been Chairman of Napaeo, its predecessor organisation. Chris is a former member of the Boards of the Association of Colleges, Principals’ Professional Council, and EMFEC.
Chris is a governor of Hartpury College in Gloucestershire and the Grange School in Daventry, a member of the AgriSkills Forum and the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL) Grants Panel. Besides representing the land-based sector on a wide range of committees and external organisations, he is a trustee of the Agrifood Charities Partnership (AFCP).
Apart from his family, his principal leisure interests are his Morgan sports car, and watching as much rugby and cricket as possible!
Jane joined the AHDB in February 2015 as CEO and has led a restructuring of the organisation and a revised strategy to drive improved value and competitiveness for the industry. The AHDB’s purpose to is inspire farmers, growers and the industry to succeed in a rapidly changing world through innovative approaches to knowledge exchange, research, intelligence and market development. The new three- year strategy for six sectors is focussed on accelerating innovation productivity growth and resilience.
Jane is an award winning former Editor and Editorial Director of the Farmers Weekly Group where she oversaw a complete repositioning of the title, revitalising its products, developing new services and leading organisational change within the business. As a senior executive at Reed Elsevier for over 30 years, Jane also had significant experience providing information and services to a range of industries as diverse as retail, health, social care, employment law and hospitality.
David is a Managing Director at City & Guilds Group, responsible for leading the City & Guilds and ILM brands. He also leads the Group’s growing End Point Assessment (EPA) business.
David has spent the majority of his career in education, working in companies that serve and partner with schools, colleges and training providers. He is passionate about working in the education and training sector and gets a real kick out of helping others develop and grow.
Prior to City & Guilds, David worked at Emap Business Communications Ltd (a large publishing and exhibition company) and RM plc (a major provider of ICT software, infrastructure and services to the UK education and training sector) before spending 10 years working at Pearson.
Richard studied Agriculture at Nottingham University Sutton Bonington followed by a spell farming in Zambia prior to returning home to run the family arable farm. The farm now also runs an outdoor pig enterprise.
Immediate past Chairman of the National Pig Association, he also currently chairs the AgriSkills Forum and the employer group developing Trailblazer Apprenticeships for Agriculture and Horticulture. He is also a Trustee and Board Member of Lantra.
Outside of farming he is involved in a property development business specialising in holiday homes.
Away from work he is very involved with and a past president of his local Rotary Club.
Russell graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in agriculture and has spent 35 years in land-based education during which time he gained a CNAA Certificate in Higher and Further Education and an MBA. Russell joined Hartpury College in September 2012 as Chief Executive and Principal after having held a similar position for 12 years at Barony College, a land-based college in South West Scotland.
Tim is a graduate Applied Biologist who worked with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food before training to teach in Further Education. Tim has been the Principal at Sparsholt College since 1998 having been Vice Principal, Head of Faculty, and Course Tutor/Manager prior to that.
Tim is on the Board of Landex as one of the directors, having been a past Chairman. Tim currently chairs the Landex Quality and Curriculum Committee which is attended by Vice Principals/Heads of Curriculum from most Landex colleges. Tim is also the Chair of the Hampshire Principals’ Group, an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies, and a past President of New Forest Show.
Tim is a Board member of the Enterprise M3 Local Economic Partnership (LEP) and a member of the Test Valley Partnership Board. Tim is also a Member of the BIS/DFE convened ‘Joint EFA/SFA Advisory Forum’.
Jeremy is the serving Principal of Plumpton College, Sussex having taken over the reigns from Des Lambert in 2016.
Prior to leading Plumpton College Jeremy was the Head of Cannington College (part of Bridgwater and Taunton College), a successful land-based college in Somerset, and has previously worked at other land-based colleges, including Brinsbury and Hadlow. He has a Sussex background, having attended both The Forest School and The College of Richard Collyer in West Sussex before taking a degree in Animal Science at Reading University.
Jeremy is a member of the Landex board representing members as a National Director. Jeremy sits on the Education Group for the Royal Horticulture Society, and also Chairs the Education and Training group for WineGB, as well as being the Landex board representative on the board of LEAF.
Marcus is the Principal and Chief Executive of Reaseheath College and University Centre, appointed from 1st August 2018. Marcus previously spent nearly four years as Principal at Northumberland College, with another five years as Vice Principal and Head of the College’s land-based provision at Kirkley Hall. He is also a director of the College’s subsidiary company DART Limited. Marcus has a wealth of experience in further education, apprenticeships and higher education partnerships, much of it spent in land-based and rural education.
Marcus has represented land-based Colleges on a number of regional and national groups, and currently sits on the Landex board and Chairs the Land Based Learning board. Marcus is also the author of Horse Business Management.
Dr Taylor is Assistant Vice Chancellor at the Royal Agricultural University. Reporting to the Vice Chancellor, Becky manages a programme of strategic projects that include cross University quality improvement and academic strategy delivery.
Prior to working for the RAU Becky spent over 15 years at Plumpton College in East Sussex, most recently leading the Higher Education and Research portfolio at the College. In this role Becky led on the development of a new strategy for the College’s HE provision, a programme of academic quality improvement and a review of the HE curriculum that included the implementation of a new pedagogic framework.
Before working in education Becky successfully ran an equestrian training facility and has a background and interest in the land based sector more generally.
