Beanstalk Global – Details, episodes & analysis

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In this episode of Talking Leaders we delved into the inspiring journey of Catherine Marriott OAM, a trailblazer in agriculture, leadership, and sustainability. With over 20 years of experience across executive roles, governance, and consultancy, Catherine has a unique ability to bridge the worlds of practical farming, science and global ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policy.

We explored her insights on the evolving sustainability landscape, the critical role of leadership in agriculture, and her experience with Australian- and global farmers to navigate emerging market and environmental expectations. 

Catherine has worked as an executive, a non-executive director and consulting roles in the agricultural, research and regional development sectors in Australia and internationally. During this time, she has become a proven business leader, communicator and organisational renovator, focused mostly on leadership development, advocacy and delivering innovative solutions for the industries in which she works.

Catherine is currently completing her Nuffield Scholarship with a focus on the impact and influence of global ESG policy on Australian farmers. Understanding the changing ESG and sustainability landscape globally is paramount to ensuring farmers are prepared for changing market options and both public and private sector expectations.

She uses her Rural Science degree to understand the technical aspects of agriculture, while her experience in business, leadership deveopment and governance helps maximise efficiency and outcomes for the organisations for whom she works. Catherine has worked as a beef industry consultant, an entrepreneur, a farmer member based, organisational CEO and has sat on several NFP and public sector boards both in Australia and Internationally.

She received a 2022 Queens Birthday Honors, Order of Australia Medal for contribution to agriculture and rural communities, is UNE’s 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and was the 2012 WA Rural Women of the Year.

Hear how Catherine’s bold thinking, global perspective, and passion for empowering others continue to shape the future of agriculture and rural communities worldwide. It's a great listen!

In the February edition of AHDB Talking Leaders, we were delighted to be joined by Colin Crooks MBE.

Colin is a serial social entrepreneur with a track record of establishing impactful and sustainable social enterprises. Currently he is launching BirdRun©, a novel competition designed to increase interest in wildlife and raise funding for environmental protection. Previously he ran Tree Shepherd which over 10 years supported hundreds of people from low-income backgrounds to start their own business. Before that he founded and operated 5 innovative recycling businesses. One of these, Green-Works was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise; Sustainable Development.

In 2012 he used his experience of employing more than 1,000 hard to employ people to write ‘How to Make a Million Jobs, a charter for social enterprise’. Colin was awarded an MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to disadvantaged people and the environment. 

As a qualified, accredited coach and experienced facilitator/chair of meetings in community and business settings he also runs Intentionality, which works to create and/or support social enterprises to grow and increase their impact.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our August broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Xander Beks, CEO at I4Nature Global Cooperative in the Netherlands to discuss “reshaping the future of food”.

Xander is driven by his passion for navigating complex issues within multi-stakeholder environments. He finds great satisfaction in advancing transition or transformation processes alongside these diverse players, particularly when collaborating with new generations. This is exemplified by his work with I4NATURE, a cooperative he co-founded to address climate-related challenges. Whether at a regional, international, or cross-sectoral level, Xander adeptly devises strategies to drive change collaboratively.

Xander is trained as an agricultural, military, and social institutional engineer. After graduating from Wageningen University, he accumulated extensive experience at the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality, leveraging his background in mixed farming. His expertise spans working with various organisational systems in agriculture, including education, labour markets, and government, from local to international levels.

Since 2012, Xander has led I4NATURE, focusing on meaningful consultancy, future leadership, capacity building, and strategic events. This initiative evolved from a youth program at the Ministry into a cooperative. He has developed numerous programs, fostered international collaborations, and established networks aimed at adapting to a rapidly changing world, particularly through initiatives like young boards and I4NATURE-stage, a network for young people.

In 2016, Xander joined the Dutch Armed Forces as a reservist, specialising in energy and sustainability challenges within military engineering. He also contributes to international forums, such as the Consultation Forum on Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector.

Recently, Xander has become rooted in the Alblasserwaard region, working on his wife’s family dairy farm. Here, he integrates his activities and knowledge to promote growth without increasing herd size, adhering to principles of generative agriculture and rural landscape values.

Currently, Xander is seeking deeper insights through the Nuffield program to guide the future direction of the farm and its organisation. He aims to develop learning networks for farmers focused on future-proof agriculture, furthering his commitment to sustainable practices and education.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our July broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Matt Phelan, Author & Co-Founder of The Happiness Index.

In his day-to-day role, he’s responsible for the strategic direction of the business. He is the founder of The Happiness and Humans Community, host of The Happiness and Humans Podcast and author of Freedom To Be Happy: The Business Case for Happiness.

Matt recently completed a TEDx talk where he presented 12 million data points in happiness from 1 million human beings in 100+ countries in less than 15 minutes!

In our June broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Amie Burke, Inclusivity Programme Manager at IGD. With a vast experience in the agriculture and food sector Amie will share with us why diversity is so important and provide some insights and learnings she is seeing through the IGD membership which demonstrates best practice and enhances the bottom line.

Amie has spent 15 years working in the agriculture sector, from banking to business improvement across the whole supply chain. After 4 years travelling internationally helping clients with their sustainability goals, auditing and providing solutions for supplying farmers in places like Brazil, Guatemala, China, Madagascar and Vietnam, Amie took a role with AHDB to focus on people sustainability in UK farming. Supporting the development of new apprenticeships, hands on workshops developing leadership skills and delivering accredited training for upcoming managers provided insight and experience for Amie’s current role with IGD as Inclusivity Programme Manager.

As a passionate LGBTQ+ member, Amie takes her knowledge and emotional intelligence to deliver insight, best practice and a reverse mentoring programme for FMCG industry; helping to inspire change and support businesses to create inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive. She was recently named in The Grocer’s Power List as a top 10 activist making grocery a better industry for the LGBTQ+ community.

We went live with the South of England Agricultural Society (SEAS) from the South of England Show on Saturday 8th of June from the Young Farmer Building at the very impressive Showground. We Broadcast on the very important subject of how we collectively create more trust between the farming community and the general public. Our expert panel included:

Kendra Hall – Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust Scholar

Andrew Flake – Sheep & Arable Farmer, West Sussex who opens his farm to the public

Leighton Snelgrove – Chairman of SYFC & Farm Manager for Elizabeth Buchanan

Peter Appleton – Dairy Farmer, Arlington and involved from the conception of the Blubell Walk, Arlington

Aimee Snowden - Nuffield Scholar

With Max MacGillivray from Beanstalk.Global hosting and Mark Campbell from AHDB.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our May broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Graham Wilkinson, CEO of the AHDB to discuss his reflections from the first 90 days as CEO and how that is impacting how he rolls out his vision to inspire and promote British farmers and growers.

Graham is an experienced agriculturalist with a deep understanding of best-practice production methods – particularly across the dairy, beef, lamb, pork and poultry sectors. He has gained considerable practical knowledge from his time working on his family farm as well as for Tesco PLC, Arla Foods and now the AHDB. 

Prior to joining AHDB in March this year, Graham led the Global Agriculture team at Arla Foods, supporting over 8,500 cooperative farmer owners across seven markets and managing the delivery of innovative commercial milk concepts on farm. During his extensive career at Arla, he worked in both UK and global roles, helping to steer and develop a data-driven, on-farm sustainability agenda, both for specific commercial customers and the wider cooperative.  

He has also spent time in the retail sector at Tesco, joining the company in 2011 as Agriculture Manager. During this time, Graham was integral to the implementation of Tesco’s Sustainable Farming Groups within its MFPE category before moving across to the dairy category. Working alongside Tesco’s Sustainable Dairy Group members, he helped develop the company’s agriculture policy and strategy for the dairy category while collaborating with the Commercial and Technical Teams. Graham also developed the Tesco Future Farmer Foundation’, which was established to support new entrants and young farmers to launch their careers in agriculture. 

In his role as CEO of the AHDB, Graham is looking forward to promoting and unleashing the full potential of British farmers and growers for the future and is absolute in the view that British agriculture is among the best in the world.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our March broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Dr Awal Fuseini, Halal Sector Senior Manager for the AHDB.

Awal works closely with levy payers and key stakeholders in the Halal sector to create a better understanding of the requirements of Halal meat production. His role involves introducing various initiatives aimed at promoting English beef and lamb as versatile and convenient products to Halal consumers. Awal also collaborates with Halal certification bodies to understand the requirements of the major export markets with a view to facilitating the export of English beef and lamb to the global Halal market, with particular focus on the Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan African markets.

Awal previously worked as an auditor and certification manager for one of the largest Halal certifiers in the UK, he is a trained British Retail Consortium (BRC) and ISO 9001 third party auditor. He has also made a significant contribution to academic literature through the publication of a book on Halal meat production, and numerous peer-reviewed papers in reputable scientific journals such as Meat Science, Veterinary Record, Animal Welfare, CAB Reviews, Food Ethics and others. Awal holds a PhD in animal welfare and meat science from Bristol University, his research interests centre around improving animal welfare at slaughter and evaluating consumer behaviour.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our March broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Jack Sheffield, Farmer & Founder of FeelAliveAgri, discussing “Building a Brand”.

Jack started FeelAliveAgri in 2017 with an aim to create a brand aimed at young people in agriculture which is affordable yet stylish. A brand which can be worn on the farm, in the field or at the shows.

Having been in farming all his life: growing up on the family farm in Sussex, attending agricultural college and working in different UK counties and down under in Australia, he is no stranger to the farming way of life but he saw there was something the people of the farming community needed and wanted! With social media being a massive part if his life and even more so agriculture nowadays it gave launching the brand a helping hand!

As we’re all aware, currently there are multiple challenges and pressure faced both in our industry and lives. Join our panel to discuss and gain insight into how they are riding the current rollercoaster and adapting their businesses to become more resilient, motivating the people around them, whilst ensuring they look after themselves.

Our Speakers:

• Mark Campbell, Chair
• Chris Appleton, Dairy Farmer
• Tom Rawson, Director of Evolution Farming
• Charles Anyan, FCN Ambassador & Farmer
• Max MacGillivray, Beanstalk Global – Host

Chris has been fortunate enough to return to the family farm as a fourth generation dairy farmer managing 450 autumn block cows near Lewes, East Sussex. The farm has seen significant changes over the last 8 years with a project currently underway to build a new dairy unit and expand the herd to 650 cows. Chris is ably supported by a fantastic team that prioritise the welfare of the animals, allowing all to push forwards with the next stages of development for the farm.

Tom is married to Catherine and they have three teenage children. Tom’s journey into dairy farming started on his parents’ 50 cow tenanted farm in West Yorkshire when he finished Harper Adams University in 1999 having not milked a cow until he was 19 years old. In 2010 Tom co founded Evolution Farming which today milks over 3000 cows on 8 units and at peak employed over 80 staff in a variety of different enterprises. Tom also has wider industry involvement including being Vice Chair of Nuffield Farming, current Chair of The 1000 Cow Club and a Committee member of The Farmers Club.

Charles is an arable farmer and keen environmentalist from Lincolnshire who took up running during the Covid lockdowns. A five stone weight loss quickly ensued. Now a veteran of 4 marathons (and currently training for number 5) he still hasn’t stopped. He has found running to be a great way to look after both his physical and mental health, and is an advocate for breaking the stigma around this.

Anyan became an ambassador for The Farming Communtiy Network in 2021 and was also a judge of Britain’s Fittest Farmer in 2023.