IGD Future of the UK Food System 2026

Helen Herniman joined AHDB as CEO in January 2026. Her mission is to help AHDB’s experts support farmers, growers and others in the food supply chain to make informed decisions that support productivity and profitability. Helen has spent her career working in both the public and private sectors, most recently as acting CEO of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, as well as Chief Finance Officer at the Law Society. With a strong foundation in finance and accounting, Helen is committed to ensuring levy payers receive value for money from AHDB’s products, tools and services.  

Robert Sheasby is the Chief Executive of the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), the trade association representing agricultural businesses in the UK. He has extensive experience from a career in agriculture, having held a number of roles within the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) before joining AIC in 2018. Earlier in his career, he also worked as a land agent and auctioneer. 

In his role, Robert sits on a number of government stakeholder groups, including the Department for International Trade (DIT) Trade Advisory Group for agriculture and food, and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) Farming and Food Partnership Board. He also has overall responsibility for the operation of AIC. 

Nicola Robinson has 25 years of experience in the food, drink and retail sectors, covering executive, commercial and marketing positions. Nicky has held director positions at companies such as Mondelez, Coca Cola Europacific Partners, Kettle Foods and most recently at Tesco where she was Health, Beauty & Wellness category director during the periods of Brexit, Covid and cost of living crisis. She has also run her own consultancy business where she was involved in many people development and training, strategic and structural projects for a wide variety of globally known branded businesses. 

At the end of 2024, Nicky was appointed the director of Alliance Food Sourcing, an initiative in collaboration with The IGD, Fareshare and The Felix Project, an opportunity she felt too great to miss in using her experience to improve the supply of food to the charity sector tackling food insecurity in the UK. The progress of Alliance Food Sourcing has been great in no small part down to the fantastic industry response so far.  Currently there are 34 active partners and a further 31 exploring the potential of formalising a collaboration.  With over 10mn people in the UK living with food insecurity and over 800,000 tonnes of edible food that is practical to rescue within the UK food manufacturing base, there’s lots more opportunity to make a positive impact. 

Tom Cheesewright is the Applied Futurist, telling stories of tomorrow for the world’s biggest brands. He helps leaders to see the future more clearly and tell their stories to the audiences that matter, whether that’s the board, their staff, or their customers and prospects. Trusted by more than 30 of the global 500, as well as major government bodies such as NASA, Tom is in demand as a consultant, commentator, speaker and spokesperson.

Jim O’Toole was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Bord Bia, The Irish Food Board, in November 2022. Previously, he held the role of Chief Executive Officer, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency from April 2017 to October 2022. 

Prior to this, Jim held several senior positions in Bord Bia, The Irish Food Board, including spearheading the development of Origin Green, the worlds' only national food and drink sustainability programme. He also gained extensive experience in the global marketplace having spent 15 years managing BordBia offices in London, Milan and Paris.  

A Board Member of the Irish National Accreditation Board (INAB), he holds a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Science from University College Dublin. He has completed professional development programmes at Ashridge Business School, Cranfield University, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and Harvard Business School. 

Anna Taylor is Executive Director at The Food Foundation - a leading organisation working on food policy. Previously she was a civil servant at DFID leading their nutrition work and was awarded an OBE for services to tackle undernutrition globally.  She sits on DEFRA’s Food Strategy Advisory Board and was chief independent adviser to Henry Dimbleby for the National Food Strategy. She sits on the Board of Veg Power.  She started her career as a nutritionist working for Save the Children. 

Dalton joined Greencore as CEO in September 2022. Raised on a family poultry farm in Ireland, he holds a BA from University College Dublin, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an honorary Doctorate of Management from Bradford University. 

His executive career includes CEO of daa plc, the global airports and travel retail group, CEO of Wm Morrison plc (then a FTSE 100 company and the UK's fourth largest supermarket), CEO of Brown Thomas Group, and COO of Loblaw Companies Ltd. in Canada. Dalton also served as a senior advisor to the Boston Consulting Group. He started his career with Jardine Matheson, followed by Walmart. 

Roisin grew up in Glasgow and graduated from Strathclyde University having read Business Law and Business Management.  She embarked on a career with Asda, joining their Graduate Programme during the era of Archie Norman and Allan Leighton.  

She spent 20 years in various roles and locations across the UK, including Head of Reward, Retail People Director and then latterly as Distribution People Director based in Leeds. 

Roisin left to join Greggs in 2010 as Group People Director, becoming Retail Operations and People Director in 2017, and then Retail and Property Director in 2021, before being appointed to Chief Executive in May 2022. In July 2024, Roisin was appointed as an independent Non-Executive Director of Howdens. 

Roisin is Chair of the Employers Forum for Reducing Re-offending - a voluntary role working with the Ministry for Justice and New Futures Network encouraging employers to give people a second chance to change their lives having been through the Criminal Justice System. Roisin was instrumental in the conception of Greggs ‘Fresh Start’ employability programme, designed to help encourage and support people leaving prison into paid employment within Greggs.  

Roisin is a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and a member of the Food Strategy Advisory Board. In 2024 Roisin was awarded the STELAR Leadership award from Strathclyde University, her alma mater and an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law by Northumbria University, Newcastle in recognition of her outstanding contribution to business and her commitment to diversity in the workplace. In 2025, she was awarded a CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List for her services to hospitality.  

James' role at IGD is to help businesses anticipate and cope with strategic events, including economic pressures, geo-political change, social developments and environmental stress. James has worked with clients across the entire grocery industry as well as with non-industry groups such as government departments, financial businesses, and NGOs. James joined IGD in April 1999 and has served in several roles, becoming Chief Economist in 2004. Prior to joining IGD, he worked for Hillsdown Holdings, Northern Foods and Rank-Xerox. 

Kimberley has over 20 years’ experience in the retail sector, specialising in driving large-scale cultural and operational transformation. Currently Director of Learning & Development Programmes at IGD, she is developing learning offers that support the grocery industry in building a future-fit workforce. She has a proven track record of embedding cultural change and building high-performing teams. She is passionate about developing people, embedding lasting change, and delivering sustainable business results. 

Sarah brings over 25 years of unparalleled experience in the retail and food sectors.  Currently, she leads IGD, an influential organisation that has been helping to inspire and unite the food industry for more than 120 years. IGD is a strategic insights and foresight business, reinvesting all profits into impactful initiatives that benefit both the industry and society at large.  

Throughout her career, Sarah has held senior commercial and marketing positions, including her previous role as Group Quality Director at Tesco. There, she was responsible for overseeing the delivery of high-quality safe products, sustainability, agriculture and regulatory compliance. It was in this role that Sarah honed her passion for driving collaborative change, mobilising the food and consumer goods sectors as a force for good, and working to improve the food system for the long term. 

Tom leads IGD’s insight strategy, partnering with global clients to anticipate change and drive growth by translating data into actionable strategies that help businesses thrive.  

Simon Roberts is Chief Executive of J Sainsbury plc, which includes Sainsbury’s, Argos, Nectar, Tu, Habitat and Sainsbury’s Bank. He brings over 35 years of retail experience, having started on the shop floor and later holding senior roles at Walgreens Boots Alliance, including President of Boots UK & Ireland.

Since joining Sainsbury’s in 2017, he has led a people-first, purpose-driven strategy, prioritising colleagues, customers and communities. Under his leadership, the business has invested over £1bn in pricing to strengthen its value proposition, while maintaining sector-leading pay and benefits for its 140,000 colleagues.

A strong advocate for UK suppliers, Sainsbury’s spent £23.5bn with UK partners over the past year. The business has also intensified its efforts to tackle food poverty, donating over 18 million meals, while around 80% of sales now come from Healthy and Better for You products.

Simon is President of IGD and serves on several government and industry advisory boards.

Dr. Clive Black is the Vice Chairman, Founding Director and Head of Consumer of Shore Capital Markets (SCM), having served as Head of Research from 2003 to 2022. Before Shore Capital, he was a Director at ING Charterhouse Securities/Charterhouse Tilney and held key roles at Northern Foods plc and Head of Food Policy at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). In 2012, Dr. Black was named City AM’s Analyst of the Year, nominated too in 2025 having many survey accreditations. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of The Community Shop. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Queen’s University, Belfast and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Hilary Clinton for services to the agri-food industry in Northern Ireland in 2024.  

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