Moderator:

Conrad Young is the Founder of Chirrup.ai which provides cost effective monitoring and reporting of birdsong, as a science-based biodiversity indicator for groups of farms. Chirrup.ai has patents pending and is targeting its first investment round in 2023. Active in food supply sustainability since 2010, Conrad launched Chirrup.ai for regenerative farm monitoring, and supported the growth of dairy manufacturing resource efficiency, sustainable packaging, insect protein, cold chain and renewable energy innovations. Previously, Conrad has been project director of the Tesco Supplier Buying Club, Asda Sustain and Save Exchange and Managing Director of Food Forward. Fun fact: In 2004 Conrad set up London’s smallest and largest Local Nature Reserves.

Panellists:

David Edwards is the Director of Food Strategy at WWF. David has over 15 years’ experience working at a senior level to advance the sustainability agenda internationally, touching on both public policy and private sector action. Prior to WWF, he was the Assistant Director of HRH Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit for 10 years. Though his role at WWF focuses primarily on the environmental aspects of the Food systems challenge, he strongly believes these are intrinsically linked to nutritional health, and justice aspects which he supports through his Trusteeships at SUSTAIN and Food Foundation.
Simon Evill is a General Partner and co-founder at Pelican Ag – the UK’s first venture fund powering regenerative agriculture and sustainable food systems. He is an early-stage impact investing specialist having worked on over 50 capital raising mandates over the past 14 years and helping to raise over £230m for socially and environmentally progressive companies. Simon also advised institutions in developing their own impact investing funds, most notably Sky Ocean Ventures – a pioneering seed fund laser focused on reducing plastic load in the economy. Simon’s passion for soil, ecology and food started in early childhood through his family’s bio-intensive fruit & vegetable garden – an obsession that continues to this day.

Tom Maidment is the Group Product Sustainability Senior Manager at Hilton Foods. He is responsible for developing Hilton’s response to the climate crisis across their sites and supply chain, and he leads the development of the company’s decarbonisation and resource efficiency strategies. He is also an Associate at Oxford Net Zero – the climate neutrality research body. With a background as a chartered engineer, Tom has a background as an LCA specialist in the car industry. He was previously at Jaguar Land Rover where he worked on the I-Pace electric car and developed the company’s net zero strategy.

Alice Ritchie is the Lead Nature & Forests Manager and WWF Partnership Lead at Tesco. She leads Tesco’s sustainability agendas on biodiversity, deforestation, water and soil, working across the business and with partners like WWF to halve the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket. Previously, she was the Climate Change and Water Lead at The Country Land and Business Association, representing 30,000 landowners and farmers, advising and lobbying the UK government on reaching net-zero, carbon markets and nature-based solutions.

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