Tim Farron is the Liberal Democrat EFRA Spokesperson and Member of Parliament for the Cumbrian consituency of Westmoreland and Lonsdale. Tim has been an MP since 2005 and led the Liberal Democrats between 2015 and 2017. During his leadership, Tim identified rural affairs and the green economy as important priorities for the party. Tim is a great champion of Britain’s farmers and their livelihoods and in March 2022, he led a Westminster rally in support of his Parliamentary Bill which would protect British food and farming standards in trade deals.

Alongside a highly successful career in business and finance and his responsibilities as Chairman of Investmenr Banking at Panmure Gordon, Stephen co-founded City Harvest London – the food rescue charity which delivers surplus food to community organisations in all London boroughs serving meals to vulnerable people. Collecting surplus food from hundreds of food businesses, more than 11 million meals have been delivered to over 300 community food programmes free of charge.

Grace is the Agriculture Director for the South and East England region for HSBC Corporate and Business Banking. Prior to joining HSBC in 2017, she led the NSF Food UK business to deliver food safety and good agricultural practice audit and certification services across global agricultural and food manufacturing supply chains, ensured the delivery of assurance schemes including Red Tractor, was a regional policy advisor for the NFU and aFarm Systems Manager for Syngenta. 

Rachel is a Chartered Tax Adviser, a specialist in providing tax planning advice to entrepreneurs’ businesses. Rachel is a firm believer that to provide advice that is effective she has to really understand her client’s business, personal goals and aspirations. As well as heading up the firms Renewable and Sustainable Energy Sector, Rachel has extensive experience in Motor, Agriculture and Manufacturing & Engineering sectors.  Much of Rachel’s time is spent on transactional work both in the UK and internationally. She re-joined MacIntyre Hudson’s tax department in September 2005 after a period working with a finance house in London, providing sophisticated tax planning products to high net worth individuals and large owner managed businesses.

Jose is an ESG risk assessment expert with more than 11 years of big 4 experience auditing global large listed groups and complex entities within the Agricultural, Renewable, Technology and Mining sectors. In the last 2 years Jose has been applying his in-depth technical understanding of environmental (including climate risk), social, governance, accounting, assurance and financial reporting standards to support, validate and challenge organisations translate and disclose material ESG related risks and opportunities. Jose is passionate about a transparent and fair presentation of climate change reporting, consideration of material ESG risks and net zero transition plans.

Jose strong technical knowledge and understanding of the Task Force of Climate Related Disclosures (“TCFD”) strategic framework helps Jose provide support to a wider range of business in developing a resilient ESG strategy, setting up responsibilities for the Board and Management, integration of material risks in the risk management framework and support the alignment and evaluation of material ESG risks in the IFRS financial statements.

Mark is a Chartered Accountant, corporate financier and consultant with special interests in food & farming, rural business, ESG and the belief that business must be underpinned by sustainable finance. He established Rural Policy Group in 2019 following 16 years in the rural economy working with both public and private sector businesses. Mark has won numerous awards for his work including Finance Director of the Year 2007, Accounting for Sustainability 2012 (ICEAW), National Business Finance Director 2014 (Finance Director) and the Institute of Directors Blue Ribbon award for Governance and Finance Excellence in 2018.