2016 Speakers
We are delighted to announce the following speakers have been confirmed for the BCPC Congress 2016:
DR. DAN BEBBER
SENIOR LECTURER IN MICROBIAL ECOLOGY | UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Dan joined Exeter University in 2013, studying the global distributions of crop pests and pathogens, in collaboration with Prof. Sarah Gurr and the organization CABI. His work has demonstrated a clear climate change signal in spread of crop-damaging organisms over the 20th Century. Starting in October he will lead an interdisciplinary study of risks to the global banana trade, funded under the UK Government Global Food Security programme. Before joining Exeter, Dan was Head of Climate Change Research at Earthwatch in Oxford, managing a global forest carbon cycle research project as part of the HSBC Climate Partnership, the largest ever citizen science programme. Dan trained as an ecologist, and his doctorate considered the influence of El Nino on forest regeneration in Borneo. He has research experience in forest conservation in Canada, sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants in India and Nepal, community forestry in Cambodia, and the biology of woodland fungi in the UK.
PROFESSOR SIMON BLACKMORE
HARPER ADAMS UNIVERSITY
Simon Blackmore is a key figure in the development of Precision Farming and agricultural robotics, with a world-wide reputation. Simon is currently Professor and Head of Engineering at Harper Adams University, Director of the National Centre for Precision Farming and managed the European FutureFarm project. Simon has extensive experience of multidisciplinary collaboration across universities, commercial partnerships and research projects including autonomous tractors, laser weeding, robotic phenotyping and robotic harvesting.
He holds seven Chairs around the world and gives many national and international keynote presentations. Simon leads the research in the UK on agricultural robotics. His personal research focuses on improving Precision Farming by developing more intelligent machines and processes, and making crop production more efficient and sustainable.
DR. PIET M. BOONEKAMP
BUSINESS UNIT MANAGER | WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY AND RESEARCH CENTRE
Piet M. Boonekamp is Business Unit Manager Biointeractions & Plant Health, a contract research unit of Wageningen UR that focuses on plant diseases from genes to ecosystems, to provide tools for Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
He is member of the Steering Committee of the Public-Private Plant Health research program financed by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and the Agro-sector. He is the Wageningen representative in European networks as ENDURE, C-IPM initiated by the EU, Vice-President of the European Federation of Plant Pathology (EFPP) and President of the Royal Netherlands Society of Plant Pathology (KNPV).
Before his present position in Wageningen he was in 2000 manager of change to participate in a large merging process of the various plant institutes in Wageningen to establish the Plant Sciences Group, and to establish his present Business Unit. Before that he was department head at the Bulb Research Institute in Lisse, in the research field of detection and control of flower bulb diseases.
He went mid 80ties for the first time to Wageningen to start a research unit on monoclonal antibodies to develop diagnostics for plant pathogens. He played an important role in setting up European collaboration in this field.
He was educated at the University of Leiden in Biochemistry, obtained his PhD degree in cell biology and immunology. He started his scientific career in immunology and diagnostics at the Dutch National Institute of Health (RIVM in Bilthoven), at the University of Leiden and the Missouri University in Kansas City (USA).
RICHARD BUTLER
CHAIRMAN | THE VOLUNTARY INITIATIVE (PESTICIDES)
CHAIRMAN | THE FARMER’S CLUB (LONDON)
Richard joined the family farming business in 1975. Since 1983 he has been the senior Partner for R.J.Butler & Son farming 1700 acres, near Marlborough, Wiltshire.
Farm enterprises include a Holstein dairy herd supplying milk to Waitrose, a Beef Cattle Fattening unit, and an extensive arable combine crop enterprise specialising in wheat grown for seed and milling as well as malting barley production. Other combine crops grown include oats, white beans and rapeseed.
Richard founded a contract farming company in 1987 which now farms four additional farms in Wiltshire for local landowners totalling over 2000 acres principally in arable cropping.
East Wick Farm won the 2008 Crown Estate Rural Business award for farming and conservation. The award was presented at Lancaster House, London, July 2008.
DR. PETER J CAMPBELL
HEAD OF PRODUCT SAFETY RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS AND SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT SPECIALIST | SYNGENTA LTD
Dr. Peter Campbellis Head of Product Safety External Research Collaborations and a Senior Environmental Risk Assessment Specialist in the Environmental Safety Department of Syngenta based at the Jealotts Hill Research Centre in UK. He has worked in the field of ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment of pesticides for 23 years, with the first 7 years being in the UK Pesticide Regulatory Authority.
He is currently responsible for leading Syngenta’s Pollinator Research efforts. He is also a member of the European Crop Protection Association’s (ECPA) Environmental Expert Group and is the Chairman of the ECPA Pollinator Steering Team. He is a long term member and Fellow of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).
DAVID CARY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | IBMA
David has been in place as the inaugural Executive Director of this dynamic global trade association with a strong European focus since 2010. His career has been focused on IPM, resistance management, implementation of biocontrol techniques, and systems based control of pests and diseases. He is passionate about reducing the reliance on traditional pesticides through finding, developing, registering and bringing to market new solutions to feed a growing world population whilst respecting biodiversity, the environment and protecting human health. David is an entomologist by training and spent several years co-ordinating, conducting, assessing, reporting efficacy trials and supervising regulatory compliance for biological agricultural inputs. He actively participates in promoting the biocontrol industry and ensuring that any regulation is proportionate to risk. He promotes a globally harmonised regional regulatory and product development focus and is confident that we will see more global co-ordination in the near future. He was a key player in the formation of BPG (BioProtection Global) and works closely with international bodies including OECD, FAO and EPPO.
MIKE COULSON
ECOTOXICOLOGIST | SYNGENTA LTD
Mike is an acknowledged international expert in the bee ecotoxicology field, with 25 years’ experience in the bee and non-target arthropod testing and assessment area. He is a current member of ICPPR bee field testing group. Mike is also an organising Committee member of recent SETAC Pellston workshop on the risks from Pesticides to pollinators; and was nominated to present the workshop outcome at SETAC World Congress Berlin 2012.
He is Chair of the BART (Beneficial Arthropod Regulatory Testing) group – a mix of experts from industry and Contract Research Organisations. In addition he is a member of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) soil and ECPA NTA (non-target arthropod) and bee groups.
Mike was one of the Editors and a Member of the Organising committee for ESCORT3 – linking non-target arthropod testing and risk assessment with protection goals.
Mike’s experience covers conducting testing in the laboratory, semi-field and field, using the data in risk assessments and communicating findings with regulatory authorities.
DR. DAVID COWIE
TECHNICAL EXPERT | SYNGENTA LTD
David Cowie holds a PhD in molecular toxicology from the University of Aberdeen. Currently, he is employed as a Toxicologist at Syngenta (Bracknell UK). He is the senior toxicologist for the herbicide research portfolio and an internal consultant for investigative toxicology projects. He is involved in a number of Syngenta’s initiatives to use and apply innovative methods to safety assessment.
LORD DONALD CURRY OF KIRKHARLE Kt, CBE, FRAgS
Donald Curry lives in Northumberland and since August 2012 he has been Chair of the Council of the Royal Veterinary College. From 2009 until the summer of 2016 he was Chair of the Leckford Estate Management Committee – the Waitrose Farm. He was appointed chair of the Better Regulation Executive in 2010 and remained there until the end of 2015. He is a trustee of Clinton Devon Estates, a Trustee of the Prince’s Countryside Fund and also Anglican International Development (AID), a charity leading on a range of development projects in South Sudan. He chairs the Steering Board of Farming Futures (the Centre of Excellence of UK Farming) a consortium of Academic and Industrial partners who are combining their scientific knowledge to develop practical ‘knowledge transfer’ solutions for sustainable food production in the UK. In June 2014 he was appointed Chair of Cawood Scientific, an independent provider of accredited analytical laboratory testing services for the land-based sector. Since 2015 he has been Chair of the Development Board of the National Land Based College. He was appointed as a board member of the NFU Mutual Insurance Company in 1997 and was Chairman from June 2003 to December 2011. He Chaired the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food reporting to Government in January 2002 and was responsible for overseeing the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food until March 2009. The Policy Commission report ‘Farming and Food a sustainable future’ (The Curry Report) was enthusiastically received by all key stakeholders. It had a significant influence on Government policy and on the 2003 CAP reform negotiations. It led to the decoupling of support from production and a cultural change within the farming sector with a new focus on environmental management. He served as a Crown Estate Commissioner from January 2000 until December 2007. He was first appointed as a Meat and Livestock Commission Commissioner in October 1986 and Chaired the Commission from September 1993 until April 2001 throughout the BSE crisis and the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak. He was a founder, of ‘At Home in the Community’ in 1990, a charity providing care and support for people with learning disabilities, and was Chair until 2014. He was awarded a CBE for his services to Agriculture in the 1997 New Year’s Honours list, a Knighthood in the Birthday Honours in 2001 and was appointed as a cross bench peer in The House of Lords in October 2011. In 2004 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (BSc) by Cranfield University, an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire in 2005 and a Doctorate of Civil Law by Newcastle University in 2008.
CHRIS DENT
REGULATORY SPECIALIST | CHEMICALS REGULATION DIRECTORATE, UK HSE
Chris has worked for the Chemical Regulation Division (CRD) of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) since 2008. Primarily a regulatory specialist he also jointly represents the UK at the Post Approvals Issues (PAI) expert working group and the Central Zone Steering Committee. His current focus is managing the implementation of the article 43 product renewal process in the UK. He has a degree in chemistry from Imperial College London.
STEVE DOBSON
SENIOR CONSULTANT | TSGE CONSULTING
Steve is a project manager with extensive experience of plant protection regulatory affairs. Steve joined TSGE from the Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD) where he was involved, from the inception of the European harmonised system, in developing and implementing regulatory processes and procedures covering all stages of the process from risk assessment to risk management. Steve has worked closely with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Commission. He was the UK representative to EFSA’s Pesticide Steering Committee and has been involved in the work of several Commission expert groups. Steve has experience of global regulatory issues having also been involved in the OECD’s Working Group on Pesticides as well as the associated Risk Reduction and Registration Steering Groups. Steve has a degree in Botany.
DR. JOHN E DOE
CONSULTANT | PARKER DOE PARTNERSHIP LLP
After having previously worked as a pharmacologist in pharmaceutical industry in the areas of asthma, skin allergy and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, John Doe joined ICI’s Central Toxicology Laboratory (CTL) in the late 1970s. He initially worked in inhalation toxicology then managed studies across the full spectrum of regulatory toxicology including chronic, reproductive and developmental toxicology.
He worked in industrial chemical and agrochemical toxicology for many years, becoming Director of CTL in 2003 and Head of Product Safety for Syngenta in 2006. He was Chairman of ECETOC Scientific Committee from 2006 until 2010.
Dr Doe was a member of the UK Animal Procedures Committee from 2004 to 2012. In 2007 his work on revising the assessment of agricultural chemicals was highly commended by NC3Rs. Dr Doe retired from Syngenta in 2010 and is now an independent consultant.
He is currently playing a major role in the ILSI-HESI Risk 21 project to develop a new paradigm for risk assessment which incorporates recent scientific advances and he is the chairman of an ECETOC Task Force which is looking at ways to incorporate potency into the classification of chemicals for carcinogenicity and for developmental and reproductive toxicity. Dr Doe is a member of the UK Committee on Carcinogenicity.
PROFESSOR ROBERT EDWARDS
HEAD OF SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT | NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
Robert Edwards qualified with a BSc in Biochemistry (Bath University) and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology (St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London). His interests are focussed on the biotransformation of synthetic compounds and natural products in plants and the manipulation of these pathways for applications in crop protection. These interests have been developed through working in both the private and public sector in the UK (Schering Agrochemicals ) and USA (Noble Foundation), with an independent research group established in 1991 in the Biology Department at the University of Durham. In 2008 he became the Head of Biological Sciences at Durham and in 2010 took up a joint position as Chief Scientist at the UK’s Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) and a chair in Crop Protection in the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, University of York. To further consolidate his interests in basic and applied agrifood research, in March 2014 he took up post as the Head of the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development where he continues to direct personal research programmes in crop protection, with a specific focus on the control of wild grasses in cereal crops. He is Chair of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s Farmer Scientist Network and the Director of the Institute for Agrifood Research and Innovation formed in 2014 between Newcastle University and Fera Science Ltd.
HEDDA EGGELING
STEWARD REDQUEEN
Hedda Eggeling is a senior economist at Steward Redqueen in the Netherlands. Hedda holds a cum laude Master’s degree in Economics and has over 6 years of experience in performing socio-economic impact assessments, supply chain analyses and economic modelling.
In numerous projects for sectors including the food & beverage, banking and development finance, agriculture and logistics sector she highlights the contribution of private companies or investments to society. This provides fact-based arguments adding to stakeholder dialogues e.g. around employment creation and income generation effects.
DR. KAREN GALEA
HEAD OF EXPOSURE SCIENCE SECTION | INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE (IOM)
Karen Galea is Head of the Exposure Science Section within the Research Division at the IOM. Her background is occupational hygiene and environmental health/medicine. She manages a team of seven researchers and is actively involved and leads a wide variety of research projects.
These are mainly focused on exposure assessment relating to health risks and covers exposures in occupational, home and public settings. She is a member of the Pesticides Incident Appraisal Panel. Karen will present recently completed research funded by Defra focussed on pesticide biomonitoring in residents living near agricultural land.
DR. MARTYN GRIFFITHS
EMEA REGULATORY STRATEGY MANAGER | BAYER S.A.S.
Dr. Griffiths graduated from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and obtained his doctorate in the field of liquid fertilisers from Harper Adams College. His involvement in crop protection started 26 years ago with Schering. After 5 years of field development experience, he moved to Frankfurt, Germany with AgrEvo, where he held a number of positions including responsibility for registrations in China, Taiwan and Korea.
With the formation of Bayer CropScience, he has worked in the European Regulatory Affairs team in Lyon, France and his current position is EMEA Regulatory Strategy Manager. He is chairman of ECPA Regulatory Policy Team.
EMMA HAMER
SENIOR PLANT HEALTH ADVISER | NFU
Emma is the Senior Plant Health Adviser at the National Farmers Union, working on all areas of crop protection. She is a biology graduate specialising in botany, biochemistry and biotechnology. Areas which are of particular relevance to Emma are keeping actives available for UK growers, resistance management and encouraging uptake of stewardship to enable the safe, sustainable use of Plant Protection Products. Previous roles include working in agriculture; in the plant breeding industry and as a Plant Health and Seeds Inspector at Defra. She also has an arable and beef farm in North Oxfordshire which she runs with her husband and children.
DILWYN HARRIS
DOW AGROSCIENCES
Dilwyn Harris joined Dow AgroSciences in 1996 as a member of the UK Research and Development team. Primarily researching the herbicide active substance pyroxsulam, florasulam and fluroxypyr he became the lead scientist working with the UK team to develop a range of products for UK growers. A keen interest in application and sprayer technology, authoring papers on application technology and drift reduction, as well as advising growers on reducing spray drift as part of the Say No to Drift stewardship campaign for chlorpyrifos. In 2012 he took responsibility for the UK insecticide portfolio (spinosad, chlorpyrifos and sulfoxaflor) leading biology dossier activities as well as providing technical training for customers. Harris is now the UK regulatory scientist for insecticides and cereal herbicides. An experienced zonal biology dossier writer, he has authored a number of papers and holds an honours degree in Agriculture from Seale-Hayne college.
GRAHAM HARTWELL
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP MANAGER | BASF PLC
Graham Hartwell has spent his career in the countryside supporting a sustainable agricultural industry, ensuring food production goes hand in hand with best practice, environmental awareness and stewardship. He is a Soil Scientist and Agricultural Chemist from Wye College having worked in horticulture and extensively in agriculture at ICI and BASF. Today he is the Environmental Stewardship Manager for BASF (the world’s largest chemicals and technology business) in Northern Europe, currently driving their roll-out of a network of trial and biodiversity sites across Europe (some 15 Farms in 8 countries).
He is well known within the industry and is recognised as bringing together a blend of technical, commercial and management experience to create pragmatic solutions for farmers and their stakeholders including NGOs, Government departments and agencies and the retail sector. From Washington to Milan and London to Brussels he shares his views…clearly.
Outside work, Graham is frequently found on a golf course often surveying too much of the environment around him.
DR. DINAH HILLIER
CATCHMENT CONTROL MANAGER | THAMES WATER UTILITIES LTD
Dinah Hillier has been the Catchment Control Manager at Thames Water for six years, but has been involved in catchment protection initiatives within the company for over two decades. Her PhD on the Chemistry of Moorland Waters at Queen Mary College, London University, provided a route into her first job at Thames Water, which was developing analytical methods to detect pesticides in water at concentrations up to 10 times lower than the drinking water standard of 0.1 mg/l.
Dinah’s current role is focused on raw water protection and the use of voluntary approaches to meet regulatory EA and DWI requirements for pesticides in water. In this capacity she represents Water UK on the Voluntary Initiative Project and the Network Rail Agreement, the latter being one of the longest running and most successful catchment management projects in England and Wales.
EMMA HOCKRIDGE
HEAD OF POLICY (FARMING AND LAND-USE) | SOIL ASSOCIATION
Emma is head of policy (farming and land-use) at the Soil Association, the food and farming organisation which was established in 1946. Prior to this she was a project co-ordinator for Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and undertook a Masters in Sustainable Development.
She previously worked for Defra, and carried out conservation work in the Peruvian jungle. She has held a number of director roles including for GM Freeze and Sustain. She is a Nuffield Farming Scholar and Emma’s family have been farming in Devon for over four generations.
EMMA JENKINS
REGULATORY TEAM LEADER | DOW AGROSCIENCES
Emma Jenkins is a Regulatory Team Leader for Dow AgroSciences, managing the regulatory activities for a portfolio of fungicide actives substances in the EU, Middle East and Africa. Emma joined Dow AgroSciences in 2012 and is based at the European Development Centre in the UK. Emma is a member of the ECPA’s Product Authorisation Expert Group (PAEG), bringing the views of industry into discussions with the Commission and the Member States on the functioning of the zonal system.
Prior to joining Dow AgroSciences, Emma worked for the Chemicals Regulation Directorate for 15 years, specialising in managing the evaluation of active substance dossiers and coordinating the Rapporteur Member State role during the EFSA peer review process. Emma also has several years’ field trials experience working for a contract research organisation.
JON KNIGHT
HEAD OF CROP HEALTH AND PROTECTION (CHaP) | AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE DEVELOPMENT BOARD, AHDB
Dr. Jon Knight is the Head of Crop Health and Protection (CHaP) for the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) where he is responsible for developing and implementing research and development strategy for pests, weeds and diseases for agricultural and horticultural crops. The CHaP team works closely with industry and government to ensure the availability of a range of suitable crop protection measures for a wide range of crops.
Originally trained as agricultural zoologist he has worked in the broad area of pest management over the last 20 years at Imperial College and moved to AHDB at the start of 2012 to Head R&D for Horticulture. Research work on over 60 projects has ranged from implementation and management of practical pest control projects both in the UK and overseas to the development of new approaches to Pest Risk Analysis and plant health issues.
He is currently a member of the Plant Health Advisory Forum and holds an honorary position at Imperial College London.
WILFRED MAAS
PROJECT MANAGER | TRISKELION
Wilfred Maas studied biochemistry and toxicology at Wageningen University. From 1996 he’s been working at TNO and Triskelion in several (in vitro) testing areas i.e. skin and eye irritation, skin corrosion, in vitro metabolism and toxicology in (primary) cells and (liver) slices. He actively participated in the development of both an in vitro model (in human skin) and an in vivo model (in rats) to assess the (photo-) genotoxic potential of compounds. From 2002, he’s been working as a study director in the field of in vitro dermal absorption testing, being fully responsible for the in vitro dermal absorption activities since 2006. He has been involved in several workshops in this area and has been invited as a speaker on several occasions. In 2015, he has been cooperating with ECPA (the European Crop Protection Association) in the development of an in vitro testing method to study dermal absorption of agro-chemicals from dry foliar residues in vitro.
HANS MATTAAR
ECCA
After graduating at Wageningen Agricultural University in 1984, Hans Mattaar joined the crop protection division of Rhône- Poulenc, a French chemical multinational, in the position of Regulatory Affairs Expert for the Netherlands. From this position he moved on to product defence for the Benelux countries, and in 1992 he joined the European Regulatory Team as a coordinator for European regulatory affairs. During his career he expanded his area of interest from science to law, and from there it was a small step to the politics. He held the position of European Public & Governmental Affairs (PGA) Manager and Regulatory Strategy Manager for the last 7 years of his career in the company, which first merged with AgrEvo into Aventis CropScience, and then became part of Bayer CropScience. In January 2008 he left Bayer to pursue a career as Senior Advisor with Pappas & Associates, Attorneys at Law, in Brussels. In his current role he provides strategic and regulatory advice to businesses who operate in a regulated environment, both on operational and on organisational issues. In parallel to that, since June 2012 he holds the position of Technical Director for ECCA, the European association for the post-patent agrochemical industry.
DARA O’SHEA
AUDITOR | EUROPEAN COMMISSION | DG SANTE DIRECTORATE F, HEALTH AND FOOD AUDITS AND ANALYSIS
Dara O’Shea is an auditor in Directorate F of DG SANTE. He is one of a five person team responsible for audits in the area of PPPs. His areas of interest include the sustainable use of PPPs, minor uses and controls in the area of illegal PPPs.
Prior to joining the Commission, he worked for the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. From 2007 to 2013, he was responsible for the authorisation of PPPs, enforcement at distribution and user levels and preparations for the implementation of the Sustainable Use Directive. Prior to 2007, he worked in the Animal Feedstuffs area, where he was responsible for the implementation of the annual control programme.
He has a degree in Agricultural Science and a Masters in Ruminant Nutrition from University College Dublin.
CHARA PANAGOPOLOU
MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD, GREECE
DR. COLIN RUSCOE, MA
CHAIRMAN | BCPC
Chairman, BCPC (British Crop Production Council); Communications Director, SynTech Research Inc.; IVCC (Innovative Vector Control Consortium) Scientific Committee; Business Development Consultant to bioscience, media and charitable organisations. Previously manager of Research Stations, Business Planning, Global Product Development, European Product Development, Bioscience Research, and Insecticide Discovery, in Syngenta/Zeneca/ICI Agrochemicals.
DR. ROSITSA SERAFIMOVA
SCIENTIFIC OFFICER | EUROPEAN FOOD SAFETY AUTHORITY (EFSA), PESTICIDES UNIT
Rositsa has been working as a scientific officer in European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) since September 2012, first in the Food ingredients and Packaging Unit and currently in the Pesticides Unit. The Pesticides Unit is responsible for the EU peer review of risk assessments of active substances used in plant protection products as well as providing scientific advice to the European Commission on possible risks related to the presence of pesticide residues in food and proposals regarding the setting of MRLs.
The Unit also provides administrative and scientific support to the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues. Before joining EFSA she worked in Joint research centre – European Commission (Italy) and the Laboratory of Mathematical Chemistry, Burgas University (Bulgaria) as researcher. A substantial part of her research has focused on development, assessment and application of computational methods for prediction of mammalian toxicity in the context of chemical risk assessment.
SARAH SHORE
HEAD OF PESTICIDE DELIVERY AND POLICY | CHEMICALS REGULATION DIVISION, UK HSE
Sarah Shore is the Head of Pesticide Delivery and Policy for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) having joined the Chemicals Regulation Division of HSE in 2011. She leads HSE’s pesticide delivery work and overseas input to a range of European fora where the UK seek to influence the development of the pesticide regulatory regime.Sarah has a background in regulatory affairs and providing evidence and expert advice relating to regulation. She moved to CRD from Major Hazards in HSE, where she led a major project to review HSE’s delivery of major hazards regulation in the UK. A key part of this project was to provide consistency of implementation across EU Member States and to work with industry stakeholders to ensure the regime was proportionate and transparent. Prior to this, she was in HSE’s inspectorate, as the Head of the Major Hazards Regulatory Team for chemical sites in West Yorkshire and the Humber. This role brought her into direct contact with the chemical industry and regulation of the chemical sector. Her career spans scientific, regulatory and policy work across a range of sectors and organisations including health, engineering and construction.
CAMILLA THORIN
REGULATORY COORDINATOR | SWEDISH CHEMICALS AGENCY, KEMI
Camilla Thorin has a Master Degree in Agriculture from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. She has been working at the Swedish Chemicals agency since 2006, first with efficacy evaluations of plant protection products and later with coordination and Nordic-Baltic co-operation regarding evaluation of plant protection products.
JAYNE WILDER
OPERATIONAL POLICY CRD | CHEMICALS REGULATION DIRECTORATE, UK HSE
Jayne has worked at the UK regulatory authority for pesticides (plant protection products) since the late 1980s and was secretary to the UK independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) for over 20 years. During her career she has also been responsible for implementing a number of challenging new requirements in the UK, starting with the new actives programme under directive 91/414/EC, the EU biocidal products regulation (528/2012), comparative assessment and substitution in accordance with EU regulation 1107/2009. She has spent a short time heading work on efficacy and is currently involved in CRD’s ‘change agenda’.
DAVID WILLIAMS
TEAM LEADER, PESTICIDES | Defra (DEPARTMENT FOR FOOD, ENVIRONMENT AND RURAL AFFAIRS)
David Williams is the pesticides policy lead at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). In that role, he is responsible for supporting key decisions on pesticides and overseeing Defra’s working relationship with the Chemicals Regulation Division of the Health and Safety Executive. Before taking up this work, David had a variety of policy roles within Defra and also had periods of secondment to the Cabinet Office and (as policy and Government relations manager) at the National Non-Food Crops Centre. Many years ago, he gained a degree in chemistry and, a little more recently, an MBA.
