Bill Jordan

Bill was one of the original founders of the Conservation Grade farming system over 20 years ago. His aim was to establish a reliable supply of ingredients. Conservation Grade has developed over the years; initially farmers were required to limit agrochemical inputs, but now they are also required to actively manage 10% of their farmed land for the benefit of wildlife by creating specific habitats. Conservation Grade has subsequently become an important differentiator for a range of retail brands.

Having recently retired as Chief Executive from the Board of the Jordans & Ryvita Company, Bill now devotes much of his time to Conservation Grade and to Pensthorpe in North Norfolk. Due to its wide range of habitats and high level of biodiversity, Pensthorpe was selected as the host site for BBC Springwatch.

Tim Nevard

Tim is the CEO of the Conservation Grade farming scheme. Tim feels exceptionally lucky to have the opportunity to make a real difference in areas that really matter to him. Beyond his work for Conservation Grade, he is involved in a range of international projects to raise the profile of endangered species, including the Albatross, Gouldian Finch, Corncrake and Cranes. He is also a trustee of the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, along with Professor David Bellamy and Bill and Deb Jordan, as well as a number of other charitable trusts, including the Wildlife Conservancy of Tropical Queensland, which the Nevard family founded. Alongside these committments Tim runs his own consultancy in sustainable business and design, Aurochs International.

Brin Hughes

Brin Hughes is the Agri-Environment Advisor with Conservation Grade and provides day to day agronomy and technical advice to our farmers to help ensure their habitats are managed successfully.
He has 30 years experience in agriculture and crop production, having started as a research trials officer in 1976 and became an agronomist in 1984. Before joining Conservation Grade he worked for 7 years as Technical Manager for the UK distributor, United Agri Products.
As well as working with our farmers, Brin liaises with specialist conservation advisors from The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Natural England and DEFRA, and manages our ongoing trials research programme.

Shelley Abbott

Shelley manages the Conservation Grade office, provides PR support to our licensees and agri-environment advice to our farmer members. She has been involved with agriculture for over 20 years, moving from milking cows and dairy cow nutrition research at the Centre for Dairy Research to arable field trials and agronomy for two of the UK’s leading farming advisory businesses, ADAS and The Arable Group.

Liz Burman

Liz is Conservation Grade’s Administration & Liaison Officer. She provides the first port of call for enquiries about the scheme. Liz has had first hand experience of agriculture when she ran a small mixed farm in Bedfordshire.   

Dr Simon Potts

Simon is a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development at the University of Reading www.rdg.ac.uk/caer/staff_simon_potts.html. His research focuses on the relationship between land use, biodiversity and ecosystem services. In particular he is interested in finding ways for modern agricultural systems to simultaneously provide multiple ecosystem services such as food production, pollination, pest regulation and support of biodiversity. Simon’s role within Conservation Grade is to use the best evidence available to help ensure that the farming scheme can fulfil these multiple roles.

Chris Bean

Chris Bean is the Technical Director at UAP Ltd, a large agrochemical distribution and agronomy advisory company. At UAP he is responsible for technical liaison with manufacturers of crop production products, plant breeders and independent researchers as well as running the in-house trials programme, assisting with product selection policy and training agronomists.
Chris retains an on-farm agronomy role with an interest in arable and vegetable crops (including salad, herb and other high value crops supplied to supermarkets and other retailers).
Chris sits on the CG Advisory Panel and advises on issues related to crop agronomy, agrochemical use and the environment.