Trustees

The John Innes Foundation Trustees are appointed by special resolution. Currently they are:

Mr J F Oldfield NDA MRAC (Chairman)
Professor C J Leaver CBE FRS FRSE
Mr P D Innes
Sir Ben Gill CBE MA (Cantab)
Prof J Goodfellow CBE FRS FRSE

Frank Oldfield, NDA MRAC (Chairman)

Frank Oldfield and the John Innes Horticultural Institution were both drawn to Norfolk in the 1960s. Frank from Gloucestershire where he had spent the first five years of his farming career to take up the post of manager of the 6000-acre Raynham Estate for the Marquis Townsend of Raynham while just a few miles away in Norwich the John Innes Horticultural Institution was settling in to its new home at Colney, having moved from Hertfordshire.

Frank Oldfield (right) at the presentation of his Honorary Degree for Civil Law, University of East Anglia, July 2007

Professor Chris Lamb, former Director of the John Innes Centre and Frank Oldfield (right) at the presentation of his Honorary Degree for Civil Law, University of East Anglia, July 2007

Given Frank Oldfield’s passion for agriculture and the Institution’s reputation as one of the UK’s leading centres for research in plant breeding and genetics, it was almost inevitable that the two would eventually work together. But it took a further twenty five years before they did.

In 1993, Frank Oldfield was invited to become a Member of the Cambridge Laboratory Council, which a year later merged with the Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory and the John Innes Institute to become the John Innes Centre we know today. Frank became a member of the John Innes Centre Governing Council, and has remained a member to the present day.

For almost ten years, Frank has been a Trustee and Chairman of the John Innes Foundation. The role has provided him with the perfect platform to promote the importance of agricultural development. He has been a champion of the John Innes Centre’s postgraduate training programme, developing and strengthening it by giving his unwavering support to an increase in the number of Foundation-funded studentships.

Chris Leaver MA BSc ARCS DIC PhD CBE FRS FRSE

Chris Leaver

Professor Chris Leaver was Sibthorpian Professor(1990-2007) and Head of the Department of Plant Science(1991-2007) at the University of Oxford. He is now Emeritus Professor of Plant Science and a Fellow of St Johns College, Oxford. He has been a member of the Governing Body of JIC since 1984 and a Trustee of the John Innes Foundation since 1987.

His main research interests were the molecular and biochemical basis of plant growth and differentiation. This included an investigation of energy metabolism and the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis during plant growth and differentiation, coupled with an investigation of the molecular and biochemical basis, and phenotypic consequences, of mitochondrial genetic diversity in plants in general and cytoplasmic male sterility in important crop plants in particular. He also worked on the metabolic and genetic regulation of genes encoding glyoxylate cycle enzymes and factors regulating the biosynthesis of glutathione and its function during oxidative stress. In recent years he has made important contributions to our understanding senescence and programmed cell death in plants.

Professor Leaver has a strong interest in the public understanding of science and has been actively involved in the debate on genetically modified crops both nationally and internationally. In 2000, he was awarded the CBE for services to plant sciences, elected a corresponding member American Society of Plant Biologists 2003 and Inaugural Fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists 2007 and has served on AFRC and BBSRC Council,and was Chair of the UK Biochemical Society,the council of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and a Trustee of the Natural History Museum,London.

He is a founding Trustee of Sense about Science and visiting Professor at the University of Western Australia and serves on a number of international advisory boards and committees.

Peter Innes

Peter Innes is one of the management team at Coburn Blair, which began life in 1990 as a division of ASA International but was separated out in 2003 and is now an independent Executive Search and Selection Consultancy based in Edinburgh. Previously he was a fund manager in Edinburgh and managing director of a textile manufacturing company. Mr Innes is a non-executive director of companies involved in agriculture, biotechnology and sports managment and is involved in a number of charities.

Sir Ben Gill CBE MA (Cantab)

Born in 1950 Ben studied Agriculture at St John’s College, Cambridge before working in Uganda for over 3 years where he established a working school farm, and a GCE ‘O’ level course. On returning to the UK he worked as a farm manager in East Yorkshire for 2 years before taking over the family farm in 1978.

Sir Ben Gill

He became actively involved in the NFU in the early eighties assuming a variety of roles locally and then nationally culminating in the National Presidency from 1998 to 2004 during which time he had to deal with a variety of crises such as BSE and Foot and Mouth disease as well as more positive work which led to the major reform of the CAP in 2003. During that period he obtained extensive experience in Europe as President of the Confederation of European Agriculture from 2000 to 2004 which saw the enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25 countries; and on the world front as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Body: International Federation of Agricultural Producers.

Since retiring from the NFU he has established his own business Hawkhills Consultancy Ltd which specializes in advising agrifood businesses on food and farming and also into renewable energy where he has a particular interest and expertise in the use of biomass. More recently the business has established a specialty in advising on the extent of the change agenda that currently exists and leading discussions on what this means for existing businesses. Clients include a number of FSTE 100 companies. In 2005 Ben chaired the Government’s Biomass Task Force which produced a comprehensive set of recommendations (which have been largely adopted by the Government) to improve the uptake of biomass as a renewable energy source.

Ben is a non executive director of Countrywide Farmers plc, and chairman of English Apples & Pears Ltd and Eden Research plc. He is a Governor of the John Innes Institute at Norwich and of the University of Lincoln. He is the Managing Director of The Hawk Creative Business Park near York which has recently been completed to sustainable standards using biomass heating and intelligent building controls and offering the first business park outside London with next generation internet access speeds. He is Executive Director of Hawkhills Consultancy Ltd.