Speakers

Alexia was bought up on a small-holding in the middle of a wood in Dorset and now lives and farms in the Cotswolds. She started her career as a management consultant for Accenture where she specialised in implementing major business change programmes in government, healthcare and procurement. Her life in the rural community, combined with her professional experience of achieving strategic goals through empowering teams and individuals, has led her to believe passionately in the ability to deliver change from a grassroots level.  This drives the work she does as CEO of Love British Food, which is unique in working at grassroots and industry level to boost the domestic market for British food, encouraging sustainable supply chains that make good food available for all.

She was one of the lead organisers of the Countryside March in 2001, an event that was cancelled due to Foot and Mouth, but had achieved its aim of galvanising half a million people to prepare to come to London for their voices to be heard. It was in response to the crisis that bought rural Britain to its knees that year that she founded Love British Food and the national food celebration, British Food Fortnight. Now a Social Enterprise with a board of non-executive directors from wholesale, public and private sectors, it is the leading voice promoting British food, proven to deliver benefits to communities across the country.  1,000s of activities have taken place under its umbrella. It leads industry groups supporting school, university, hospital and care caterers to value the role of British food in their supply chains. And it runs a national programme of farm visits for NHS caterers that has pioneered a new appreciation of the value of British food in patient recovery: 193 NHS caterers from 43 hospitals have been through Love British Food’s farm visit programme. As a result, Alexia is the longest serving representative of British food and farming on the Public Sector Catering Alliance. Of particular pride is the work she has done with HM The Queen to establish a National Harvest Service that takes place in a different city every year during British Food Fortnight. Alongside her professional work is a lifelong passion for horses, the pinnacle of which was training the leading national point-to-point champion.