Board & Management Team
CFG has a proven and experienced management team that have worked as a team for over a decade and have established good relationships with the local, municipal and state authorities in the Ukraine and with end buyers of agricultural produce in Ukraine, Russia and the EU. The Ukrainian operations are in relatively close proximity to Poland and farm managers from the Polish operations have been instrumental in developing CFG's Ukrainian operations. CFG apply western style agronomy best practices and technology together with modern agricultural equipment to its large scale farming activities, these methods are more efficient than those previously used, and the Directors have demonstrated that this will result in far superior better crop yields and qualityfrom the land under cultivation.
Nicholas Sherren Parker MA. FCA.CF (Independent Non-Executive Chairman – chairman of Audit Committee)
Nick Parker was a corporate finance partner with PwC for 24 years, focusing mainly on public sector transactions, privatisations and public private partnerships in the UK and Europe. After his retirement from PwC in 2002, he was part time head of the Performance & Innovation unit of the Scottish Executive, from 2004 to 2007, responsible for implementing substantial aspects of the Scottish government's programme for efficient government and public service reform. Nick is director of three companies, in sectors ranging from wastes compliance, pensions insurance to employer branding.
Mark Laird (Chief Executive Officer)
Mark is the founder of CFG and a graduate from the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He started farming operations in Poland in 1994 and lived in Poland until 2004. In 2006, he spearheaded the Group's expansion into Ukraine.
Mr. Alastair Stewart (Chief Financial Officer)
Alastair joined the Group in 2010 as Finance Director. He previously held senior finance positions within private and listed food and wine businesses both within the UK and internationally. Alastair is a chartered accountant having qualified with Price Waterhouse in Scotland before working overseas.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind (Senior Independent Non-Executive Director – Chairman of Nomination Committee)
Sir Malcolm is the Member of Parliament for Kensington. He has served in many distinguished positions, including as UK Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary. He first became a member of the Cabinet in 1986 as Secretary of State for Scotland. In 1990, he became Secretary of State for Transport and in 1992 Secretary of State for Defence. From 1995-97 he was Foreign Secretary. He was one of only four ministers to serve throughout the whole prime ministerial period of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major. In 1997, he was knighted in recognition of his public service. He serves on the Board of several companies as a non-executive director, including Unilever plc.
Tom O'Mahony (Non-Executive Director)
Tom O'Mahony is CEO of Origin Enterprises plc since 2006. Origin Enterprises plcis a focused agri services group listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange. Prior to this Tom held the role of Chief Operations Officer of IAWS Group plc (now part of Aryzta AG), where his responsibility encompassed the total IAWS business covering both food and agribusiness. He played a key management role at group level in acquisitions, disposals, business integration and financial control. He has held financial and operational management positions across IAWS Group plc since joining IAWS in 1985.
Declan Giblin ( Non-Executive Director – Chairman of Health and Safety and Risk Committee)
Declan Giblin is head of Corporate Development in Origin and executive chairman of Masstock Group Holdings Limited ('Masstock'). He was formerly chief executive of Masstock which was acquired by Origin in February 2008 and has been the driving force behind the development of Masstock over a 20 year period, culminating in Masstock's position today as market leader in the provision of advanced agronomy and farming systems advisory services to leading arable and grassland farm enterprises across the United Kingdom and Poland.
Peter Priestley (Independent Non-Executive Director – Chairman of Remuneration Committee)
Peter Priestley is currently a non-executive director of IFG Group Plc. He has been involved in the start-up of several businesses, most notably in pensions insurance and the environmental sector. He co-founded Celtic Utilities, a private integrated waste management company in Ireland. Celtic Utilities was sold to NTR plc in 2001. Prior to this Peter was Associate Director of corporate finance at Williams Holdings plc. He qualified as a corporate lawyer in 1992 with Allen & Overy
Thomas O'Connor (Non-Executive Director)
Thomas O'Connor is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 year's experience in business. He is the senior partner with accountancy firm, O'Neill Foley, Kilkenny, Ireland. He currently holds a number of other board positions and is involved in other trading companies and property development projects.