Our passionate team at Springfield Agri
Gerry Sutcliffe / Chairman
Gerry Sutcliffe was a councillor and council leader Bradford metropolitan council 1982 -1994. He then became Member of Parliament for Bradford South 1994-2015.
He was a member of the government from 1997-2010 serving as a Employment minister, government whip, consumer and competition minister then Minister for Sport 2007- 2010.
He has served on a number of select committees most notably Public accounts and DCMS committees . He has spoken at numerous conferences in the uk and internationally. He is married with 3 sons and 5 grandchildren. He stood down from Parliament in 2015.
John Crawford / Policy
John Crawford (PhD, Theoretical Astrophysics, University of London, 1988) has over 30 years of experience in soil systems science. He is currently Chair in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow where he is partnering with multinational corporates to deliver global solutions to the climate and environment crisis.
He was previously Science Director at Rothamsted Research in the UK. In 2015 he established and was interim CEO of the £13M UK Centre for excellence in agricultural big data and metrics of sustainability, Agrimetrics.
His research has focused in mathematical and computational analysis of organization in living systems and particularly soil, cells and in ecological communities and social systems. Grantsmanship exceeds $50M and he has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed papers with >10k citations.
He was awarded a Fellowship of the IMA in 2003 for his contributions to mathematics and a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007 for his contribution to science.
Iain Copping / Strategy
Iain Copping is an expert in innovation, sustainable solutions, business development, waste minimization, environmental management, blue sky thinking, event organizer, networker, project manager and problem solver. Organiser of a series of ground breaking Transatlantic Environmental Conferences. An advocate of the circular economy.
Worked across the UK, Europe, North America, Middle East and Sub Saharan Africa. Winner of the 1999 ‘Environmental Award for Leadership’ the only non-American to win this award. A sports enthusiast, especially cricket and rugby, appeared on the Krypton Factor, Mastermind and Brain of Britain and likes travelling.
Harry Holden / Regenerative Agriculture
Initially training in agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College, Harry went into practical farm work for two years which saw him start an Agricultural contracting business, this expanded to the food industry by starting a vegetable processing unit, initially supplying food service and progressing to retail through Waitrose. This business was sold and he ran food factories at all levels from Production Manager through to Operations Director.
Ultimately this led to providing practical based consultancy work for a myriad of food operations in the U.K. and in Canada through his own company. In addition he has started a small eco-friendly company extolling the virtues of industrial hemp in an agricultural rotation.
Springfield Agri is the opportunity to put regenerative agriculture at the centre of turning agriculture from part of the Global warming problem to part of the solution.
Mike Bower / Commerciality
Mike Bower is an experienced entrepreneur and business leader. Having started his own award winning Telecoms business and completing a successful sale in 2004 Mike has since been involved in numerous business transactions across sectors from manufacturing to training.
Mike is co-owner of a successful property development company, which owns Springfield Farm Business Park where Springfield Agri was conceived. Mike is sociable and approachable but does not use personal social media. Not an eco-warrior but believes totally in Regenerative Agriculture. Avoids negative people.
Raymond Luke / Advisor
Raymond is an innovator and blue-sky thinker with a portfolio of autonomous technologies.
He is guided by biomimicry and using all its by-products.
Raymond looks to nature, accelerating its processes to reduce costs as well as dependencies on limited resources.
He has collaborated on many international innovations and has over 30 years of problem solving under his belt.
Raymond brings science, engineering, and practicality to solutions, with the aim of reducing consumption by at least 90%.
“What goes in must be simpler than what comes out”
Trevor Leney / Product Champion
Trevor Leney has over 30 years in Investment banking/Asset management & Hedge fund roles focused on designing and implementing IT projects and solutions and managing related business operations. Subject matter expert in all aspects of operational back, middle and front office from boutique specialised environments up to global high volume managers and major programs.
With multiple directorships advising established small to medium companies. Developed an interest over the last three years in soil health, biodiversity and carbon credits
Joanne Marlowe / Director
Ms. Marlowe has been a pioneer in trade and international finance since the early 1990s. She has developed and overseen the implementation of a variety of innovative financial products that address unique and often unmet needs of the global credit marketplace. In her current role as CEO of UFT Commercial Finance, she has commercialized a “cashless” investment structure that allows investors to participate in yield-enhancing investments utilizing their broader asset portfolio rather than solely cash. The cornerstone for this approach is rooted in her economic thesis entitled “Modern Credit and Investment Disaggregation Theory”.
Application of this theory forms the basis for a commodities-based trade finance program that enables multi-national corporations and investors to align their traditional investment objectives with their ESG initiatives. Ms. Marlowe is also a Director of Springfield Agri, a think tank aimed at improving soil health worldwide. As Finance Chair of the Springfield Agri UN ESCAP Policy Sub Group, she is responsible for the design and authoring of its global financial strategy on Regenerative Agriculture.
Amy Scott / Technology
Amy Scott is a Technologist and serial entrepreneur. Amy has been involved in web development for the last 20 years, from developing messaging protocols to facilitate electronic trading, through to implementing cloud computing to support web and mobile applications for companies ranging from large institutions to small startups.
Amy has experienced working in a corporate environment for large financial household names as well as co-founding, growing and exiting a FinTech startup. Amy enjoys creating beautiful solutions for innovative companies across many different industries and sectors.
Being hugely passionate about education (especially in STEM), technology and the environment, Amy is delighted to have the opportunity to combine these passions in Springfield Agri.
Mark Shayler / Innovation
Mark Shayler helps big companies think like small ones and small companies think like big ones. He works on innovation (products, services and business models), sustainability and company purpose, and he coaches businesses and individuals.
He has saved his clients over £150 million/annum through environmental improvements, has increased sales by 8000% by introducing circular economy business models and trained over 2000 people.
He has worked for Nike, Coca-Cola, Seedlip, Unilever, Hotpoint, Samsung, John Lewis, Fenwick, Bacardi, Diageo, Mars, Thorntons, Amazon, Panasonic and hundreds of funky little businesses like Propercorn, Teapigs and Ugly Drinks. He was a lead for the RSA Great Recovery programme of Circular Economy and was once the Head of Environment for ASDA.
He is a Founding Partner of the Do Lectures and author of the books Do Disrupt: Change the status quo or become it and Do Present: How to give talk and be heard.
Professor Simon Shepherd / Research
Professor Simon Shepherd served 12 years in the Royal Navy in Naval Intelligence before taking up an academic career. After 30+ years in the University system he retired with the title of Professor Emeritus and a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Among other posts he has been Head of Department of Medical Engineering and Healthcare Technology, Head of the Computational Finance Research Group, Chair of the University Ethics Committee and he also sat on the Bench of the University Court of Appeals.
His research interests cover a wide range of scientific disciplines, including cryptography and computer security, microbiology and genomics, and development of advanced FinTech products and innovative systems for trading automation in the financial markets.
He recently developed an advanced automated trading algo for a boutique hedge fund in Berlin. In his spare time, he actively trades the stock market for fun and profit and enjoys cooking and meeting interesting people.