This year’s AGM and Conference mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of UECBV.
The conference focuses on two major themes which will dominate the landscape of the meat industry for the years to come; Sustainable Nutrition and Food Security. Delegates will hear presentations from an excellent panel of experts in the wonderful surroundings of the Aviva Stadium in the centre of Dublin
Brendan Gleeson
Brendan Gleeson was appointed Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 2nd October 2018. He has previously served in a number of senior leadership roles in the Department, with responsibility for areas such as International Trade, Brexit, Common Agricultural Policy Development and Sectoral Policy Development in the Meat and Livestock Sectors. He has also had responsibility for governance in a number of State Agencies, served as a Member of the Teagasc Authority, and in policy and operational roles in the Department of Industry and Commerce and the European Commission.
He holds a BSc. in Management Law from Trinity College and Diplomas in Law and Public Administration. He is also an alumnus of the Common Purpose Senior Leadership Programme and the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Managers in Government Programme.
Carrie Ruxton
Carrie Ruxton PhD is a consultant dietitian and health writer who works across many different sectors in the food industry including fruit juice, eggs, supplements, probiotics, tea and snacks. For several years, she served on the Meat Advisory Panel, a project funded by the UK meat industry to communicate the science on red meat, diet and health. Carrie appears regularly in print media and on radio, as well as publishing academic articles.
Michael Scannell
Michael Scannell is Deputy Director General in DG AGRI with responsibility for markets, audits and legal and international issues. He has held a wide range of posts over a thirty year career in the European Commission, specializing in food safety and animal health, agriculture, trade, audit and international issues. This included seven years in the cabinet of the Commissioners for Employment and for Health and Food Safety before joining DG SANTE as a Head of Unit in 2002. He went on to serve in DG SANTE as Director for Audits and Inspections from 2010 to 2016 and subsequently for International Relations until 2018. He then joined DG AGRI as Director for Markets before taking up his current position in 2020. Mr Scannell is Irish and a graduate in Politics and Economics from University College Dublin.
Dr Patrick Wall
Dr Patrick Wall is Professor of Public Health in University College Dublin, and a member of the UCD Institute for Food and Health. His research areas include One Health, food safety, nutrition and managing lifestyle related disease through behavioural change. He was the Principal Investigator on Foodrisc, a pan EU project looking at optimum strategies for risk and benefit communication, using both conventional and new media. In University College Dublin, he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate Medical students and Veterinary students and students of Agricultural Science and is the director of the Masters in Public Health Program and supervises several PhD students.
He is a specialist in Communicable Diseases and One Health and was the head of the Gastrointestinal Diseases Division of the UK CDC, He was the first Chief Executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, and contributed to the setting up of this science based consumer protection agency created in response to the BSE crisis. He was a founder member of management board, and the second Chairperson, of the European Food Safety Authority. He was on the committee that oversaw Food Safety for the Beijing Olympic games and he is currently a member of the International Scientific Advisory Committee of the Chinese National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA), which is the Chinese equivalent of the European Food Safety Authority.
He is a leader of a component of a major EU. China collaboration on Food safety, the EU Sino Safe Project, working with the Communication Division of the CFSA on Consumer Engagement with regard to food safety issues. He is a member of the International Risk Assessment Advisory Committee of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority. He is the Irish Ministry of Agriculture Food and Marine’s internal auditor for all their Public Health Programs and he is Chairman if the Irish Campylobacter stakeholders group, made up of all the players in the poultry supply chain and the regulators. He is Chairman of Independent Milk Laboratories a joint venture between Progressive Genetics and the UK NMR providing milk quality and disease diagnostic services to the Irish Dairy industry. He is one of the three judges in the NDC/Kerrygold National Milk Quality awards.
Since the onset of the pandemic he was a co-director of a national covid contact tracing centre located on the UCD Campus and he was a member of the Irish Governments Covid Modelling Team assisting inform the national response and he was a member of the National Workplace Outbreaks Covid Control group. He qualified in Veterinary Medicine in University College Dublin, in Human Medicine in Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, he has an MSc in Infectious Diseases from University of London. He is a Diplomate in the European College of Veterinary Public Health. He has an MBA from the Michael Smurfit School of Business UCD and a Diploma in Corporate Governance from the UCD Centre of Corporate Governance.
Rose O’ Donovan
Rose O’Donovan has been Editor of AGRA FACTS since March 2010, having previously served as Deputy Editor on the agricultural publication for nearly three years. Prior to working as a journalist, she dealt with international relations on the EU satellite navigation programme at the Galileo Joint Undertaking. Following the completion of a Master of Science at University College Cork (Ireland), Rose moved to Brussels in 2004 to work as an intern in the Cabinet of former European Parliament President, Pat Cox. Hailing from a farming background in West Cork, Rose has a keen interest in the evolution of Irish & European agricultural & trade policy and regularly appears as a moderator in the Brussels & Dublin conference circuit.
John Murray
John Murray has recently been appointed as Director of Meat, Food & Beverage Sectors with Bord Bia – the Irish Food Board. As sector director, he has responsibility to drive strategy development and successful business growth supports and services, at a sectoral level. He joined from Kerry Group where he held director roles in commercial sales and strategy development, over an eight year period. Prior to returning to Ireland in 2014 from the UK, John worked in dairy ingredients commercial roles with Ornua (formally the Irish Dairy Board). He has experience in meat retail buying in the Irish market, aswell as PR & public education with an Irish NGO. He holds a degree in Agricultural Science, alongside diplomas in Marketing, and Agri-Food Growth Strategies.
Rupert Claxton
Subject to change
