A graduate in agricultural marketing and business administration from Harper Adams Agricultural College, John represents the third generation of the Ibbett family’s ownership and management of Bedfordia Farms.

From 1982 to 2002 he was Managing Director, using his expertise in agriculture combined with his commercial and environmental vision, to diversify and grow.

Now Farms’ Chairman, John has an experienced management team to run Farms on a daily basis but still is hands-on with long-term strategic decisions.

A graduate in Agriculture from Newcastle University Ian grew up on the family farm in East Yorkshire. Over the last 20 years Ian has worked for a range of large farming businesses with diverse interests such as dairy, pigs, potatoes and sugar beet, before joining Bedfordia Farms as Managing Director in 2006.

Bedfordia’s commercial and professional approach to business within a family owned and controlled structure makes for a great place to work.

I enjoy the challenge of leading the Farms team, developing our peoples knowledge and skills to improve their understanding of the businesses goals, raising expectations from themselves and others. Ian is a non-exec director of Meadow quality.

Charles Whitaker, a founder equity partner of Brown & Co and Managing Partner, has 25 years of experience providing management and consultancy services to farmers and landowners throughout the UK and overseas. Charles specialises in larger businesses, changing business performance and complex family and business structures, and holds non-executive and executive roles on a number of management and farming company boards. Charles has extensive experience in land management, farming and farm business management in South America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe having established client and Brown & Co businesses in a number of countries over the last 20 years (Poland, St Lucia, Colombia, Argentina and most recently the USA).

Richard is head of the Farms and Estates team at BKL, a leading firm of chartered accountants and tax advisers. He was previously a partner at Deloitte for 17 years and an agricultural adviser at ADAS for three years. Many of Richard’s clients are business owners involved in farming, property management and the food processing/trading sectors. He offers support with continual planning for transferring roles, wealth and responsibilities between generations, as well as good governance and ensuring the underlying business continues to thrive. Adding to his first-class degree in Agriculture, Richard farms and manages property in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. He is Chairman of Finance for The Worshipful Company of Farmers, a City of London Livery Company. Richard is an advisor to the board not a statutory director.

Terry joined Bedfordia Automotive in 2004 as Assistant Accountant before taking on the role of Group Management Accountant for Bedfordia Group in 2015. Terry works closely with the management team and holds responsibility for managing the Group finance function, reporting, internal controls, budgets and all IT & telephony.