The Executive team is made up of four Co-Leads and the Champions Coordinator and their Operations team at the University of the West of England,
​the University of East Anglia, the University of Leeds and the University of York. 

The Executive team

Angelina Sanderson Bellamy

Angelina is an Associate Professor in Food Systems at the University of West of England (UWE). She’s won £9.8 million in funding, including UKRI’s TGRAINS project and awards from AHRC, British Academy, Welsh Government and Horizon 2020. Angelina is an experienced leader of challenge-led interdisciplinary research on food systems, land use change, ecological resilience and ecosystem services. She was Senior Research Fellow in Cardiff University’s Sustainable Places Research Institute and Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability and has worked internationally at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Stanford University’s Wood’s Institute for the Environment.​

Tim Benton

A longstanding researcher in sustainable agriculture and food systems, Tim has led the UK’s Global Food Security Programme (2011-16). His expertise and skills are truly interdisciplinary, with an interest in scenarios for robust decision-making under uncertainty. Based jointly at Chatham House and the University of Leeds (UoL), his recent projects as Principal Investigator include the £10m GCRF-AFRICAP project. Tim is Chatham House’s Research Director for Emerging Risks, and Director of its Environment and Society Programme.

Sarah Bridle

Professor Sarah Bridle is Chair in Food, Climate and Society at the University of York, driving changes in our food production methods and portfolios for the health of people and planet through research on the environmental impacts of dietary choices.  Author of Food and Climate Change – Without the Hot Air, Sarah founded the Take a Bite out of Climate Change project, the STFC’s Food Network+, and leads the Metrics Work Package of FixOurFood, following a twenty-year career in astrophysics.

Neil Ward

Neil is a human geographer specialising in agrifood and rural development at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He was UEA’s Deputy Vice Chancellor (2014-21) and Director of Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy (2004-08). He’s served as a Cabinet Office advisor on agricultural policy and has appeared before numerous parliamentary select committees. Neil is author of Net Zero, Food and Farming: Climate Change and the UK Agri-Food System (Routledge, 2022).

Stefan Kepinski

Stefan is the Champions Coordinator. He is a plant biologist at the University of Leeds (UoL). He is Head of the School of Biology and Associate Director of the Global Food & Environment Institute where he leads research on agriculture and environment through the Leeds Net Zero Agriculture Living Lab. His work has led to new approaches to sustainable crop production, including patented technologies for the optimisation of crop architecture. He leads circular economy projects to reduce climate emissions through regenerative fertilizer replacements and sits on the Executive Board of the Priestley International Centre for Climate. 

The Operations team

The operations team supports the executive team and are the primary contacts for the Network+.

Sophie Constant

​Sophie is the Project Manager for the Network+ at UWE, engaged in project oversight and the monitoring of key objectives. She’ll be looking into Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) across project activities and identifying ways forward as needed, and interested in impact, she’ll be looking at how we can build across the different agrifood sectors.

Jessica Nuttall

Jess is the Project Coordinator for the Network+ at UWE. She’s responsible for overseeing project finances and preparing annual budgets for reporting purposes, managing event and travel bookings, invoicing and reimbursements, and project meeting support.

Maimie Hume

Maimie contributes to the Network+’s operations work, provides diary management and administrative support to Professor Sarah Bridle at the University of York, happily encompassing anything else their eclectic skill set permits.

Jez Fredenburgh

 
Jez is our Knowledge Exchange Fellow based at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of East Anglia. She works with Prof Neil Ward to investigate the research gaps holding the agri-food system back from a net zero transition, and creates engaging content to help spread new and innovative knowledge on the subject. She does this through the Network's webinar programme, podcast, and other activities.