Chair of Livestock Information Limited

Company: Livestock Information Limited, a subsidiary Company of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)

Location: Board meetings will be mainly held at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire

Remuneration: A non-pensionable remuneration of £45,000 per annum

Time requirements: A minimum time commitment of 104 days per annum, for an initial term of two years

Closing date: 1 November 2019

What is Livestock Information Limited?

Livestock Information Limited is the newly formed subsidiary company of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and is 51% owned by AHDB, with Defra owning the remaining 49%.

Livestock Information Limited will work collaboratively with industry and Government to develop a world-leading multi-species livestock information service for cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and deer to be implemented from late 2020.

Defra will be funding the statutory elements of the Livestock Information Service, while AHDB will manage the creation of new value-adding products which will drive wider benefits for the meat and livestock sector.

This process is being guided in collaboration with the Traceability Design User Group (TDUG), which represents over 20 trade and government bodies in the meat and livestock sectors.

More effective collection and use of livestock information through multi-species livestock tracing can ensure greater resilience and responsiveness to disease and improved food safety. The ability to connect data across the UK livestock sector has the potential to produce on-farm and sector-wide productivity and efficiency improvements.

Livestock Information Ltd has now procured an initial technology platform and has now embarked on developing it to the point where it meets the needs of the livestock sector.

Aim of Livestock Information Ltd

To design, implement and operate a single multi-species livestock traceability service that delivers a statutory service to government whilst enabling value add through data capture and sharing for the meat and livestock sectors. To do this in a way that provides value for money and builds trust, confidence and respect from all of its customers and stakeholders, demonstrating that government and industry can work well together in order to deliver more benefit than is possible through either individual party.

The role specification

The Chair will provide strategic direction to the Livestock Information Limited’s Board members and have oversight of the whole Company. A company that will build and ultimately operate a new livestock multi species traceability service for England. 

The Chair will establish corporate governance, develop the relationship with government and industry and oversee the transition from the design and build phase to a fully operational Livestock Information Service within a complex stakeholder environment.

Role:

• Delivers the statutory service to meet the needs of the government, including bovine EID and associated digital policies in accordance with the full business case
• Develops a strong delivery capability, ensuring that both government and industry understand that capability and are able to access this to create wider opportunities
• Exploits the traceability service for the benefit of UK plc including driving innovation and interoperability improvements across the meat and livestock sectors.
• Creates a powerful service capability that responds to the needs of both government and industry.

Key responsibilities:

• Chair meetings of the Livestock Information Limited Board
• Ensure that the Board contributes to the development and determination of the Company’s strategy and overall objectives
• Represent the Company to politicians, the media and other stakeholders
• Develop excellent, collaborative working relationships with Ministers, Senior Officials in Government (primarily Defra, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but also the FSA - Food Standards Agency and Trading Standards) to ensure continued support and sponsorship from all parties and that those parties are actively engaged in driving success.
• Provide support and counsel to the Executive Team while holding them to account and providing constructive challenge on the build phase and design of the Livestock Information Service, and annual Business Plans.

We actively encourage applications from individuals from a wide range of backgrounds. We are a Disability Confident employer.

Could you also complete an AHDB Equal Opportunities Form** and then send to recruitment@ahdb.org.uk

Please state which role you are applying for and the reference number allocated to the role within your email.