The Board

Anthony Hobson
Chairman •‡

Joined the Board in 2002 and became Chairman in 2005. He is Chairman of The Sage Group plc, and a non-executive director of HBOS and Glas Cymru. He was formerly Group Finance Director of Legal & General Group plc from 1987 to 2001. He chairs the nomination committee.

Stefan Barden
Chief Executive

Joined the Board in 2006 and was appointed Chief Executive on 5 February 2007. He was formerly Managing Director of Heinz UK and Ireland from 2003 to 2005. He has extensive experience of the food industry having held roles with Iceland, McKinsey & Company and Unilever. He sits on the Policy issues committee of the IGD and is a director of Improve, the UK's food and drink sector skills council.

Andy Booker
Group Finance Director

Joined the Board in 2008. He was formerly European Finance Director at Japan Tobacco International/Gallaher Group plc, a position he held from 2004.  Andy has extensive experience of financial, sales and general management roles.

Orna Ni-Chionna
Senior independent director and non-executive director •*†‡

Joined the Board in 2002 as a non-executive director. She is the senior independant non executive director of BUPA and is a member of the Apax Partners' Retail and Consumer Advisory Boards and of Eden McCallum's advisory board. She is Chair of the Soil Association and was formerly a partner of McKinsey & Company. She is the senior independent director and chairs the remuneration committee.

David Nish
non-executive director •*†‡

Joined the Board in 2005 as a non-executive director. He is Group Finance Director of Standard Life plc and was formerly Executive Director, Infrastructure of Scottish Power plc, and prior to that he was Group Finance Director of Scottish Power PLC, a position that he held since 1999. He was formerly a partner of Pricewaterhouse. He chairs the audit committee.

Ronnie Bell
non-executive director •*‡

Joined the Board in 2005 as a non-executive director. He is Chairman of Milk Link and is a non-executive director of Ansell Limited and The Edrington Group Limited. He was formerly President of Kraft Foods Europe until 2004.

Tony Illsley
non-executive director •*†‡

Joined the Board in 2006 as a non-executive director. He was formerly Chief Executive of Telewest plc until 2000, and has held roles with PepsiCo and Colgate Palmolive. He is Chairman of CacheLogic Ltd, holds a non-executive position with GCap Media plc, and is a trustee of the charity Whizz-Kidz.

Carol Williams
Company Secretary

Joined Northern Foods in 1990. She is Head of Legal and was appointed Company Secretary in March 2005. She is a director of C&I Group Services Limited.