BFFF

Simon has worked for BFFF as Head of Health & Safety for 2 years supporting our members in many disciplines including dealing with member queries, writing guidance, producing the ‘Keep it Safe’ quarterly newsletter and organising several Health & Safety seminars on relevant topics.

He started out in 1999 as a Health & Safety Practitioner where as a senior manager he took on additional responsibilities for H & S and Transport Management. This was the catalyst for a standalone H & S career.

In 2005, he successfully advocated the fitting side handrails to prevent falls from vehicle loading with a company operating the largest fleet of LGV’s in the UK. In 2009, Simon became a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) and in 2017 gained practitioner status with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).

Previous roles include Senior HSEQ Manager for a multi-national FSTE 250 rentals company and Health & Safety Director for a national powered access company. Within these roles he gained a vast amount of experience in the engineering, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics sectors.

Simon has previously written guidance on various topics in his previous appointments and also assisted the Hire Association of Europe (HAE) and International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) with Health & Safety guidance. His specialisms include human behaviour, work at height, powered access, accident investigation, work equipment, lifting operations and fire.

He currently sits on the Food and Drink Manufacturers Forum (FDMF) and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) annual food and drink conference organising committee and was recently asked to join the judging panel for the annual Food and Drink awards.

Simon enjoys badminton and swimming and favourite frozen food is Ice cream especially the ‘Magnum’.

Contact Simon on Tel: 01400 283096 or Email: simonbrentnall@bfff.co.uk

Emma has responsibility for the Federation’s finances and works closely with Rupert to set our budgets and ensure that we achieve our financial targets.

Emma also looks after our Audit Committee.

Contact Emma on 01400 283090 or emmacranidge@bfff.co.uk

Claire Mathieson joined BFFF in February 2022 and is PA to Rupert Ashby, CEO.

Please contact Claire on Tel: 01400 664 308 or Email: clairemathieson@bfff.co.uk

Commencing her career in the world of Private Staffing for high profile and HNWIs in London, Siobhan developed her administrative skills and ability to manage several projects simultaneously. This role often took her abroad, dealing with a variety of new tasks and demanded a high level of focus and dedication.

Following her transition to the optical industry, Siobhan spent 10 years as Executive Assistant to the owner of multiple businesses spanning wholesale markets, distribution and finally, the opening of a bespoke eyewear boutique. This role allowed her to hone her organisational skills, utilising her hands-on approach to problem solve and saw her involved in all areas of business management far beyond her position.

Joining the BFFF team in 2018, Siobhan is responsible for supporting the Events Manager in the delivery of all industry events.

Siobhan’s favourite frozen food item is Yutaka’s Edamame Beans in pods.

If you need to contact Siobhan please call 01400 664308 or email siobhanocallaghan@bfff.co.uk.

After starting working life as a fully trained legal secretary, Charley moved to employment with a national charity. Her role was to support the area management team covering the London and South East areas. This work saw Charley involved with fundraising for a significant and broad range of events and her success in this area led to many successful campaigns and ‘wins’ for the organisation.

Charley’s progress in this area provided a great platform for her development and in 2007 Charley was successful in securing a position of Event Manager with London based Charity Maggie’s. The role had sole responsibility for a significant portfolio of events including marathons and triathlons, dinners and art exhibitions.

In recent years Charley moved back to her ‘roots’ to be closer to her family securing a position with the local hospice as Fundraising and Events Manager, with responsibility for all fundraising activities and events.

When an opportunity to work with the BFFF as Events Manager became available in 2013, Charley successfully applied and joined the team .This progression presented the opportunity for Charley to return to managing and developing larger and more diverse events.

Since her arrival Charley’s significant experience in this area has contributed to the significant progress and development of the BFFF “portfolio of Industry leading events”.

Contact Charley on 01400 283091 or email charleyprice@bfff.co.uk

Neesha, originally from Trinidad and Tobago began her career as a personnel clerk within an insurance company, moving on to a PA to the general manager of a state-owned Television Company and then finally moving to a receptionist role at The British High Commission before leaving Trinidad and moving to the UK.

Neesha Joined BFFF in 2005 taking a role providing administrative support services to the Director-General and the team.

For the next 17 years, Neesha continued to develop within the organisation until taking up her most recent role within the Commercial team as Membership Engagement Assistant.  Neesha’s day to day activity is primarily based around supporting the membership account managers in the service of members’ accounts both from a recruitment and an operational perspective.

Neesha also manages our membership database and oversees the production of our bi-monthly publication, The Bulletin.  She is also responsible for our website, and with the development of our social media communication her role within the BFFF is both wide-ranging and key to the commercial function.

If you need to contact Neesha please call 01400 283090 or email neeshacleary@bfff.co.uk

Denise joined the BFFF in August 2016. She has an honours degree in Food Science and almost 30 years’ experience in the food industry working for numerous organisations such as Birds Eye, Youngs Seafood, Heinz and Nisa Retail. During that time, she has held many senior roles across various disciplines from product development to specifications, purchasing and regulatory.

She has also worked in many different sectors such as seafood, ready meals, prepared vegetables, pizza and bakery goods and also sports nutrition.

Over the years, Denise has built up many strong relationships across industry and also with key contacts from both non-government and government organisations. As a result, she regularly attends many influential meetings and sits on a number of industry working groups.

She lives in Lincolnshire with her husband and two children. As could be expected as a busy full-time working parent, out of school activities whether it be rugby, gymnastics or swimming take up a lot of Denise’s time but when she does get time to herself, she enjoys cooking, reading and countryside walks with the family’s pet dog. She also enjoys socialising with family and friends and travelling both in the UK and abroad. Denise especially enjoys visiting her family in Ontario, Canada.

As she is always on the go, her favourite frozen foods are those that can offer versatility, coupled with ‘freshness’ with the added bonus of minimising food waste.

Contact Denise on 01400 283090 or deniserion@bfff.co.uk.

Sarah has an extensive background in brand, marketing and design having spent much of her career working in full-service brand, design and marketing agencies across the midlands working in FMCG, Manufacturing, Retail, Tourism, Healthcare, Construction and Service industries.

She has worked with notable brands such as Belvoir Farm, Next, Lyle & Scott, Aldi, Care Fertility, National Trust, Boots and Dulux and has gained expertise in all aspects of marketing from market research, customer profiling and user experience through to brand development, marketing strategy, campaign planning and directing design and the creation of meaningful and engaging content.

Sarah has previous experience working with membership organisations such as Dulux Select Decorators and the British Game Assurance working to deliver both B2B and B2C brands, campaigns working to provide engaging membership tools and communications.

Sarah’s role will be to develop and deliver the BFFF marketing strategy, evolve the BFFF brand and drive a member’s communications plan that is engaging, informative and insightful.

You can contact Sarah on Tel: 01400 283 095 or Email: sarahcollison@bfff.co.uk

After many years on the Commercial side of professional sport, including Premier League Football and County Cricket, Dave entered the world of representative trade associations by joining the International Visual Communication Association in 2007. Helping to instigate the merger with Eventia to form EVCOM, on leaving the new association in 2017 as COO, Dave went on to the Confederation of British Industry, helping members at all levels to maximise their engagement. Recently, Dave had been involved with the Great British Entrepreneur Awards – supporting and recognising start up businesses and entrepreneurs before joining BFFF as Head of Sales in May 2023. Dave’s role with BFFF is to engage with potential new members and to help those joining the BFFF to maximise their membership.

You can contact Dave on Tel 01400 283 095 or Email: davecomley@bfff.co.uk