Board Details

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Board Details

James Lambert – Non-executive Chairman

James was appointed Chairman in October 2005 having been a non-executive director since 2003. He started at Richmond Foods in 1998 leading a series of acquisitions to make Richmond the largest ice cream manufacturer by volume in the UK. He has a strong record of making money for shareholders; Richmond exited the stock market in April 2006 when it was bought by Oaktree Capital for £176 million and merged with Roncadin. James is now running the enlarged group which is one of the largest in Europe.

Stephen Wildridge – Group Chief Executive and Managing Director, Animalcare Ltd

Stephen was appointed Group Chief Executive on 1^st April 2010. Stephen spent 16 years with Rhone-Poulenc (now Sanofi-Aventis) in a variety of Sales, Marketing, Strategic Planning and General Management roles encompassing agro-chemicals, animal health and animal nutrition. Subsequently, he spent five years with Monsanto as General Manager of Operations for Northern Europe. He was appointed Managing Director of Animalcare in April 2003, has developed the strategic plan for the business and the new product development programme. He currently sits on the board of the National Office for Animal Health (NOAH).

Geoff Rhodes – Non-Executive Director

Geoff has a background in farming and agriculture and was educated at Askham Bryan agricultural college. Following a spell at agricultural machinery manufacturer British Lely, he joined Ritchey Tagg as general manager in 1972. He remained Managing Director of the company (subsequently Ritchey plc) until his retirement in 2005 when he became a non-executive Director.

Nick Downshire – Non-Executive Director

Nick Downshire has been a non-executive director of Ritchey since 1998. He trained as a Chartered Accountant with Touche Ross before transferring to the corporate finance department where he worked for three years on acquisitions, flotations and new ventures. Following this he worked for 13 years at Scheduling Technology Group Limited, a venture capital backed international software company, becoming Finance Director up until the sale of the business in 2001. He currently manages an estate in Yorkshire and also holds non-executive directorships of a hotel business, an RFID company, a Lloyd’s underwriting company and Farmway, an agriculture products supplier.

John Tobin – Commercial Director and Company Secretary

John joined the Group as Group Finance Director in April 2008 and was promoted to Commercial Director on 1^st April 2010.

John Tobin is a Chartered Accountant and was for 13 years FD of Batleys Ltd, the large cash and carry operator, where amongst other duties he oversaw several acquisitions and ultimately the successful trade sale of the business to Bestway Holdings.

Prior to Batleys John was with the Frank Horsell Group where he held senior finance positions covering manufacturing and

European distribution.