Leading agri-environment advisor, Jim Egan has recently joined the Frontier team in the position of Midlands technical advisor for the business’s Kings Crops team.
Speaking about Jim’s appointment Richard Barnes, sales manager for Kings said: “We’re delighted to welcome Jim to the team. Providing support to growers seeking to prepare for current and future Government policy, linked to Natural Capital management, is an important element of our service. The experience that Jim brings is significant because he will strengthen our advisory network and provide training to our own colleagues around agri-environment, greening and Government policy. Jim will work closely with the wider Frontier soil and plant health team.”
Jim said: “I’m really excited to join the Kings Team and the wider Frontier business. It’s great to be back working with farmers and growers delivering practical advice around integrating environmental opportunities into their businesses. There are some big challenges facing farming in the short and medium term; I believe delivering a healthy environment is a challenge that can be turned into an opportunity with some careful planning. Being part of the Frontier family means that Kings are ideally placed to offer the help that farmers need. I’m really looking forward to this new phase of my career .”
Jim joins the Frontier team having worked since 2012 at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton Project at Loddington in Leicestershire. Jim led work with a number of major supply chain brands and their farmers; these included Kellogg’s, Nestle and The Waitrose Farming Partnership. Prior to this he was national technical director for the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG).
Farming and the environment is Jim’s second career. He started his working life as a mining engineer working in the Nottinghamshire coal field. His career change came in 2001 when he studied Countryside Management at Nottingham Trent’s Brackenhurst College. Whilst still at college Jim was recruited by The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) firstly as farm conservation adviser and latterly as national technical director.
In 2009 Jim was appointed as chair of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment National Delivery Group a position he stood down from in May of this year; he sat on the Defra Agri-Environment Stakeholder Group and was a member of Defra’s Countryside Stewardship Technical Stakeholder Group. He also sat on the Voluntary Initiative Strategy Group and a number of other national partnership and policy groups.
Jim’s arrival is the latest in a series of announcements related to the strengthening of the Frontier soil and plant health team including the appointment of Jamie Stotzka earlier this year and the introduction of a network of farm-scale Soil Life demonstration sites.
