Martin Davies, chief executive of Westchester Group Investment Management Europe, will be at the helm of the 2017 conference.
He will lead the Oxford Farming Conference for the next 12 months, delivering the range of activities undertaken by the charity’s board of directors, including the Arable Conference at the Cereals Event, the comprehensive scholar programme and the main 2017 conference.
Martin has a long career in farming having spent 13 years with the Cooperative Group Farms and five years working on farmland investment projects in Eastern Europe. He completed a Nuffield Scholarship in 2006. He is now responsible for farmland investment in Europe for Westchester owners, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund of America (TIAA-CREF) and other pension schemes they invest with.
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Previously he lead the deployment of institutional investors capital in farmland and farming businesses in New Zealand, Australia, Romania, Poland and Chile for a London-based asset management company.
Martin is in his final year of a three-year term as an OFC Director and will stand down from the role in January 2017 along with his cohorts Charlotte Smith, presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, and Alan Laidlaw of The Crown Estate.
Mr Davies succeeds 2016 OFC chairman, Al Brooks, a farmer from Oxfordshire, who stood down from the role along with fellow directors Dr Tina Barsby, CEO of NIAB, and Philip Wilkinson OBE, following this week’s conference.