STEPHEN VILLE, BSB CHAIRMAN 2022 -2024
Stephen has worked in the milling and baking industries for most of his career. This has included working at Rank Hovis, Allied Bakeries and most recently, The Bread Roll Company, where he was Managing Director. He sold The Bread Roll Company to the Bread Holdings group in 2015, the group also owning Gail’s, The Bread Factory, Maison du Pain and Bertinet bakery.
Stephen has experience of all aspects of running a bakery business. including finance, sales, NPD, operations, technical and business development. He has a BA from The University of Sussex, an MBA from The London Business School and a City and Guilds qualification in flour milling and baking.
Stephen says that he has attended BSB conferences over many years and has always been impressed by the breadth and quality of topics presented and the commitment of the officers and committee members who run the BSB. He feels it is now time for him to offer his support to the committee.
Stephen is a keen sports fan following rugby, football and cricket. He also enjoys hill and mountain walking and has just started a history club. He is married with 2 sons and lives in London.
Mark Young, Immediate Past Chairman, British Society of Baking
Mark is Sales Director of his family business, Ingram Brothers, and has worked in the Baking Industry for 40 years.
He was on the Scottish Bakers (SAMB) Conference Technical Sessions Committee for over 30 years.
Mark is also involved with the Incorporation of Bakers of Glasgow, following his father as Deacon in 1991/92.
Mark says, being a member and Chairman of the BSB has been a real pleasure, meeting so many great people, with a tremendous passion for our industry.
Richard Hazeldine, Past Chairman, British Society of Baking
Richard is the Sales Director for Zeelandia Ltd and is responsible for commercial activities in the UK and Ireland.
He started his career in the baking industry with Associated British Foods over 30 years ago. Since then, he has held a number of senior manufacturing and commercial roles in various areas of the bakery industry, including bread, biscuits, snacks and latterly ingredients.
Richard holds an MBA and is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management. He is married with two children and lives in the Northwest on the Fylde Coast.
Jim Brown, BSB Honorary Member
Prior to his retirement from James Fleming & Co Ltd in 2008, Jim spent over 50 years working in the baking industry. He wrote technical articles for trade magazines for some years and was Technical Editor and an author for the Master Bakers Book of Breadmaking in 1982 and for the updated Craft Bakers Association Book of Breadmaking in 2015. Jim has been a member of the BSB since 1974 and was Chairman in 1988/89. He retired as BSB Treasurer and Conference Coordinator in 2022 and from updating the BSB website. Jim has also been involved with Scottish Bakers (formerly SAMB) for many years, and acts as a judge at their bakery competitions. He was made an Honorary Life Member of Scottish Bakers in 2003 and was made a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Bakers in 2016 for services to the Baking Industry.
John Gelley, BSB Honorary Treasurer
John was appointed BSB Treasurer from 1st July 2022.
He joined the baking industry in 1976, working at Thurston Parfitt in Leeds, later to become Gregg’s. He learned craft bakery at Ainsley’s of Leeds & Harrogate whilst attending bakery schools at Leeds Polytechnic & Thomas Danby college. Taught bakery on a part-time basis at Thomas Danby during the ’80’s, before joining Dawn Food Products in January 1990.
John is now happily retired after spending almost 20 years in bakery with Dawn Foods, 9 years with Arla Foods Ingredients & 3 years with Kerry Taste & Nutrition. He has s travelled the globe in the world of bakery ingredients, including 2 years commuting between the UK & North America every 10-12 days. John is a rock guitar player in his spare time, playing lead guitar in his band Arquebus.
Paul Turner, Kerry
Past BSB Chairman Paul Turner is a Global Account Director for Kerry. Prior to joining Kerry, Paul worked in senior positions for several companies, including IFF, DuPont, Danisco, CSM, British Arkady and ASDA.
Notable is the time Paul spent with CSM/British Arkady, where he was able to build upon his technical application experience and develop his commercial skills working within the baking industry, serving the industrial, retail and artisanal sectors.
When not working Paul enjoys marathon running and participating in Track-day events, both in the UK and Europe
Brian Clarke
Brian Clarke is a consulting Director of European Food Consultants Ltd, with over 40 years retail and food manufacturing experience. He is a former operations, technical and environmental director of a global blue chip food manufacturer.
Brian has worked closely as a consultant with some of the major food manufacturing companies in the UK, Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, China and Australia on a number of projects.
He is a consultant member of GLG, ProSapient and Zinto, where he regularly consults on food market issues and acquisitions globally. In addition, Brian is a senior bakery judge for the BIA awards.
Keith Houliston
Keith’s interest in the baking industry started at the age of 13 years when he worked part-time as a schoolboy in a local craft bakery in his native Edinburgh. After he left school, he joined Scottish Bakels in Broxburn, which covered the requirements of Scottish bakers for Bakels’ products. He then moved to British Bakels in 1988, relocating with his family to Yorkshire, and working his way up through the ranks over the years to the position of Sales Director, Craft Sector/ Food Service. Overall Keith has been with Bakels for over 40 years and is now a Bakels’ Ambassador Director.
Keith is a Past Chairman of the British Society of Baking and is the President of the ABST for 2020 to 2022. Keith has also organised and run the BSB Golf day since 1997, taking it to the high standard it is today.
Mike Bagshaw
Mike is a highly experienced and passionate food ingredients specialist who has held a number of senior positions in the food industry in a career spanning over 20 years.
He is the founder of ITS (International Taste Solutions Ltd) which is recognised as one of the fastest growing taste and texture companies in the world.
Mike is a Past Chairman of the British Society of Baking, which focuses on bringing the bakery industry together and helping students to realise careers in the industry. He has numerous food & business qualifications, along with being an advocate of the University of Life. He believes that you never ever stop learning in the fast-paced, ever-changing world we live in, so enjoy the ride!
Mike has 3 children, and his hobbies include rugby, boxing, salsa dancing and brewing beer as a craft brewer. Cheers!!
Sylvia Macdonald
Sylvia trained as a journalist and after gaining experience in marketing and journalism, joined British Baker magazine in 1991 because she loved food and the world of business. During her years as editor, she interviewed many talented craft bakers, entrepreneurial ingredient suppliers and forward-thinking equipment providers. Other interviewees included ABF’s George Weston, Justin King of Sainsbury’s, Sir Mike Darrington of Greggs, and David Cameron. Sylvia was highly respected for the quality of her BB editorials and her enthusiasm for the industry. While editor of the BB she won the prize for Scoop of the Year, beating many other magazines, including The Grocer.
Having moved on from the position of Editor of the British Baker in 2011, Sylvia still takes a keen interest in the baking industry and has served on the BSB Executive committee for a number of years. She also serves on the Court of the Worshipful Company of Bakers and undertakes freelance work.
Natalie Sheil
Natalie Sheil is Bakery Category Manager at Synergy Taste – a leading international flavour supplier and trusted supply partner to the UK bakery industry. Natalie is responsible for business development within the bakery, desserts and confectionery markets with the aim of delivering innovative flavour solutions that help bakery manufacturers to enhance the consumer appeal of their products and manage ingredient costs and nutrition targets. After completing a BSc in Food Marketing and Business Economics, an initial career in marketing eventually led Natalie to the exciting and fast-paced world of flavours and food trends.
Natalie has a passion for bakery and regularly makes and decorates cakes for friends and family in her spare, time including 3 wedding cakes to date! This passion continues through to inspiring the next generation of bakers as Natalie heads up the link between Synergy Flavours and bakery colleges and universities, to educate aspiring students on the power of using flavours within their products.
Darren Roots
Daren started his career with Allied Bakeries. He served an apprenticeship and was part of the company’s Management Training Programme. At the same time, he attended the National Bakery School at London’s South Bank University, where he attained all the relevant certificates in Baking. During his time on the Allied Bakeries training programme, Daren realised he wished to develop a career in sales and moved into Key Account Management.
Daren has held a number of Senior Commercial Roles in multi-national companies over the years, supplying products and functional ingredients to the baking industry. These companies include Allied Bakeries, Gist Brocades, Puratos and DuPont. Daren joined his current company IREKS U.K. in January 2021 as Director of Sales.
Daren was a member of the BSB Executive Committee from 1999 to 2010 and is delighted to be re-joining it, in order to give something back to this special industry and the people that work within it.
Donna Roper
Donna joined Romix Foods as Business Development Manager in September 2023, supplying high quality bakery mixes into the industrial and retail sectors. Her long career in the baking industry began at Kudos Blends, spending 10 years working across Customer Service, Supply Chain and Sales. Donna’s presence in the baking industry increased further as she went on to work for IMCD, supplying a wide portfolio of ingredients to bakeries as well as other food and beverage manufacturers. She then went on to work for Oterra, the world’s largest natural food colour supplier. Specialising in the bakery and confectionery markets, Donna worked with some of the largest national and multinational accounts in the UK. She attended her first BSB conference back in 2008 and has been an active member for many years. She is looking forward to further developing this relationship as part of the committee with new responsibilities, including updating the website and posting LinkedIn updates.
Outside of work and all things bakery, Donna enjoys riding her horse and walking her dogs in South Shropshire where she lives.
Paul Beard
Paul has been in the bakery food industry for over 40 years. His passion for food baking all started when he began his apprenticeship as a Chef and then a baker. Paul attended the Birmingham College of Food and Domestic Arts as a chef and then completed a 3-year part time City & Guilds bakery course. After finishing College, he began his baking career as pastry & Bakery chef on board a cruise ship and then back on land had roles as bakery manager at both Asda and Sainsbury’s. Whilst at Sainsbury’s, Paul was appointed Bakery Operations Specialist for Bakery and Cafe, streamlining operations and driving excellence in service & quality. After leaving Sainsbury’s Paul joined Vandemoortel, where he took on the position of Technical Sales Manager mainly with the food service sector.
For the past 17 years he has worked for Delifrance. Throughout his time with the company he has embraced various key roles. Paul is currently Head of Field Sales and Head Bakery and Pastry Chef, guiding teams and fostering a culture of creativity and excellence.
Pauls passion for baking and commitment to quality and training continues. He loves sharing his knowledge and experiences with our future baking generations.