Chief Executive: Jill Hewitt Bsc. (Hons)
"Self-motivated
and determined" - that is how Jill Hewitt describes
herself on her CV. However, whilst that is true, she hopes
that members will also find her friendly and approachable!
As the NAAC Chief Executive, she spends each day looking for new challenges facing the contracting industry, whether in the arable, livestock or amenity sections, and her land-based background certainly helps her to find practical solutions to members' problems.
Jill was brought up on a mainly arable farm in Lincolnshire, although from a very early age she managed to persuade her ever tolerant parents to help her in ventures such as rearing lambs, and eventually going into business by selling her faithful pony to buy and rear calves (without a great deal of profit!)
She went on to graduate from Sutton Bonnington University, Nottingham with a degree in Agricultural Science (and a good training in agricultural socialising!)
From there Jill spent the next 8 years as a Technical Officer with the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) - an internationally recognised charity, specialising in the welfare of livestock in markets, during transport and at slaughter. This rather unusual job involved her in a variety of activities, including: liaising with Government and industry; research projects; visiting and auditing abattoirs; gaining a poultry slaughter licence and media and press work. Never a boring day - rather like the NAAC!
Whilst at the HSA, she was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship, which allowed her two months of independent travel on a study tour around rural China, Israel and the USA.
Joining the NAAC in February 2001, Jill had a 'baptism by fire' with the Foot and Mouth outbreak, but is now enjoying the challenges that the NAAC throws up, both political and practical, whilst taking great pride in the members she represents.
In 2006, Jill was selected to take part in the Institute of Agricultural Management’s Leadership Development Course.
In her spare time (although this can be limited in this industry!) Jill spends as much time as possible with her family and enjoys walking her mad spaniel and the occasional 'social' evening with her not so 'young farmer' friends!
Office Manager: Jo-Ann Neal
We are delighted to welcome Jo-Ann Neal to the NAAC as our new office manager.
Following extensive interviews Jo stood out from our potential candidates with her warm
personality and a great sense of humour—vital for working in the NAAC office!
Most important however she has an excellent administration background, with much of her career being spent in
an accounts role, although in her ‘spare’ time she also works alongside her husband running a local pub.....
so understands the meaning of long hours!
So far Jo has easily fitted into our team and I hope that you will all give her a very warm welcome
when you speak to her (even if she is chasing up subscriptions!).
Technical Officer: Adrian Riley
Adrian Riley is the NAAC technical officer and he’s keen to tackle the challenge of developing the NAAC’s Assurance Schemes, the three-year project which is being funded by DEFRA.
Adrian brings young blood to the NAAC team. He is 24 and but he has already crammed in a lot of farming experience. He has learnt the hard way on the family farm near Raunds in Northamptonshire. The farm ran a 90-cow milking herd plus followers until 1998 and Adrian was the relief milker who also drew the short straw of Christmas duties. Faced with a big investment bill to maintain the dairy, the family decided to switch into arable crops. They have also recently diversified into a livery yard and, as luck would have it, a young lady called Juliette stabled her horse on the farm – she and Adrian are now married and have two daughters.
His College education has been a little unusual. He took the National Diploma Course at the Moulton agricultural college in Northamptonshire but moved to do a HND top-up at Harper Adams College. He then took the degree course on crop management when he wasn’t playing as a front-row forward for Harper’s rugby second team.
Apart from working on an arable and beef unit near Alconbury in Huntingdonshire, Adrian did his year’s practical session at Moulton on a small arable farm at Little Staughton near Bedford where he got his first taste of working for a farm contractor. “We did a lot of baling and I learnt a lot about customer relations. You get all sorts of folk as customers – some of them were easy-going but others were much more demanding – but you have to be the same to all of them.”
He also got another taste of farm contracting in New Zealand last year where he was milking 3,500 cows twice a day – no, that wasn’t a typing error …. 3,500 cows twice a day -- on a huge dairy unit. He was part of a team which included two teat-cuppers on each shift. Travelling around farms in New Zealand he was struck by the simplicity of the farming. It was usually little more than a man, a dog, a quad-bike and a milking unit but with contractors running every other operation on a unit.
Why did he want to work for the NAAC?
“I needed a new challenge; I did not want to work on a farm for someone else and this three-year project was just the career move I wanted to get my teeth into."
He has already had experience of assurance schemes.
“We were part of the ACCS scheme at home and I got to know the FABBL scheme at Alconbury. There I had to work closely with the boss to make sure all the paperwork and qualifications were up to standard for the Schemes. I was the spray man so I had to look after the chemical store and put the sprayer through the National Sprayer Testing Scheme. It certainly gives me a view of the schemes from the practical end, though I am very aware that any scheme has to be acceptable to consumer demands as well.”