Sarah Williams Email & Phone Number

Cumbria, England, United Kingdom

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Silal: Headhunted by a previous employer and current Director of Agritech he needed someone he could trust & knew would get the job done. As a solution-driven individual, by multitasking across a broad spectrum of projects and ensuring internal and external buy-in, with a range of different stakeholders, all 12 projects were completed. I also have day-to-day management of the technical team to ensure that they complete all the necessary actions for the successful completion of projects. Current employment NDA prevents detail on projects; Turning Organic Waste into Compost, Key trials on soil amendment & irrigation. Disease detection opportunities. Animal feed supply chain using black water, R&D Centre, net zero desalination, and greenhouse construction.IOT Sensors - 100 farms were installed with the Hoogendoorn IV0II system by 31st December 2022. In 2023 the results in season one from the very first cohort of 6 farms, showed significant savings of utilities & resources. The full & true extent of the overall benefits will not be known until the end of 2023.Heat Blocking Technology - This project with key partners Red Sea Farm, was to demonstrate the use of their innovative heat blocking technology by the construction of 1 hectare of greenhouses, proving that this new tech would in fact demonstrate significant savings in resources, now complete & on display. The biggest challenges to overcome were the desert location and lack of any services. Soil & Water Analysis- The main impact is that the 700+ contract farmers now understand the makeup of their farm's soil & water, resulting in them being able to understand the type & required quantity of inputs in order to maximise their yield.Aerofarms- 2023 we are looking at creating seedlings that will be grown under specific parameters to ensure increased resilience to the harsh growing environment of this area. I am the lead project manager, as part of this we will be constructing 2 trial greenhouses (8 altogether).

United Kingdom

Agri-Epi CentreI began as a consultant, leading on high-profile bids & complex technically challenging projects. There were big deficiencies in all aspects of the projects depart. Took up position of HOP, my goal was to create a team that could implement a range of projects, be confident in producing & delivering sometimes complex work streams, being able to manage the relationships with our key stakeholders & implement a set of standard/but customized SOP’s. I lead a programme of 43 projects from a starting point of 7, spanning globally.Examples:Crover- a grain swimming robot that was developed to help provide the solution to the global 20% loss in stored grain due to mold growth & moisture. The Crover device is expected to save 380 tonnes of grain p/a. The project ran to time, to budget & hit all its KPI’s, enabling future funding & a successful demo development.Tackling Improved Nutrition & Agronomic Resilience in Kenya.Enabling 2000 Kenyan smallholders to take- up agricultural technologies & farming best practice, backed up by a guaranteed price for their crop on a fixed supply chain. Installed weather stations within a set region & provided farmers with free agronomic support, together with data driven advice from local & remote sensor technologies.The project was successful in engaging with all the smallholders, signing them up to off taker agreements & ensuring that they had access to & trained to understand agronomic data to ensure they made the right decisions. 5G: Wireless & Mobile Connectivity with 5G RuralFirstTestament to my transferable & adaptable skills, I ran this project with little knowledge of 5G. This project meant working with pig, dairy & beef farmers. The idea was to run trials to create rural test beds for 5G wireless & mobile connectivity. Boosting download speeds, lowering latency, & laying the foundations for improving connectivity for rural businesses- encouraging adoption of new tech and savings of millions.

Kendal, England, United Kingdom

Great opportunity to join the team at Agri-Epicentre. I am currently beginning on my journey to project manage 3 diverse projects and all part-time;project number 1 : CROVER My projects are grant funded through Innovate UK and DCMS with multiple partners. I will get to do some international travel and what is best is that I can still carry on with my own consultancy work.

Shropshire

The most wonderful thing about being a consultant is that your skills are invariably transferrable and never so than through Agri-Epi. I am using my skills to help pull together a number of Bids with numerous partner denominations. Just love the pressure and the variety of projects from Salmon fishing to potato farming!! of course it always helps having an amazing team with me at Agri-Epi

United Kingdom

As a Senior Associate Consultant for Kinect3 I was brought on through recommendation. I looked after a number of high profile clients in the agri-food, food production & food retail areas. I delivered high value projects to the satisfaction of all my clients & on time & budget. Sometimes, you have to do the unexpected & what is best for the client- whilst it is exciting it has to be viable & you have to have the gusto to be able to say no. The projects were highly sensitive & covered under NDA’s so I can only briefly summarise them without naming. 3 projects for a major international food retailer looking to move into a European country & go head to head with a specific sector retailer. The 3 projects were to evaluate the market & make recommendations on next steps including how to enter the market & success evaluation. A cash rich, flat management structured multi national company ready to put a cash injection of tens of millions into this project. The indication was that they were expecting me to recommend a full onslaught into the country, I provided them with a clear analysis that due to their track record, market availability, product range, quality etc that this would not be a viable option. They took my recommendation & saved them millions.1 project for a major manufacturer in the snack industry, provided them with full analysis on the potential market plus competition for their snacks in a worldwide market. Impact unknown in terms of financial but based on my work they have atleast part global market penetration, & large number of SKU’s. 1 project in the agri sector for a major yoghurt manufacturer (penetration into UAE). As a short shelf life product & also cost of refrigerated transportation (even part pallet or shared pallet) costs out weighed the benefits. Labeling/ packaging was also an issue in addition to a local & well serviced competitive market. Potential saving of £m by private & public sector funding in recommending not to pursue.

South Lakeland

Within this business I share a passion for doing things well. I am a project manager but I am also an innovator, ideas person and all round nutter. I am not a 9-5 person behind a desk, I give 100% and then some. Its hard when you go for a tender and the interviewers cannot understand why someone would answer emails in their own time or go out of their way to ensure projects work- its simple it makes your life easier in the long run. No one has ever accused me of being lazy or not getting the job done- being passionate about things is the way forward. Being able to be flexible on time and having the tenacity to just get on with it.

Kendal, Cumbria

Kendal BID was one of my bread & butter clients, I worked for 6 years for this company, each year they asked me to continue. The company had over 700 businesses as clients including major high street retailers, who paid into the company to improve the prospects of the town. My role was to manage the accounts & processes of the Ltd company on behalf of the 13 Board members. I was the driving force in the creation, development & implementation of a business improvement plan. This included a regular series of events & initiatives that would have a direct effect both financially & socially on the businesses involved. One initiative, as an example, ensured the direct survival of participating businesses by generating hundreds of thousands of extra revenue & customer visits. There were many successes & some failures, but the key was being able to adapt to an ever changing highstreet, customer shopping habits & economic pressures.

Kendal

The philanthropic side of me knew Kendal (land of mintcake) was crying out for a 7 day week Tourist Information Centre, with quality staff, great information availability and fabulous shop window for Kendal goodies. As if I didn't have enough to do!! The centre opened in September 2018 and has had nothing but good reviews all thanks to my amazing team of volunteers; passionate about Kendal and fantastic at everything they do. I have managed to get a small grant from the local authorities (and I mean small) but grateful for every penny. Fantastic Kendal Ltd is a not for profit company and money from the sale of goods goes back into the running of the TIC!

South Lakeland

In 1998 I set up the 2nd farmers market in the country, it is still going today. 2 Years ago, have been run through a scheme with Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, I helped the farmers become independent. Kendal Farmers Markets Ltd was born and now we have the best market in Kendal, putting the normal markets to shame. On the last Friday of the month we have 25 plus stalls in the middle of the town- attracting many people who not only support the market but the amazing Kendal.

Cumbria

Part time senior programme manager of a £1.6 million Food and Drink Growth Programme; this programme was part of an £8 million project that i played a lead role in securing under ERDF, in a previous job.- develop business training packages to meet the needs of the business- event management- provide business coaching and mentoring- preform business diagnostics- expert in local food- expert in project management

I was bought in to bring money in through the development of funding applications and preparing for The Work Programme. I did manage to get them through as a specialist supplier for the Work Programme and this may prove to be lucrative in the medium to long term. I also started negociations for the development of a private enterprise to fund their charitable work.

As a senior projet manager I not only helped manage other areas of the business but from a strategic point of view I developed an £8.136 million project accross several partners and several organisations. This project was awarded and involved complex budgets, milestones and achievement targets.

Over the course of the 5 years I worked at North West Food Alliance as a project manager i managed and developed 3 rural programmes of support worth over £6 million. I also gained funding (and subsequnetly programme managed), from the Food standards Agency, for the majority of local authorities in the NW to deliver Safer Food Better Business training to over 3500 businesses accross the NW. I was the first non Local Authority in the UK to get this funding and over 4 tranches managed to achieve nearly £1million. As a home worker I managed my own time effectively and efficiently and probably spent more time working than anything else!