Program day 3

Donatello Piras is a chairman, presenter and moderator with years of experience at home in the Netherlands and abroad. Donatello hosts over close to a hundred meetings a year as an emcee, moderator and host for companies, governments, NGOs and the education sector. He has attained broad based experience in leading a variety of special events and conferences where he specializes in interaction and engagement with speakers and public. Donatello’s energetic approach in the many roles he plays is characterized by professionalism and enthusiasm. Donatello presents in Dutch, as well as English, German and Italian.

Donatello is an all-round generalist with a multifaceted background as a communication consultant, journalist and moderator that allows him to expertly navigate a broad range of topics in depth. Some of these topics include: energy transition & climate, agricultural marketing & communications, finance, education, healthcare, tax & tax avoidance, advocacy and legal representation, sustainability, logistics, as well as export and retail practices.

John Kirkpatrick joined TESCO in May 2015 as Agricultural Manager for Poultry and Eggs (Europe, including the U.K., and South America and Asia) and is responsible for agricultural supply across feed mills, breeders, hatcheries, grow out, catching/transport and slaughter across all avian species and eggs.

Kirkpatrick has spent his career in Poultry working across many countries and continents and has led a significant change program across the TESCO poultry and egg division, focused on improvement based on science, evidence and factual information to improve the customer offer and promote trust and transparency with farmers and consumers alike.

One specific area that he has developed in order to deliver to customer expectations is welfare outcome measure reporting, providing benchmarking tools to benchmark not only within the country, but globally.  A key area of his focus has been working with the Egg Industry and Welfare NGO’s to allow the business to transition to Cage Free production to achieve the 2025 commitment made by the TESCO in 2016.

He currently manages in partnership with suppliers, a diverse and challenging global portfolio; however, it is one that presents significant opportunities for the future of U.K. agriculture. Kirkpatrick describes himself as “a farmer in TESCO” bringing a very practical and straight-talking approach to grocery retail.

He is passionate about great agricultural production and regularly challenges farmers and suppliers to maintain, and indeed enhance, the high standards expected by customers.