Kevin Kendall MSc Food Policy, MA Human Geography, BA Biology with Geology, HND Agriculture, Cert Ed.

Kevin has a background in agriculture and is from Swaledale in North Yorkshire. He initially studied for a Higher National Diploma in Agriculture and worked on beef, dairy, pig, poultry and arable farms in the UK and France.  He then completed a Certificate in Education at the University of Birmingham.  Following this he attained a BA(Hons) in Biological and Geological Sciences with the Open University and embarked on a career teaching agriculture at colleges and universities in the UK.  During this time he progressed from being a lecturer and course tutor to being the Head of School and farm Director at Askham Bryan College near York, which was 1,000 acre farm with a 160 cow dairy herd, 120 sow breeding unit, 250 ewes and arable crops of wheat, barley, oilseed rape, sugar beet, potatoes and grass. During this time he also gained an MA in Human Geography from the University of Leeds.

He was then appointed Assistant Director (Food, Farming and Innovation) and was also Director of the Centre of Vocational Excellence in Food Chain Technology which aimed to train level 3 students in the skills needed to work effectively within the food chain. He was also recognised at this time by City and Guilds with a Licentiateship in recognition of achievement through education, training and employment attained in agriculture.

His next move was to Bishop Burton College in East Yorkshire, which is a leading land-based college in the UK, to become Deputy Principal (Higher Education) where he developed a range of innovative agriculture programmes including degree programmes in Precision Crop Technology under the auspices of the Centre for Precision Agriculture as part of the Yorkshire and Humber Institute of Technology.

More recently he set up his own business focussed on quality assurance related projects and has been Assistant Principal at Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, Executive Dean of Higher Education at Blackburn College and a Quality Manager with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in the UK.  He has managed higher education reviews in the UK and internationally including in Albania, China, Georgia, Ghana, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Macau, Nigeria, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

His interests have always been on improving the outcomes from the food system and following recently studying for the MSc in Food Policy at City, the University of London, he is keen to continue this ambition through the UK Food Systems Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Greenwich and Aberystwyth University.