Our People

Mark was announced NMR Managing Director in February 2024. Mark has acted as interim MD since January 2023 and replaced Andy Warne who retired in December 2023.

Mark joined NMR in 2016 as Finance Director. After significant reorganisation associated with the exit from the Milk Pension Fund, including refinancing and balance sheet restructure via a capital reduction and hive-up, Mark has brought greater financial management and acuity to the requirements of running the refinanced business. These include improved forecasting and reporting, and the use of KPI reporting via a Balance Scorecard. Mark brings significant experience including time as a Director of Finance at Milk Link, having senior responsibility for financial stewardship and restructuring during a time of critical changes in the dairy industry.

Ben studied Agricultural Economics at Reading University before joining DEFRA as an Economist. From there Ben took a position as an industry consultant for the Meat and Livestock Commission (now part of AHDB). Ben joined NMR’s marketing department in 1997 before taking a role in corporate account management, building strategic relationships within the dairy supply chain, including leading retailers, processors and vet practices. This led to Ben handling the strategic development of NMR’s payment testing business which centres on testing ex farm bulk milk samples to confirm the quality credentials of ex farm milk which then contributes to the processor calculation of the milk cheque for the farmer.

Ben was central to establishing the iML joint venture through engagement with the Irish dairy industry and, in particular, Lakeland Dairies which is the cornerstone client for iML. Ben sits on the iML board contributing to the strategic development of this business. Ben is now the Sales and Marketing Director for NMR looking after all NMR revenue streams both pre and post farm gate. Ben’s focus is on ensuring that all NMR clients gain full value from the information received from NMR – delivering on the business’s commitment to ‘decoding milk data, building robust insights’.

Debbie joined NMR in April 2017 as Group HR Director. With over 12 years in HR, she is a CIPD qualified HR Director holding a broad range of experience in various HR disciplines from within both the private and public sectors. Her previous roles included HR Shared Service Manager for Oak Furniture Land covering a national remit of over 50 stores with a main focus on restructuring and cultural harmonisation, Group HR Manager for Destination Skin Ltd covering a national remit with a focus on implementation and bedding in of Group Vision, Mission and Values and HR Business Partner for Swindon NHS Trust with a focus on employee relations and recruitment/retention. Debbie is an approachable HR Leader who works to ensure mitigation of risk to business in all people areas.

Mike has been working in technology for over 20 years, joining NMR in February 2021 as IT Director. His early career was in telecommunications and pharmaceuticals, and then spent a decade with RELX plc, including leading technology for their agriculture software and data division, covering brands like Farmers Weekly and Proagrica. In 2015 Mike moved to Wilmington plc as their Chief Technology Officer and executive committee member. He studied computer programming in his native South Africa in 1996 and completed his MBA from Henley Business School in 2009.

Phil has worked for Associated British Foods (ABF) for over 20 years in a variety of different roles both nationally and internationally. He has a First-Class degree in Biology and an Executive MBA from the University of Nottingham. Phil started his career in agricultural supply chains before moving into commercial and operations, and for the last decade has held leadership roles in Human Resources, for the sugar and agri divisions of ABF.

Phil is known for building strong collaborative relationships across organisations, drawing on insights gained from living and working in China for five years. His blend of being grounded in operational management together with deep HR expertise and business leadership, have enabled Phil to have a track record of delivering sustainable, high-impact results. He is passionate about Health & Safety, as well as colleague engagement and wellbeing.

Phil is currently covering the maternity leave for Debbie Thomas-Hoeller.

Mark has over twenty years’ experience working in commercial laboratory settings. He joined the NMR laboratory team in 2004 shortly after graduating from university. He has held various management positions and is currently Head of Laboratory Operations.

He has been key to maintaining the laboratory sites’ UKAS and ICAR accreditation status and has expanded testing services introducing, pathogen identification, disease diagnostics, contaminant surveillance, and genomics.

Mark has optimised resources integrating multiple laboratory and transport functions and increased the resilience of the operational infrastructure through continuity risk analysis. Contributing to the delivery of industry leading turnaround times for key services.

He has brought efficiency drivers through automation and state of art robotic platforms and introduced sustainable practices by utilising renewable energy and minimizing waste from operational processes.