Student Programme

Sarah Calcutt, Managing Director, Partners in Produce

Sarah was a 5th generation fruit grower when she realised that she was much better talking about produce than growing it! A career in fresh produce spanning education, sales, technical, marketing and business development ensued.

Today, Sarah runs her own communications business, Partners in Produce, she Chairs the British National Fruit Show and is the General Manager for a cooperative of 21 fruit growers, Avalon Growers.

Sarah Calcutt, Managing Director, Partners in Produce

Sarah was a 5th generation fruit grower when she realised that she was much better talking about produce than growing it! A career in fresh produce spanning education, sales, technical, marketing and business development ensued.

Today, Sarah runs her own communications business, Partners in Produce, she Chairs the British National Fruit Show and is the General Manager for a cooperative of 21 fruit growers, Avalon Growers.

Emily Patterson, Category Buyer, HelloFresh UK

Emily is currently the Fresh Produce Category Lead for HelloFresh UK.  She was born in Hong Kong and moved to the UK when she was six. She is a graduate of the University of Leeds where she studied Politics, which included a year studying at Leuven University in Belgium. In between finishing school and starting university, Emily went to cookery school to qualify as a chef. She worked for various restaurants and catering companies before deciding to move on to work elsewhere in the food industry. Emily started her career at HelloFresh as a Produce Buyer. This has since evolved into managing the fresh produce category across all fruits, vegetables and herbs.

Ed McLaughlin, Food Industry Management Programme Director, Cornell University, USA

Ed McLaughlin is the Robert G. Tobin Professor of Marketing at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University in the US state of New York, where he also serves as Director of the Food Industry Management Program.

Ed’s research interests include: retailing strategies, linking customer satisfaction to firm performance, and the economics of retailing and fresh food marketing. His research appears in numerous academic journals.

In addition, Ed teaches retailing at the Graduate School of Management in Lille, France; is the Adjunct Professor of Retailing at Nyenrode, The Netherlands School of Business; is Founding Director of the Ahold Retail Academy in The Netherlands; and the Dean of the Cornell Retail Management Program in Japan.

Ed has won several national awards for both his research and teaching, and is the author or co-author of three books. He also serves on the boards of several public and private organisations.

Nic Jooste, Marketing Director, Cool Fresh Group

Nic Jooste is Marketing and CSR Director of the Cool Fresh Group, a Dutch fresh produce group with a high-level CSR certification. Cool Fresh imports fruit through the Port of Rotterdam from all of the world’s main fresh produce nations, and has retail, wholesale and foodservice clients in 54 countries.

Originally hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, Nic has been with Cool Fresh for 15 years. He has created most of the company’s fresh produce brands, is passionate about social projects, and is a board member of the Stars in their Eyes Foundation as well as the Balls-n-Books Foundation. He uses marketing in a flamboyant manner to ‘tell the stories’ behind his brands, specifically in terms of sustainability.