Laura Ryan
Laura has a First-Class Honours in Marketing and a Masters in Management. She has won the UK prize of Business Leader of Tomorrow and has also achieved Chartered Marketer status via the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Laura joined the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) in 2007 after successfully launching premium beef & lamb brands within a large butchery business in the North East of England. Working her way through the ranks she was appointed as Sector Strategy Director for Beef & Lamb Board in 2015. She led the strategic review and development for the Beef & Lamb sector in England by identifying key challenges and opportunities which deliver long term growth.
Last year Laura successfully launched Lavenpark, her own consultancy business which is working with levy boards, government and commercial companies to achieve greater success through improved industry insight, connectivity, business development, marketing, and communications.
Laura is the founder and global Chair of Meat Business Women which launched in 2015. It has recently been recognised by the United Nations with Laura presenting on the contribution Meat Business Women makes to the global Sustainable Development Goals.
Establishing the Global Meat Alliance (GMA) this year means Laura is able to bring together all of her experience, projects and passion to fulfil a career dream of creating a more diverse, impactful sector and she’s looking forward to building further relationships with it’s members.
laura@lavenpark.co.uk
Ashley Gray
A self-confessed social media addict who is passionate about creating impactful initiatives to challenge and disrupt the norm, Ashley began her career at Beef + Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ) in 2011, having newly graduated Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, majoring in Public Relations. She spent 10 years at (BLNZ), with the last three as General Manager, overseeing a team of sixteen, the strategic direction, stakeholder / board engagement and budget.
Ashley was instrumental in the growth of the World Butchers’ Challenge (WBC) butchery competition of epic proportions often referred to as the 'Olympics of Meat'. In her capacity as CEO, Ashley manages the event, oversees global communications, marketing activity and sponsorship, reporting to an international council.
Now based in Sydney, Ashley has moved into a strategic consultant role for BLNZ and works in a similar capacity for Australian Pork Ltd, advising on communications and marketing strategy. Ashley is the Immediate Past Chair of the International Meat Secretariat Marketing Committee, which works to unify members across industry on a wide range of topics. Ashley currently sits on the global committee for Meat Business Women (MBW) and launched the New Zealand chapter of Meat Business Women in 2019 as NZ Chair.
Having founded Global Meat Alliance (GMA) alongside Laura in 2020, Ashley is looking forward to creating more impact with the ethos of GMA embodying the purpose behind each of the organisations Ashley is involved with - ‘When you form communities, amazing things happen.”
ashley@ashleygray.com.au
Eleanor Luther
Eleanor joined GMA in March 2023 as an experienced consultant in the global food systems and supply chain spaces. She has a degree in English Literature and Linguistics from the University of York, and joins the team having spent the last two years assisting the Director of SDG2 Advocacy Hub in the delivery of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)2
Eleanor experienced first-hand the key global moments GMA are involved with, including UNFSS, Expo 2020, both COP27 and COP28 events, Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summits and Aim4C.
Some of you may know Eleanor from her previous four years at Meat & Livestock Australia based in Sydney, between 2015 – 2019. She made great friends and built key relationships during her time at MLA, where she supported the Integrity Systems Company CEO and team. Her key external relationships were with the Department, Peak Industry Councils, working groups and Taskforces in the sector.
Since then, Eleanor has launched her own consultancy business based in the UK, to drive relevant clients through similar improved connectivity, networking and relationship management. She has also enjoyed more time on her own projects including a published book on Italian wine, which she tells us takes a great deal of ‘research!’ In joining GMA at the start of 2023, she is eager to help shape the collaborative approach to global moments, and looks forward to driving forward the collective voice of the global red meat sector.
eleanorvlimited@outlook.com