Meet The Team

Peter Shalson

Chairman

Peter is one of the UK’s most experienced serial entrepreneurs. He is best known for creating Braitrim, the International fashion industry packaging brand, that over a 20 year period supplied most of the world’s leading clothing retailers from manufacturing sites in over 15 countries – which he later sold to Merrill Lynch in 1998.

Full Bio

By 2007 he had founded Brightview, a privately owned Internet Service Provider, entered into the TV shopping arena with Pitch TV, created ETX Capital an industry leading financial trading platform and built Pubfolio Ltd into a UK top 10 public house estate with over 1000 doors. As Chairman of Bordeaux Index he oversaw growth to £100m over an eight-year period. In 2010 he was a founder investor Food Freshness Technology Holdings and recently was appointed as Chairman.

Peter devotes much of his personal time to supporting and raising funds for a number of important children’s charities as well as his generous sponsorship of ‘The London Academy’, acknowledged by Ofsted to be the one of the most successful academies in the UK.

Alasdair Mackay

Chief Executive Officer

Alasdair has held the position of CEO since April 2019. Joining as CFO in 2012, he was part of the team that raised over $30m and built a successful company from start-up, delivering innovative technologies to extend the quality of fresh food and flowers, leading to reduced wastage and higher quality produce.

Full bio

Alasdair has over 15 years’ experience in finance and management roles within both multinational and private-equity backed companies. Before joining It’s Fresh! he worked at AXA UK, latterly as Finance Director of Bluefin Wealth Management, and prior to this was Vice President of Finance at a 600-employee, 10-country, software consulting firm.

He holds an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Justin Creasy

Technical Sales Director

Justin is an accomplished industry professional, has over 25 years experience in the fresh produce industry supplying all UK retailers, 20 years of which as a Technical Director.

Full bio

Before joining Its Fresh in 2018 Justin worked at Wealmoor and Barfoots of Botley as Technical Director. His professional experience includes everything from direct growing to establishment of supply chains, food quality and packaging, food safety, sales growth, innovation and driving business forward in a sustainable and fair way.

Justin received an Honours Degree in Agriculture at Wye Collage, completed a 2 year Post Graduate training in MDS. He is BASIS and FACTS qualified.

Mark Palmer

Operations Director

Mark is an accomplished Senior Procurement and Operations Professional with over 20 years experience in the manufacturing, print and packaging sectors. Working for, and with many global market sector leading companies Mark is experienced in and passionate about all facets of operational performance.

Full bio

Prior to joining It’s Fresh, he worked for a top 20 global company leading the creation and of a new out sourcing division, managing operational and procurement expertise for some of the worlds most recognised brands.

Mark is MCIPS qualified and is actively involved in training the next generation of supply chain professionals in operational excellence as part of their MCIPS training.

Ron Scherer

Senior Retail Sales Director

Ron is an accomplished senior executive that has over 30 years of experience delivering growth in the supermarket industry.

Full bio

Ron started his career with SuperValu and went on to various leadership roles in Category Development, Broker Management, and Customer Business Management at Acosta Sales and marketing, Johnsonville Sausage and Campbell Soup Company where he consistently contributed to brand growth and exceeding corporate goals. Ron believes in building strong relationships based on integrity and honesty and understanding the needs of the customer and helping them achieve their goals.

Ron joined It’s Fresh! in 2018 to drive growth in the North America retail markets and manages the Caribbean export business. Ron lives with his wife Andrea and five children.

Nicolas Duran

Director, Latin America and Exports

Born in Chile, Nicolas is an Agricultural Engineer graduate with over 10 years of both domestic and international experience within the Post-harvest and Retail sectors of the Fresh Produce industry.

Full bio

Before joining It’s Fresh! in 2012, Nico worked as Head of QC for Capespan Italy and as Manager of Perishables for Jumbo-Cencosud, the largest retailer in Chile – where he experienced the compelling benefits and potential of It’s Fresh! first-hand prompting him to join the company soon after.

Nicolas lives with his wife Meghan in Ohio USA.

Simon Lee

Founder Director

Simon is a business management graduate with over 30 years experience in the Advertising, Marketing and Packaging sectors. Since 2003 he has been building environmental brands, a cause to which he is committed, providing global retail and supply chain customers with ground-breaking innovative products and solutions.

Full bio

Simon co-founded Food Freshness Technology Holdings (FFTH) an umbrella business to facilitate investment into It’s Fresh! Ltd. He is part of the management team that has raised in excess of $20m to develop the business and commercialise some of its unique technologies into the worldwide grocery sector.

Tim Mason

Non-Executive Director

Tim is currently CEO at Eagle Eye Solutions Ltd. He has over 30 years’ experience within the grocery and retail industries, with a strong background in strategic marketing and customer loyalty. Tim’s last role was as Chairman of Bonmarché Holdings plc from 2013 to 2015.

Full bio

Prior to that he was Deputy CEO at Tesco from January 2010 to December 2012. He held a number of other roles within the Tesco Group between 1982 and 2012 including CMO for Tesco and CEO of Fresh & Easy LLC.

He is also currently Chairman of Digital Natives Content Limited and a Director of Its Fresh Ltd.

David Stornetta

Non-Executive Director

David is the President and Owner of Produce Careers a leader in executive recruiting for the Food, Produce and Agriculture industries.

Full bio

David possesses over forty five years of agribusiness experience, including roles such as General Manager of Apio, Inc., and Executive Vice President of Loomix, Inc. He has an extensive background in strategic planning and leading and managing companies through growth and expansion. He is well versed in new distribution development, international produce import/export business, new entity start-ups, mergers and organizational development.

David obtained his B.S. in Agricultural Business from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA. David enjoys golf, travel, sports, and spending time with his family.

Investor Directors

Adam Anders

Managing Partner of Anterra Capital

Adam is the Managing Partner of Anterra Capital, an independent growth capital fund that invests in fast-growing companies, that transforms the way we produce, move and consume food.

Full bio

Anterra was founded in 2013 from a spin-out of Rabobank’s proprietary venture capital fund, Rabo Ventures. The fund is backed by Rabobank, a global leader in food & agriculture financing; and Eight Roads, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International.

Adam has over 15 years private equity and venture capital experience. Earlier in his career Adam worked as a management consultant with Bain & Co. Adam grew up in rural South Australia where his interest in food and agriculture innovation was initiated. Adam holds an MBA degree from Cambridge University, England and a Bachelors Degree in Law and a Bachelors Degree in Commerce from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Daniel Hallgarten

Partner of BXR Partners LLP

Daniel Hallgarten is a partner of BXR Partners LLP, the advisory arm of BXR Group, an international investment group, and leads HGT Management LLP, a multi-family office.

Full bio

He has ten years’ experience as an investment banker first at S.G.Warburg in London and Madrid and, following two years at the European Investment Fund in Luxembourg, UBS Investment Bank in London where he specialised in the telecoms sector. Before working for a predecessor of BXR Partners, he spent two years helping to run a small software company in the fraud detection space.

Following a degree in chemistry from the University of Nottingham Daniel trained as a chartered account specialising in tax with Arthur Andersen & Co. in London and Brussels. He is a non-executive director of MarexSpectron Group and is a trustee of The Badur Foundation and the Kadas Prize Foundation.

Andrew Hinkly

Managing Partner of AP Ventures

Andrew Hinkly is a Founding Partner of AP Ventures which had a first close of US$200 million in June 2018. He has enjoyed a high profile career spanning more than 25 years working in the automotive and mining industries.

Full bio

He held a number of senior leadership positions at Anglo American, where he worked for a decade and was a member of Anglo American Platinum Executive Committee. He previously held senior roles at Ford Motor Company where he was a member of the North American Executive Committee. At Ford he led the Production Procurement operations of Ford Americas and was responsible for $45 billion of annual purchases from over 40,000 suppliers.

Andrew has a MBA from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Loughborough.

www.apventuresllp.com

Peter Sugarman

Peter is non-executive Director, as well as a Partner and the Chief Operating Officer of JRJ Group.

Peter is non-executive Director of Food Freshness Technology, as well as a Partner and the Chief Operating Officer of JRJ Group.

Full bio

Peter has had a broad 30+ year career spanning fields of corporate finance, tax, accounting, mergers and acquisitions structuring and commercial banking. Before joining JRJ Group in November 2008, he was employed by Lehman Brothers for more than 7 years, as Head of Principal Investing in the Insurance Advisory Group and as Global Head of the Strategic Transactions Group. Prior to Lehman Brothers, he held various positions at Rabobank and JP Morgan, focussing on structured transactions, primarily within the financial services sector.

Peter holds BA and MA degrees in History and Law from Cambridge University. In addition to Food Freshness Technology, Peter serves as a director for ETX Capital, iProov Limited, and Maddox Capital Limited.

Twitter @PeterSugarman