Professor John Gilliland OBE DSc FRSA FRAgS

Recently appointed as a special advisor to the UK’s Agriculture Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and to Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), and chair of the UK’s Sustainable Farm Networks, facilitated by Harper Adams University, John Gilliland is a willow and livestock farmer from Derry, N. Ireland, whose farm has independently been verified to be “Beyond” Net Zero, already. Professor of Practice in Agriculture and Sustainability at Queens University Belfast.  Doctor of Science from Ulster University.  Chair of the innovative, EIP-Agri funded, farmer led, carbon farming project, ARC Zero, www.arczeroni.org.

As an alumni of the US International Visitor Leadership Program, John Gilliland is highly respected and recognised as an excellent leader and communicator across the breadth of the Agri Food and Sustainable Land Management Sectors. This has included presentations to the Joint EU Agriculture & Environment Council, Bratislava, and the Global Summit on Soil Security, Sydney, where he was awarded “Best Paper.”

He has been an award winning farmer in Ireland; President of the Ulster Farmers Union; a Non Executive Director of the Scottish Rural College (SRUC), and an Energy Regulator in N. Ireland; while at the same time, he has been a policy adviser for Devolved, National and European Governments on Biotechnology, Climate Change, Soil Health and Sustainability.

For seven years, John chaired the UK’s Rural Climate Change Forum, reporting directly to the Secretary of State of DEFRA, London, and supporting the UK at COP15 in Copenhagen. While Director of SRUC in Edinburgh, he helped set up their very successful Carbon Management Centre.