Leadership and trustees

At IFIS, we’re extremely proud of our reputation for authenticity, integrity and excellence. These values are lived at every level of our organisation, starting with our board of trustees and management team.

Management team

Katy Askew 

Managing director

Katy joined IFIS in 2023 as Managing Director.

Katy has 19 years of experience in publishing, with the last 16 years in the food sector, specialising in innovation, nutrition and sustainability. Her most recent experience is as Senior Editor, Food Europe, overseeing William Reed’s flagship FoodNavigator brand.

Carol Durham

Head of Sales and Partnerships

Carol joined IFIS as Business Development Manager in January 2019 and was appointed Head of Sales in March 2020.

Carol has worked in the field of academic publishing since 2006. She worked for Emerald for 8 years, initially as Business Manager for Australasia then moving into the areas of Business Development in the UK and later Publishing Development, managing the new launch and acquisition programmes. Most recently Carol worked for Pearson, working with senior stakeholders at universities in the North of England, Scotland and Ireland to help them achieve their long and short-term strategic aims.

Rhianna Gamble

Head of Marketing and Engagement

Rhianna joined IFIS in 2014 and is responsible for marketing, customer relations and training.

She is Vice-Chair for the British Section of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT); co-webmaster for the Food, Agriculture and Environmental Resources (FAER) division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA); and a member of the Executive Council and the Marketing and Communications working group of Research4Life. Rhianna previously worked for Elsevier, marketing scientific journals and conferences.

James Nash

Finance Manager

James joined IFIS in April 2019 as Finance Manager.

James has been working in finance for 32 years with multi-national companies in manufacturing, IT & data capture. Most recently for the UK office of MacDermid Performance Solutions Ltd  as Treasury accountant in the Financial Shared Service Centre.

During his career, James has gained a wealth of workflow systems knowledge where he has been a project sponsor on ERP upgrades and new installs.

Andrew Tarling

Head of Product Development

Andrew joined IFIS in 2019 as Digital Product Manager and became Head of Product Development in 2020.

He has a background both in digital technologies and ePublishing, and has previously worked with a number of UK and European publishers including Thomas Nelson, Infinitas Learning, OUP and Wolters Kluwer. He has degrees in Computer Science and Archaeology, and has published research on Digital Business Transformation in conjunction with IMD in Switzerland.

Board of trustees

Colin Dennis

Colin has been a member of the IFIS Board since 2009 and has been Chair since 2013. He has extensive experience in food research and senior management, including 21 years as Director-General at Campden BRI.

David Duncan

David joined the IFIS board in 2012. Most recently the Group Head of Technology at Bloomsbury, David has also occupied senior positions at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), and Wolters Kluwer.

Mike Griffiths 

Mike joined the IFIS Board in 2021.  He is a Chartered Accountant who mainly worked in the finance, systems and research support areas for University College London.    Since retiring Mike has undertaken several international voluntary finance and systems roles in Kenya and Cambodia and is currently a trustee for 3 UK not-for-profit organisations. 

Professor Ian Noble CEng FIChemE MIFST

Ian heads up Research, Analytical and Productivity for Mondelēz RDQ, with a globally distributed organisation spanning their technical centres across the world with an extensive network of external world leading research partners. Previously he led Mondelēz’s Chocolate Technology Group, accountable for the strategic technical innovation agenda for brands including Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and Milka around the world. Find out more 

Pedja Pavlicic

Pedja joined the IFIS board in 2017. He is currently Head of Digital at Bloomsbury, having previously worked in senior positions at Cengage Learning, Experian QAS and Ovid Technologies

Colleen Shannon

Colleen joined the IFIS board in 2021. She is currently the Manager of Technical Intelligence at The Hershey Company. Colleen’s professional areas of interest include intellectual asset management, knowledge management, information research services, and innovation. She has worked in the food industry for 24 years.

Weibiao Zhou

Weibiao joined the IFIS Board in 2012. He is currently a full professor and Director of the Food Science and Technology Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In his career in academia and research, Weibiao has focused on food research since 1992.