growth @ throxy

I currently work at an AI startup with presence in London and San Francisco. I’m deeply interested in health tech and its growing impact on the future—especially longevity—and I’m passionate about the role that diet and meditation play in long-term health and performance. I spent four years in Venture Capital, and invested in a few businesses focusing on longevity/health tech.

Founder, belly bugs

After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1987 with a PhD in Ancient Greek, David worked in the marketing department of ICI in Manchester. He founded his own advertising agency, Cheetham Bell, in 1992 which was bought by WPP in 2000.

David was CEO of the Manchester office of JWT and Creative Director at global digital agency, Mirum. David left the advertising world in 2017 to develop Belly Bugs, the children’s IP he created that introduces kids to their gut microbes and, as research is showing, is the silver bullet for childhood nutrition.

FOUNDER, RANDOX Health

Dr FitzGerald founded Randox in 1982 in a converted ‘Hen House’ at the back of his parent’s house in Crumlin, Co. Antrim.  Since then, the company has grown to over 3,000 staff worldwide including 800 R&D Scientists & Engineers, with customers in over 145 countries. Randox develop, manufacture and market a wide range of clinical and veterinary diagnostic reagents and systems. Randox supplies 100,000 laboratories globally and is the fourth largest manufacturer of clinical chemistry reagents in the world.

Dr FitzGerald was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2011 for services to business in Northern Ireland. He has gained many other accolades in his career to date; named a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and Innovation Founder of the Year 2013 from the Northern Ireland Science Park, to name a few.

Director and Editor-In-Chief, Sussex World

Gary Shipton is the Editor In Chief of National World including its newspapers and websites in Sussex, notably the Chichester Observer and West Sussex Gazette. He is a deputy lieutenant in West Sussex and will be the county’s High Sheriff in 2026. He works closely with national and local news media to ensure freedom of expression is enshrined in all legislation and as a former member of the Editors’ Code Committee advocates the highest standards of professional journalism. He lives near Chichester and has adopted many of the outcomes from the Goodwood Health Summits into his personal fitness regime.

Managing Director, Weleda UK

For over two decades Jayn has ploughed her energy into Weleda, turning the brand into a household name (with Skin Food) and helping to drive the beauty industry towards social and environmental responsibility and sustainable – a mission she continues as a public speaker and columnist.

Jayn is regularly voted no1 in Who’s Who in Natural Beauty. She has served as Chair of the Council’s Sustainable Beauty Coalition and as a board member of the B Corp Beauty Coalition, a collaboration of B Corp certified beauty brands and businesses.

Today, Jayn is the ESG Pillar President for the British Beauty Council and the Vice President of the certification body NATRUE. She was recently recognised in the CEO Today Business Women of the Year Awards as one of 100 inspirational female business leaders around the globe and received an award for Outstanding Leadership for Health & Wellbeing Company of the Year, in the CEO Today Awards.

Health & Nutrition Lead, WAITROSE AND JOHN LEWIS

I have been working in various roles in the health and nutrition team at Waitrose for the past 16 years. Working in the world of retail as a nutritionist gives me a great opportunity to really understand the way people eat and drive positive changes to our diets. I graduated with a degree in biochemistry and then specialised in nutrition, a subject that I have always been really passionate about. I completed my PhD at the MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit in Cambridge, where I investigated the link between what we eat and our risk of developing cancer. After receiving my PhD I was a Senior Nutrition Scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation.

CEO, Re-Genus

Katie is an experienced CEO and board member for high-growth, high-impact start-ups. Having spent 5 years building Nature metrics, a sector-leading nature data company, Katie wanted to get closer to making impact on the ground and so is super excited by Re-genus. Re-Genus make advanced crop nutrition, powered by nature. We restore the soil microbiome with natural, self-selecting communities of fungi grown under woodland canopies. We then enable ultra low carbon, natural sources of NPK to be used to displace synthetic fertiliser for crop, environment and human health. Katie has a Biology degree from Oxford and a Masters in Environmental Economics from LSE. She has also worked for WWF in Borneo and run for Parliament!

Independent Director and Advisor, socially responsible investment and sustainable business

Katie is an advisor and director to sustainable, high impact organisations. An ethical and responsible investment industry veteran, her experience spans sustainable investments, renewable infrastructure and for the last 10 years nutrition, food system transformation and regenerative agriculture.

Her work explores the heart of systems change, mobilising and empowering investors to find solutions to systemic issues across the environment and public health. She has built a +$21trn investor group focussed on nutrition for the Access to Nutrition Initiative, is an expert advisor to the Food Foundation and is a director of microbz, making probiotics from organic soil for gut health, cleaning and regenerative agriculture – ultimately tackling anti-microbial resistance.

She is passionate about naturally regenerating, detoxing and healing the planet and people.

Managing Director , Microbz probiotics

Katie is an advocate for a probiotic life and an expert for anyone looking to use probiotics to support human and environmental systems in place of chemicals and antibacterial products.

She grew up learning about fermenting soil microbes and how to use them in various aspects of life from gut health, to cleaning to growing plants and vegetables and nurturing ecosystems. She has seen many problems solved by the use of natural soil-based probiotics and beneficial microbes and now runs a family business, microbz, making probiotics from organic soil. Alongside her work supporting human microbiomes, she’s working with regenerative farmers, providing solutions for soil health and livestock health with the aim of bringing nutrient density back to British foods.

She is passionate about the heart of the business; trusting nature, bringing nature back into our lives and rewilding our guts and environments with the invisible microbial life that we rely on to survive and thrive.

Managing Partner, Grosvenor Food & AgTech

Katrin joined Grosvenor Food &AgTech (formerly known as Wheatsheaf Group) as an Executive Director in 2019. Katrin has been a venture investor since 2004, including 10 years as a partner with a venture capital technology fund in the US and five years at Syngenta’s corporate venture capital group.

Prior to 2004, she worked with HSBC in both the UK and Japan in various trading and business development roles.

Katrin graduated from Somerville College, University of Oxford, with an MA in Mathematics; holds an Executive MBA from Duke University; and an MSc in Microsystems and Nanotechnology from Cranfield University.

managing partner , Pollen & Co

Omar is the managing partner of Pollen & Co – a sustainable growth consulting firm. He previously founded and exited Wiser, the UK’s number one employer branding agency. Omar holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge and is currently setting up a fund dedicated to the food production system.

DIRECTOR, SASARE GROUP

Oni is an expert in Public, Private and Third Sector Procurement, Supply Chain and Logistics Management and is a Director of Sasare Associates, a consultancy advising on best practice Supply Chain and Logistics Management to Public, Private and Third sector organisations in the health, aviation, defence, transportation, Fin-Tech sector among others.

communications, belly bugs

Vicky studied languages at Cambridge University and upon graduation joined the Metropolitan Police in 1992.  As a detective, she dealt with a wide array of crimes, managing cases of serious crime through to their conclusion at Crown Court.

A career change in her 30s led her to work for Manchester City Football Club in 2001, the club she has supported from childhood where she became Director of Communications and a trustee at City in the Community, the club’s charitable foundation supporting the health of wellbeing of young people in cities of the UK and around the world.  She later became Chief Communications Officer for City Football Group, the world’s leading private owner and operator of football clubs.

In 2022, Vicky left City Football Group and founded her communications company, Straight Road Consultancy, which serves multiple cross sector clients. During this time she also joined forces with David Bell, founder and creator of Belly Bugs, a set of magical characters that inspires children to nurture a healthy gut microbiome for their lifelong physical and mental wellbeing.

Grosvenor Food and Agtech

William farms organically in Suffolk. Is an early-stage  entrepreneur behind brands such as New Covent Garden Soup Co, Green & Black’s and Cawston Press. He is a Trustee of The Grosvenor Estate, a Trustee of Gascoyne Cecil Estate and a board director of Samworth Brothers, one of the largest chilled food manufacturers in the UK.