David Ockleshaw

Background

About David Ockleshaw

David Ockleshaw is a highly experienced CEO who has worked throughout the food industry. In 1993 he founded The Bellwether Group, a consultancy concerned with the management of change through planning, action and control, with equal emphasis on all three parts. In addition to managing The Bellwether Group, he has held positions as President and CEO of various companies during periods of change, typically divestitures, turnarounds and/or transition through bankruptcy. Companies include: Border Foods, Inc, Texas; Chiquita Processed Foods, LLC, Ohio; Hazelwood Farms Bakeries, Inc, Missouri; The Richelieu Group, Inc, Illinois; Indian Summer, Inc, Illinois; and Merlino’s Macaroni. Inc, Washington. The Bellwether Group's food processing clients have included Dobbs International Inc, Pillsbury North America, Nestle USA, Aramark Inc, Orval Kent Inc, Rondelé Specialty Foods, Parco Foods, L.L.C, Home Run Inn Inc, Chef Solutions Inc, and Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, Inc. Retail clients include; Kings Super Markets Inc.(Marks & Spencer), Topco Associates, Bruno’s Inc.(KKR), American Stores Company Inc, Food Lion Inc, Jewel Food Stores, Supervalu Inc, Meijers, Inc, Fred’s Inc and Fox & Obel. Most recently David has completed a commitment to the World Food Programme, an agency of the UN in Rome, Italy. This included six months as Interim CEO for the Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) based in Nairobi, Kenya. FtMA is a public/private consortium of end-to-end value chain actors working in four countries in East Africa. Interventions under FtMA are aimed at unlocking crop value chains in order to enhance the participation of smallholder farmers through increasing their marketable surplus thereby improving their livelihoods. David Ockleshaw graduated from St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, majoring in biochemistry. Living initially in the United Kingdom and Australia, he moved to the United States in 1980.