Speakers

Richard Hall

Chair

Richard Hall is an acknowledged expert on the international food and drinks sector, moderating and speaking at numerous industry conferences as well as chairing a range of global Chief Executive forums including dairy, sustainable packaging and vertical farming.  In 2018, he served as an expert witness in one of the largest court cases in US corporate tax history. 

With a degree in Economics and Government from the University of Bath, where he was also Students’ Union President, he worked in the Group Commercial Department of UK dairy market leader Unigate before joining the Dairy Trade Federation as Economic Adviser.

In five years as a Director of the Dairy Trade Federation, he also served as its Head of Public Relations and as Secretary General of the European Federation of Dairy Retailers.  

He formed Zenith Global in 1991 as a specialist business consultancy for the food and drink industries.  The company expanded to more than 1,000 clients in over 50 countries, providing a full range of consulting and market information services until 2024, when these were transferred to former colleagues.  

In January 2025, he merged the remaining events activities with FoodBev Media, which he founded in 2000.  Its team publishes five business journals, runs numerous international innovation awards programmes and manages the foodbev.com website.

Richard has undertaken many consultancy projects over the past 30 years as well as helping form several industry organisations around Europe and in the Middle East.  In 2010, he was Series Consultant for the BBC Money Programme series on The Foods That Make Billions.

In 2013 he completed six years as Chair of the Bath & North East Somerset Quartet Community Foundation, after two years as Chair of the Bath City of Festivals Steering Group and two previous years as President of Bath Chamber of Commerce.  He has been Chair of The Royal High School Bath since 2019 and Executive Chair of Bath Festivals since 2023.

He has been an active fundraiser, including Board membership of the successful Bath Abbey appeal for £19 million and a national appeal for girls’ scholarships.