The NPA has announced that Katie Jarvis, who currently works for the NFU, will be joining the organisation in the role of senior policy advisor at the end of October.
Katie, a farmer’s daughter with an established understanding of the pig industry, comes to the role with a wealth of farming and policy experience.
She took up her present position as an NFU county advisor in the South-West in 2021. Prior to that, she worked at the NFU’s Brussels BAB office for five years, having joined as a trainee in 2016 and then as a policy adviser, leading on the pig industry for the office.
Previously, she trained and worked at the European Commission and a variety of international roles, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in Rome.
Katie will replace chief policy advisor Rebecca Veale, who will leave the NPA after four years in mid-August to take up a new role of Senior Government Affairs Manager at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. Charlie Dewhirst, currently a senior policy advisor at the NPA, will become chief policy advisor.
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “We are really excited to announce Katie as our new senior policy advisor. She knows the pig industry well and her experience and policy knowledge will be absolutely key, as the NPA grapples with some important regulatory changes already in play and on the horizon.
“We are very much looking forward to welcoming Katie to the team!”
“I also want to thank Becca, who has been a tremendous servant to the NPA and the pig industry over the past four years. Her work on Defra’s review of contractual practice in the pig supply chain, in particular, has been hugely important – and we wish her all the best in her new role.”
Katie said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for me. I have enjoyed a good relationship with the NPA during my time at the BAB office and in my current role, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining the team. I look forward to meeting members and getting stuck in.”