Board of Directors

Jose Nobre

Chief Executive Officer, AB Agri

José’s farming background ignited his passion for agriculture and his strong held beliefs in the need to ensure what we eat, and what we feed our families, is produced safely and sustainably.

He completed his Baccalaureate in Farming, where he gained broad experience, including working on poultry and swine production units.

After graduating in biochemistry and molecular biology at the universities of Rouen and Marseille, José began working in the biotech field, where his knowledge of professional farming inspired him to pioneer the use of technology in agricultural production. This was the start of his extensive international career, which has taken him across Europe, the US, Japan, Latin America and China.

José has fulfilled a variety of executive and business development roles, operating across the human health; animal health, nutrition and feed; and crop protection sectors.

In his last role he led the creation of Arysta LifeScience EMEA, a leading company in crop protection, where, as CEO, he built and nurtured the organisation into a successful global business.

Mark Aitchison

Managing Director, Frontier Agriculture

Liverpudlian Mark attained a BSc in Applied Biology from the city’s University before gaining a post-graduate degree in Agronomy and Crop Husbandry from Harper Adams Agricultural College. Starting out as a trainee agronomist with Schering Agriculture, over the next eight years he progressed to the position of Group Accounts Manager.

In 1992, Mark joined Cargill’s agricultural division, subsequently occupying several roles including Regional Sales Manager, Commercial Director and ultimately, General Manager. Following Cargill’s merger with Banks Agriculture, he was appointed MD of the newly formed business, playing a leading role in a further merger with Allied Grain and becoming Managing Director of Frontier Agriculture Ltd in 2005. Rutland resident Mark is a trustee of the county’s agricultural society and in 2014 was awarded an honorary doctorate from his former university, Harper Adams, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to UK agriculture.

Juan Ignacio (Nacho) Fernández

Managing Director, AB Vista

Nacho became Managing Director of AB Vista in September 2020. He joined AB Vista in 2015 as Regional Sales Director for West and South Europe, before becoming EMEA Director in 2017. Nacho is an agriculture engineer by training specialising in animal production and brings over 25 years’ experience having worked for many different feed additive companies over the years. He holds an MBA and various other qualifications in animal nutrition.

Living in a small town close to Madrid near to the AB Vista office, Nacho likes to spend his spare time riding his mountain bike, reading about technology and watching his local football team, Atlético de Madrid.

Simon Heath

Managing Director, AB Connect

Having joined AB Agri in the early ‘90s as part of the graduate scheme, Simon has a passion for agriculture, stemming from his farming background.

Initially, he occupied several sales and management positions, across the UK before pursuing numerous business development opportunities in the US, Canada and China.

Following the amalgamation of ABN, KW and Trident into new animal nutrition business AB Connect, Simon was appointed Managing Director, overseeing a turnover of £1billion and a workforce of more than 760 people.

Scott Gurvis

Chief Financial Officer, AB Agri

Scott holds a master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Florida and he is accredited as a Certified Public Accountant.

Prior to joining AB Agri, his experience included various Finance roles in Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Treasury, and Mergers and Acquisitions. He has led multi-cultural, geographically diverse teams having worked and lived in Italy, Netherlands and France.

As Chief Financial Officer EMEA for Arysta LifeScience, Scott was instrumental in growing the company via three international acquisitions in the crop protection space of the agricultural industry.

Mark Mladek

Senior Legal Counsel, ABF

Aviation-enthusiast Mark is the primary legal adviser to AB Agri in EMEA. After studying Law at Oxford University, Mark was an associate at global law firm Allen & Overy before moving to work as an in-house lawyer. He has spent his career advising companies in industries as diverse as technology, communications, food and alcoholic beverages. Mark joined Associated British Foods in 2012 and is proud to provide legal advice to all AB Agri’s businesses in EMEA, as well as to some other parts of the ABF Group.

In his day-to-day work Mark focuses on developing and implementing commercial, customer-friendly solutions for AB Agri’s many businesses. He also helps support the company as it expands into new products, services and markets, and is closely involved with legal risk-management throughout all AB Agri’s businesses in EMEA.

Josh Hoopes

Managing Director, Intellync

Josh re-joined AB Agri in 2018 after 5 years at our sister company AB Sugar where he held a number of general management and commercial positions working across bioethanol, seed technology and horticulture. It was while leading the transformation of British Sugar’s horticulture business from producing tomatoes to growing a key pharmaceutical ingredient, that Josh became a keen advocate of using data and technology to drive agricultural productivity forward.

Josh holds a BSc in Finance from the University of Utah and an MBA from Manchester Business School which led to his early career experience in roles with Deloitte, AB Agri and Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Our leadership team