City Food Lecture 2013

Paul Bulcke (pictured), Chief Executive Officer of multinational consumer goods company Nestlé, will deliver the annual City Food Lecture 2013 on 25 February 2013 at London’s Guildhall.

In his keynote speech, entitled Water - the Linchpin of Food Security, Bulcke will consider what global companies must do in order to meet the challenge of resource scarcity, particularly water shortage.

His lecture will be followed by a question and answer session with a panel of eminent food industry specialists chaired by Sheila Dillon of BBC’s The Food Programme.  The panel will include Professor Ian Boyd, recently appointed Chief Scientific Adviser to Defra, alongside Peter Marks, Chief Executive of The Co-Operative Group and Carl Atkin, renowned agribusiness economist and co-founder of KinnAgri.

Laurence Olins, Chairman of the City Food Lecture 2013 organising committee, said: “We are delighted to have Mr Bulcke as our guest speaker. The challenge faced by us all of declining water resources is critical and as an industry one we cannot afford to ignore.  I look forward to welcoming Mr Bulcke to our lecture and hearing the views of someone responsible for leading the world’s largest food company.”

An annual, invitation-only fixture in the City of London and international food industry calendars, the City Food Lecture is delivered every year by a leading figure in the British food business who is invited to speak about the issues they regard as most important in shaping the way food is produced, distributed, marketed, sold and consumed.

Held in the Great Hall at the prestigious Guildhall, the event is organised by seven City of London livery companies whose roots are in the food industry – namely the Worshipful Companies of Bakers, Butchers, Cooks, Farmers, Fishmongers, Fruiterers and Poulters.

Previous speakers include Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Justin King, Unilever Chief Executive Paul Polman, former Cadbury Schweppes Chairman John Sunderland and former Tesco Chief Executive Sir Terry Leahy.

More information about previous editions of the City Food Lecture, including transcripts and videos, can be found on the Past Events page.