The 2 Sisters’ boss’s achievements were recognised in front of hundreds of food and drink manufacturing sector guests with the FMEA trophy at an awards ceremony hosted by star TV presenter Carol Smillie.
Graham received the award from category sponsor FoodManJobs' key account manager Sam Thompson.
The Personality of the Year Award recognises the food and drink industry achievements of the business leader who has done the most over the past year to benefit his or her individual business or the industry in general.
Business leader
The six nominees were chosen by the Food Manufacture Group editorial team. The winner was selected by a poll of FoodManufacture.co.uk independently audited circulation of more than 108,000 unique monthly visitors.
Graham won the award after beating off stiff competition from five other leading food industry figures, including the Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit head of food crime Andy Morling and Food and Drink Federation director general, Ian Wright. See box for more details.
The 2 Sisters executive is leading the group tasked with developing the government’s new Trailblazer apprenticeship scheme for the food and drink industry. With the support of the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink, she has helped to co-ordinate the draft standards for three Trailblazers: operations, production and processing; food science and technology; and bakery.
Training roles at Bakkavor
Graham’s involvement comes on the back of more than 20 years’ experience of putting together learning courses throughout the UK – a number of which were while working as a consultant. She has also held senior training roles at Bakkavor and Baxters Food Group.
Watch out for our exclusive video interview with Graham, filmed immediatetly after she won the coveted title.
Last year’s winner was Bernard Matthews former group technical director Jeremy Hall for his work in combatting campylobacter food poisoning.
Meanwhile, the overall coveted title Food Manufacture company of the year was won by Mash Direct after it won the Chilled and Fresh category earlier in the evening.
Mash Direct was the judges’ unanimous choice for its new product development, inspired category management and production efficiencies.
This year’s award ceremony took place on the evening of Wednesday, November 2. Read the full list of winners and finalists here.
Food Manufacture Personality of the year finalists
- Tom Carroll, Graze, supply chain director
- Colin Dennis, immediate past president of the US Institute of Food Technologists
- Janette Graham, 2 Sisters Food Group technical learning and development manager WINNER
- Andy Morling, the Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit head of food crime
- David Potts, Morrisons chief executive
- Ian Wright, Food and Drink Federation director general