RUMA Officeholders
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RUMA Chair
As well as being RUMA Chair, Catherine (Cat) McLaughlin is also the Chair of the RUMA Targets Task Force (TTF). In addition to her roles within RUMA, she is the Chief Adviser (Animal Health and Welfare) with the NFU and is also a director of AMTRA (Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority). Her previous roles have included Scottish extension officer of the Milk Development Council and Market Information Manager of Quality Meat Scotland(QMS)/Meat and Livestock Commission (Scotland). A graduate of the University of Aberdeen (Agriculture, with Honours in Animal Science) she also holds a PG Diploma in Farm Business Organisational Management from the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) (Aberdeen).
RUMA Chair
As well as playing a key role in RUMA Agriculture, Dawn is also the Chief Executive of National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) and is the treasurer for RUMA’s sister organisation, RUMA Companion Animal and Equine (RUMA CA&E). Dawn qualified as a botanist at the University of Nottingham and went on to work in UK Government in animal health and welfare policy, pesticides policy and enforcement, having originally joined as a field-based plant health inspector. Dawn moved to Brussels in 2009, where she represented UK agriculture in the British Agriculture Bureau office of the National Farmers Union. There her responsibilities included animal health, animal welfare and trade. She later headed up the European body for farm animal breeders, EFFAB. Dawn joined NOAH in 2014 and has successfully steered the organisation through EU Exit uncertainty and challenges, providing a robust defence for the animal health sector which has helped to increase both the profile and membership of the Association. She is a passionate advocate for high standards of both animal health and welfare and the benefits trade associations bring to represent industry and influence policy. Dawn also strongly supports evidence based proportionate regulation and the advantages new scientific developments can deliver for society.
RUMA Secretary General
Chris has been immersed in the livestock sector throughout his career and has practical experience from being a farmer in his own right in that time. He spent 16 years working for the National Sheep Association (NSA) and during that time was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship to study the developing technologies in the sheep industries of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. He joined the Beef and Lamb levy board (EBLEX which became AHDB) in 2003 and established the Better Returns Programme (BRP) as an engaging approach to delivering farmer focused technical messages. In 2017 he was awarded the prestigious George Hedley award by the NSA for his contribution to the sheep industry. When he left AHDB in 2017 he was the Director of Knowledge Exchange across all of the levy sectors. He then took up post as RUMA Secretary General, a role which gives a unique insight into the responsible use of medicines across the UK livestock sectors.
RUMA Treasurer
Tim is a Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) and remains Policy Director to the Association. He was awarded an MBE for services to the dairy industry in January 2008 Queen’s New Year Honours list. He is Executive Director for Cattle Health Certification Standards UK Limited (CHeCS), an accreditation body for the various cattle health schemes for non-notifiable diseases (BVD, Lepto, IBR and Johnes). Until late 1999 he was Chief Executive of Holstein UK & Ireland, the newly created organisation arising from the integration of the two black and white breed societies after some 54 years apart. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of the Holstein Friesian Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He remains Executive Secretary to the National Cattle Association (Dairy) – a federation of 11 UK dairy breed societies. He was also Chief Agricultural Adviser for BOCM Silcock/BOCM PAULS LTD for 10 years from 1983. Before taking the breed society position, he was Institute Business Manager for the Institute of Grassland & Environmental Research (IGER) at Aberystwyth charged with marketing the institute on a worldwide basis. He is also past Executive Chairman of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and Chairman of the Institute of Agricultural Management. Tim is also involved in a whole host of other agricultural organisations in addition to RUMA. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and chairs the College’s School of Agriculture Advisory Board; is a Governor of the Silcock Fellowship for Livestock Research and a Trustee of the Society of Biology and Chair of its College of Elected Members. He is a member of the VMD Veterinary Residues Committee and serves on the Food Standards Agency Advisory Committee on Animal Feeding stuffs (ACAF). He is a Non-Executive Director for Lantra, the sector skills council for the land-based sector and is Chairman of the (English) Cattle Health & Welfare Group. In 2014 he was appointed Chairman of the Farm Animal Genetic Resources Committee.
Special Projects Co-ordinator
Gwyn manages special projects, including the development of the next set of responsible antibiotic use targets by the Targets Task Force.
Gwyn is the former Chair of RUMA. He was born into a hill farming family in Snowdonia, North Wales. trained as an engineer before returning to agriculture, running the beef and sheep units at Moulton College before moving to West Sussex where he operated a 350-cow dairy herd for over 30 years. Among other roles, Mr Jones has served as vice president of the NFU, chair of COPA-Cogeca Animal Health and Welfare Working Group, chair of AHDB Dairy and member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC). He now sits on Defra’s Animal Health and Welfare Board for England and is vice chair of the UK’s new Ruminant Health & Welfare organisation. Gwyn is also a member of The University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine External Liaison and Advisory Committee.
Communications Officer
Mary is a multi-award-winning PR, Communications and Marketing expert with over 20 years’ experience working across charitable and commercial sectors. She has a particular specialism across veterinary and animal welfare sectors.
She has worked across a range of marketing disciplines during her career and has overseen the delivery of the full spectrum of paid, earned and owned marketing tactics. She is a member of the CIPR and holds Mini MBA’s in Brand and Marketing.
She has led and developed a wide range of teams across a variety of sectors during her career and has also guest lectured to marketing students at Birmingham City University.
Outside of work Mary is a Trustee for a charity that supports homelessness.