Welcome to our dedicated platform
Specifically for the 2026 City Food & Drink Lecture
About
Thought Leadership in the City of London
The City Food & Drink Lecture celebrates its 25th year in 2026. Over the years, it has become the annual high profile fixture in its current (hardly unchanged) format in the City of London and international food and drink industry calendars. Laurence Ollins, its Founder says “I am delighted to have created such an important and influential event and that it has grown and developed so well”. Read more about its inception further down. This year we are delighted to welcome noteworthy past keynote speakers as well as panellists back onto the stage at Guildall. What did they pronounce then, what has changed, has it made a difference to policy, what still needs to be done? All these questions will be debated and discussed along with the important question posed by our keynote “Can Britain’s food and drink industry make the next 25 years healthier than the last?”
See the Keynote speakers and Panellists section.
Letter from the Chairman
The City Food & Drink Lecture
The 2026 City Food and Drink Lecture celebrates our 25th anniversary. We wish to recognise this landmark by having an exciting event looking forward but also building on the foresight and determination of Mr Laurence Olins, the founder of The City Food Lecture as it started out all those years ago.
The keynote lecture will be given by Professor Susan Jebb OBE on the topic of Can Britain’s food and drink industry make the next 25 year’s healthier than the last.
Professor Susan Jebb OBE, a leading British nutrition scientist specialising in diet, obesity and public-health policy will look at the health of the nation and the impact on what we eat and drink has on our health. What should the sector consider doing differently to better serve consumers of the future? Or will new medical advances solve the problems? Can we reconcile health and growth for the food industry?
As Professor of Diet and Population Health at the University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College she leads research on how changes in diet at both individual and population levels impact health, particularly the prevention and treatment of obesity and cardiometabolic disease.
It will be an interesting and thought-provoking topic for much discussion.
After the lecture there will be a panel discussion chaired by Charlotte Smith, presenter on BBC One’s Countryfile and BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, with questions taken from the floor.
To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the City Food & Drink Lecture we are delighted to invite a selection of our past keynote and panellists to further debate the 2026 title as well as look back at what has changed (or not) since they last took to the Guildhall stage. Ian Wright CBE has held senior roles at Boots the Chemist and Diageo, up to 2015. He was CEO of the Food and Drink Federation to 2022, he currently chairs a board, serves as a NED and as a columnist in The Grocer. Ian was a panel member in 2020.
Ash Amirahmadi OBE became European CEO of Sofina Foods in 2023, he was formerly MD of Arla Foods UK from 2018. Ash is a member of The Food Strategy Advisory Board established in March 2025. He gave the keynote speech in 2022.
Professor Louise Fresco gave the lecture in 2020 while she was President of the Executive Board of Wageningen University based in The Netherlands, a post she held between 2014 and 2020. Professor Fresco has held several roles across Europe and is well published on sustainable food production.
With well over 600 invited guests this celebratory year should be extremely insightful and certainly a very memorable occasion, with ample time for networking and some fabulous food and drink afterwards. I look forward to seeing you there.
Allan Wilkinson
Chairman, CFDL
A message from...
The Founder of the City Food & Drink Lecture
How did the City Food Lecture come about? Some words from the Founder
In 2000, when I was Master of the Fruiterers Company, I was tasked with producing a lecture purely for that Company. I felt acting alone, I wouldn’t attract an important speaker or have a sizeable audience. I therefore decided to convince the Butchers, Poulters and Farmers livery companies to join forces with me to work together to produce a major food focussed lecture. I then persuaded J Sainsburys to become our exclusive sponsor. We jointly coined the title “The City Food Lecture”. I then convinced the Corporation of London to let us have Guildhall at a beneficial financial rate. Armed with these partners we then produced the first lecture in 2001 with Peter Blackburn, CEO and Chairman of Nestle UK as our first speaker and Sir Peter Davis, CEO of Sainsburys as the panel chairman. The lecture was held in the old library at Guildhall and 450 guests attended. After the lecture I was immediately asked by the Bakers, Cooks and Fishmongers livery companies if they could join the promoting team. Thus I created the unique situation of seven independent food livery companies working as a close knit team under the secretarial help of the Butchers to produce an annual lecture focussed purely on food issues. The format we set then has remained exactly as agreed 25 years ago. Namely a major lecture held in Guildhall, followed by an expert panel session , with a networking supper to follow. We have attracted some of the leading UK and international speakers and panellists since that first lecture. “I am delighted to have created such an important and influential event and that it has grown and developed so well since my 13 years as its chairman, having retired from that role in 2014”.
Mr Laurence Olins
Founder
