Alistair Trail has recently joined the SAC Consulting Food & Drink team, bringing with him over 11 years experience working in Scotland’s food, drink and environmental sectors.
Prior to joining SAC Consulting, Alistair was business engagement manager for Interface Food & Drink, based at the Rowett Institute for Nutrition and Health where his role involved working with food and drink companies and trade associations to identify and implement collaborative and innovative research projects with university researchers. He had great success developing industry led Common Interest Groups (CIG) and encouraged them to collaborate. This involved developing long term market development strategies underpinned by innovative research projects. These groups included Scottish Rapeseed Oil, Resource Efficiency, Reformulation, Venison and Sea Buckthorn.
Prior to this Alistair worked as a senior environmental consultant specialising in Industrial Symbiosis/Circular Economy. Alistair has experience working abroad where he implemented the first large scale industrial symbiosis/circular economy project in China.
As a previous project development manager for the Offshore Renewables Institute Alistair developed consortiums to apply for large European research grants including Horizon 2020, INTERREG and ERA-NET. Alistair is a Practitioner Member of the Institute of Environment Management and Assessment (IEMA).
Alistair’s appointment broadens the range of skills within SAC Consulting Food & Drink. Alistair will be working on a range of projects including Connect Local – Scotland’s local food and drink marketing advisory service and Knowledge Transfer and Exchange. Alistair’s appointment supports the expansion and development of SRUC’s service provision to the agri food and drink supply chain.