Our Team
James Turnbull
Founder, Director and CEO of the Food Development Company and Director and Administrator at the Transylvania Food Company Srl. Although based in England he has been working in Romania since 2000 and visits Saschiz on a regular basis. He is Founder and Managing Director of Belmont Management Consultants Ltd. Further details and a full CV can be found on www.bmc-ltd.com or by viewing his profile on LinkedIn.
Sir Norman Murray Pringle Bt
Founder, Director, Company Secretary and CFO of the Food Development Company Ltd and Founder and Managing Director of Salama Ltd. He is a Chartered Management Accountant, Chartered Secretary, Chartered Governance Professional and Certified Management Consultant. He has been an Associate Consultant with Belmont Management Consultants Ltd since 2003, working on the Government Business Link scheme assisting business start-ups and with the preparation of business plans for various commercial and development organisations. He has worked for many years as consultant and/or team leader with high-profile organisations in the food, ecological-tourism and development areas, specialising in strategic and financial planning. This has included the business plan for the Transylvania Food Company. Further details and a full CV can be found on www.bmc-ltd.com or by viewing his profile on LinkedIn.
Diana Stoichițescu
Joined the TFC management team in July 2012 after graduating in Economics & Turism from Brasov University. Initially as Assistant Administrator and then promoted to General Manager in September 2014. She continued her studies to become a qualified accountant and in August 2015 established her own company with TFC as first client. In July 2020, she was appointed TFC Administrator, anchors our institutional history and is a key member of our management team. She remains responsible for financial management, banking and HR management. She is from Brasov/Saschiz and lives in Brasov.
Sándor Dóczi
Joined the team in January 2016 as Production Manager. In 2021 he became General Manager of the company. He is a graduate in civil engineering and has most recently been responsible for stock management and quality control of grain: receiving, drying and storing in a silo complex prior to shipment by rail to the customer. He has learned on the job and is now responsible for every aspect of production, our food safety certification, waste recycling and carbon offset, our distillery and site maintenance. For two years he worked in Hungary and his native languages are Romanian and Hungarian and he has good English. He lives on site in Saschiz.
Martina Polder
Joined the team in April 2022, as Finance Manager. She graduated in 202o, at UMFST Targu Mures, Faculty of Economics and Law- Specialization in Management Accounting. In 2022, she graduated with a Master's in Accounting and Auditing, at the same University.Her responsabilities are Financial accounting applied in Saga and QuikBooks.
Radu Gaja
Joined the team in May 2018 having previously worked at least five elderflower seasons, and in March 2019 became one of the three people being trained to distill gin. He lives in Saschiz and was promoted to Logistics Assistant in February 2020. Building on his background knowledge of our production processes, he uses our inventory software (Order Time) to control the procurement of ingredients, to prepare orders and invoice customers. This provides a key element of the traceability required in the food industry.In 2022 he became Logistic Manager.
Maria Călugăr
Joined the team in May 2016. She lives 50 m from our facility and retired after over 20 years as Town Hall Secretary (Administrator) a few years ago. She now works part time for TFC, looking after groups for the Taste Experience, attends markets and helps in the shop. She is confident, knowledgeable and when attending markets is frequently interviewed about our products for local television and radio.
Juliet Turnbull
Is UK based and works part-time for the Food Development Company. She is responsible for our Etsy on-line shop as well as the UK-based events and she has a background in on-line sales of her own craft products. Prior to this she has been in retail and pub management.
OUR ADVISERS
Edwin Vera - A shareholder in the Food Development Company and our Project Manager for the Latin America region. He is also co-founder of Veritas (Socio-economic Development & Technology) Limitada in Chile. He has over 30 year experience in integrated rural development in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia and has been an adviser and associate consultant with BMC Ltd since 2009. He is responsible for developing opportunities for the Food Development Company in Central and South America and is equally fluent in English and Spanish.
Maurice Pullen is an adviser to, and shareholder in, the Food Development Company. He has a background in international insurance and advises TFC on insurance matters.
Peter Clarke is an adviser to, and shareholder in, the Food Development Company. He has a background in horticulture production and marketing.
