BDI Directors

Martin Smith was appointed President in March 2013, has kept bees for 30 years in Lancashire. He is currently a Director of Communications for the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), having also been a trustee of the BBKA for seven years, during which time he served as both Chairman and President.

A Chartered Accountant by training, he is Managing Director of a family woodworking machinery business and has extensive commercial experience.

Roger Patterson was appointed to the BDI board in April 2006 and is BDI vice-President. He had a full term of eight years as a Trustee of the BBKA. He is President of the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association (BIBBA) and arranges lectures for the National Honey Show.

Roger started beekeeping in 1963 and is Life President, apiary manager and a demonstrator at his local BKA. He lectures and demonstrates widely on practical beekeeping topics and is usually accompanied by his well-known border collies. He is a prolific writer for beekeeping magazines and author of books and booklets.

Born and brought up on a farm in West Sussex and an engineer by trade, Roger ran his own engineering company for 25 years, but is now retired. He owns and runs Dave Cushman's website, which is considered to be the world's most comprehensive beekeeping website.

Donald Robertson-Adams was appointed Secretary in April 2009. He started beekeeping in 2009 and is still learning the ropes. He is  currently Secretary of Teifiside BKA in West Wales where he also mows the apiary grass.

He is now retired but worked as a Chartered Accountant in Zambia and Bahrain for many years in the profession and national government before ending his days at an insurance company in Shropshire.

Sharon Blake was appointed Treasurer in 2000. 

She has kept bees for more than 30 years mainly in Somerset where she is a vice president and a past treasurer. She normally has 20 colonies but in recent years EFB has been a problem in the county. 

She was the BBKA Spring Convention Treasurer and is perhaps better known as being editor of BBKA News for 30 years (1993-2023).

She worked in many roles in her career with Marks and Spencer where her final job was as a Regional Finance Manager. 

Alex Mattelaer was appointed to the BDI board in March 2013. He is a member of Hastings & Rother (Sussex) BKA, is  the Accounts Examiner for Sussex BKA and has kept bees since 1979.

A business process and technology specialist by trade, Alex has extensive experience in the development of systems in the insurance industry, and has worked for many years abroad. He is also a Trustee and Treasurer of the charity Equitable Water.

Mark Oakley was appointed to the BDI board in March 2016. He has kept bees for a number of years and is responsible for the BBKA, Lancashire and Ormskirk Beekeeping websites.  

He has recently retired from working in the field of IT security including at a major high street bank. Mark provides BDI with computer experience in general and IT security experience in particular.

John Pearce was appointed to the BDI board in March 2013. He has been involved with the Insurance needs of Beekeepers for over 15 years

He worked for a number of Insurance Brokers before setting up his own insurance brokerage business in 1999. He is a past President of his Rotary Club and Vice Chairman of his local Parish Council.

Anne Pike was appointed to the BDI board in September 2020. She has kept bees since 2006  in Somerset where she is an active member of the county’s BKA; she is President, is a past chair, is co-events officer and publicity officer.

She is a journalist, former BBC news producer and has run her own marketing and PR business for 30 years.  

She was appointed editor of the BBKA News in 2023.

Sean Stephenson was appointed as a non-executive Director in 2022; he is a Master Beekeeper, Chairman of Buckinghamshire BKA and a member of the BBKA Exam Board.

Sean is a retired Company Director, having run his own IT businesses since the late 1980s. Before joining BDI, Sean was involved with the EXA project and the implementation of the BBKA online exam system.

Lynfa Davies, Master Beekeeper, NDB, was appointed as a non-executive Director in 2024. She lives near Aberystwyth in mid Wales and has kept bees since about 2004 .
Lynfa has 30 colonies which she manages for honey production and for the joy of looking after bees! She raises her own queens and uses these to produce nucleus colonies and to replace her own stock. Lynfa regularly provides training courses to beekeepers, provides talks for associations and beekeeping events and writes articles for the beekeeping press.
Outside of beekeeping, Lynfa works for Menter a Busnes providing support and advice for farmers in Wales. She has written an online training resource called the Healthy Bees Academy which is funded by the Animal and Plant Health Agency through the Healthy Bees Plan 2030.