The Trustees of The British Nutrition Foundation are searching for a new Chief Executive to lead the charity on its vision to ensure that everyone can access healthy, sustainable diets.

Professor Judy Buttriss has announced that she will be stepping down as Director General at the end of 2021 having first joined the Foundation as Science Director in 1998, after spending her early career in nutrition research at University of Surrey, UMIST and Guys Hospital and later at The Dairy Council.

Judy was appointed as Director General of the BNF in 2007 and has been instrumental in leading the Foundation's engagement with industry, Government and academia, including extensive work on the formation of the Academy of Nutrition Sciences which launched in October 2019. Judy is an extremely well-known figure in the nutrition science world and served as a member of the Government Office of Science's Food Research Partnership (2009-2015), chaired by Prof Sir John Beddington. She has advised numerous companies on nutrition and sustainability matters and has represented the BNF on various Government committees, including those that advised on the Eatwell Guide; '5-a-day' recommendations; nutrient profiling; School Food Standards and Defra's Family Food Survey. She instigated the relaunch of BNF's Nutrition Bulletin, with Blackwells, 20 years ago.

In addition to her roles at the BNF, Judy served as Honorary Secretary of the Nutrition Society from 1999-2005, helped develop and launch professional registration in nutrition and was elected Honorary Fellow in 2018. She was appointed as Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey in 2019 and has previously held various other visiting academic appointments, as well as sitting on many research council funding panels and the Government's new UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee.

The announcement follows on from the news earlier in the year that the Managing Director, Roy Ballam, has decided to leave the BNF in December 2021 to pursue new interests. Roy joined the BNF in 1995 after starting his career in teaching. During his 26 years at BNF, he has driven the work and built the reputation of the Foundation to become the UK's leading support body for school food education. He has played a pivotal role in the development of the BNF's Food – a fact of life education programme, which in the last year was used by over 500,000 teachers, downloading over 1.5 million resources, and has hosted numerous food and nutrition conferences and events for teachers across the UK. His work on education has helped establish national competences, frameworks and guidelines on the teaching of food and nutrition education in schools.

Professor Colin Dennis, Chair of the Board of Trustees, said: "The decision of both Judy and Roy to embark on new stages in their lives will mark a significant moment of change for the Foundation. Both have played an enormous role in shaping the British Nutrition Foundation into the respected body it is today. They are both well-known and highly respected figures in the nutrition world and their respective contributions to broadening the public's understanding of nutrition science is universally recognised. On behalf of the Board of Trustees I want to convey our sincere thanks to them both for their extensive service and wish them well in their future endeavours. We will now begin our search for a new Chief Executive to lead the Foundation forwards in pursuit of its vision to ensure that everyone can access healthy, sustainable diets. It is an extraordinarily exciting time for the food and nutrition sector, and we anticipate significant interest in the role."

Both Judy and Roy will continue in their current roles for the remainder of 2021 and Saxton Bampfylde has been appointed to assist with the search for a new Chief Executive for the Foundation.