Episode 24
Episode 24 From Tanks to Tractors with Jeremy Gibbs and Will Foster
In this episode Chris Biddle talks to two people with fascinating accounts on how ex service personnel find fulfilling careers in agriculture after leaving the services.
After training at Sparsholt Agricultural College in Hampshire and Harper Adams University, Jeremy Gibbs joined John Deere where he worked in both the agricultural and turf machinery divisions based in the UK and Germany. After several roles in training and product management, he left Deere after almost 10 years and two years ago set up Forces Farming which acts a liaison between service personnel leaving the forces and job opportunities in the agricultural sector
Will Foster spent 23 years in Army, most recently as a Technical Trainer on tanks and other armoured vehicles based at the British Army’s Centre for Excellence for fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset. On leaving the Forces at the age of 39 he decided to rekindle his childhood passions for toy soldiers and tractors. He met colleagues who told him that agricultural engineering was ‘cool', and last year he gained a post as a service technician working for leading AGCO dealership, Chandlers Farm Equipment.
