BOOKER TATE

The seed of this chapter of Mark’s life began during 1982 when Tate & Lyle, the UK sugar refiner, was a client of Alexander Proudfoot. Unusually for a consultant, Mark “fired” the client, explaining to the Chairman of Tate & Lyle (Neil Shaw) that the work must stop. Mark pointed out that none of his recommendations were being implemented but all his invoices were paid, and this was unsustainable.

Nine months later, Neil Shaw called Mark (who was by then living in New York) suggesting that he stop being a consultant and do a “proper job”. What? Mark asked. Tate and Lyle had responsibility for four sugar industries in Belize, Jamaica, Zambia and Swaziland. Tate & Lyle either needed to get out of the sector or make something more of it. With another chance to return among more native peoples, Mark accepted immediately this exciting challenge at the age of 29.

Not only was this one of the most rewarding parts of Mark’s career (together with the unique experience in Kiribati) but there was an expanded opportunity which Mark subsequently grasped. His intuition to accept the position was not misplaced.

The Booker company had been in sugar production since 1782, when three brothers bought a farm on the Demerara River in Guyana and shipped the light brown sugar called "Demerara" to Liverpool. A few years later in 1788, Tate & Lyle also began sugar production in the West Indies. Two centuries later, in 1983, as well as the four sugar industries managed by Tate & Lyle, Booker had responsibility for a different four: in Somalia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea.

The boards of both these 18th century British companies were persuaded to let Mark found a new company, Booker Tate, starting with each of their four sugar plantations and all the consultancy services provided to the sector.

Mark's vision was to provide a unique combination of leadership, management and financial support to the agricultural economies in the developing world. An ethical combination of leadership, engagement and empowerment, whilst respecting individual cultures, became his drive just as it had motivated him in Kiribati. Having a core network of 500 professionals with deep knowledge of soils, irrigation, crop pests and diseases, the tropical challenges in manufacture and distribution, project management and construction; the opening was there for Booker Tate to provide its expertise on a much wider scale. Support became possible for most tropical crops including tea, coffee, sisal, oil palm, forestry, cotton, vegetables and rice, as well as farming cattle, poultry and crocodiles. Later on, Booker Tate's knowledge of the countries where agricultural services were provided was diversified to support the development of other sectors including tourism.

The formula worked in any political environment as the company was offering leadership and management support rewarded by a modest fee for each tonne of the improvements in production. Mark believed that the land in the developing world belonged to the indigenous population and therefore Booker Tate did not seek to own any land. However, sometimes Booker Tate invested in a farm as a minority shareholder to show commitment. In countries, without a mixed economy, professional services could simply be provided without any equity contribution. This flexibility enabled Booker Tate to be welcome under any political system in the tropics. The company grew until it had responsibilities for over 90 plantations in the developing world, in addition to many other industries which were not agricultural.

The approach was a “win win” for the local economies. Once an industry received leadership support from Booker Tate, the extra confidence made it much easier to obtain finance to develop further the industry. The examples below illustrate how Booker Tate started a farm of 270 square miles in Ethiopia in 1989 having raised over $260 million from overseas; how taking responsibility for the management of Guysuco turned around the faltering economy of Guyana; as well as different approaches in Belize and Malaysia.