St David’s Poultry Team recently welcomed Lee Hounsell as Commercial Development Manager – a new role that will work with suppliers and clients to continue to drive innovation, efficiencies, and return on investment.
Lee says: “I started my career in livestock production early doors, creating a mini poultry and waterfowl hatching enterprise at the tender age of 14. After moving into the industry after college, much of my involvement was on the pullet and layer side in a range of roles, and at various levels, that gave me an incredibly broad understanding and first-hand experience of what is best practice and how to drive performance improvements. As I progressed, I was able to use the insights that each level of position gave me and how what I learned at each stage could be used to proactively protect bird welfare and help the birds achieve their genetic potential.
I also got the opportunity to work with and train people that were new to the industry. Seeing people go from having little to no knowledge to fully fledged and successful poultry professionals was incredibly rewarding and one of the most fulfilling parts of my role. At the same time, I formalised my own growing knowledge of production, with a number of externally accredited industry qualifications.”
Having got to the stage where Lee had a thorough understanding of the link between proactive flock management and improved performance/KPI’s he moved to a more technical role with a large pharmaceutical. In this role, he was able to have a direct impact on bird health and welfare by working with farmers and their vets on a proactive monitoring system for red mite. This monitoring system meant they had better objective insights to their red mite challenge and could therefore have a much more targeted approach to prevention and treatment.
Lee was subsequently promoted into a more commercial role and worked with numerous companies across the poultry industry. He also gained his NOAH Certificate of Animal Health (NCAH), which furthered his understanding and interest in poultry veterinary medicine and subsequently attained certification as one of the top students of 2025 in the NOAH 40th Anniversary event, held at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London.
Looking Ahead
Lee explains, “A big focus for me in my role at St David’s is to work with suppliers, existing and new, to continue to drive innovation, to improve flock health and welfare, that will in turn improve outcomes for our customers.
My emphasis will be on solutions that support St David’s preventative and innovative approach to animal health and give producers an improved return on investment, something that sits at the heart of St David’s approach. I’m delighted to have joined such an innovative and creative team to help achieve that.”
Sophie Bryars, Commercial Director, says, ” I have known and worked with Lee for several years and his knowledge of the poultry industry, combined with his commercial acumen, supports our focus on innovation and drive to make the poultry industry more sustainable and efficient. I’m delighted the he is now part of St David’s team and look forward to working more closely together.”