FORMER Farmers' Union of Wales deputy president Tom H Jones FRAgS has been elected a life member of the union in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the union and Welsh agriculture over many years.
Mr Jones fills the vacancy created by the death of influential past president Hugh Robert Môn Hughes OBE. Mr Jones of Maes Mawr, Llanfechell, Amlwch, was the union's deputy president in 1989-90 and vice president between 1984 and1989.
Mr Jones, a well-known dairy farmer, was awarded the FUW's internal award for services to Welsh agriculture in 2007.
He was educated at the University College of North Wales Bangor from 1968 to 1972, graduating with an honours degree in agriculture and agricultural economics.
From 1972 to 1975 he was a Milk Marketing Board (MMB) farm management consultant, working in East Anglia and Dyfed.
He was elected the MMB's regional member for North Wales in 1990. Three years later he was appointed a non-executive director of Dairy Crest plc, and was a member of the Audit Committee and chaired the Appointments Committee.
A past chairman of the Welsh Federation of Grassland Society, Mr Jones is also a former member of the Welsh Office Agriculture Advisory Panel and remains a member of the Welsh Assembly Government's Dairy Industry Working Group.
In February 2004, he was appointed a member of the Milk Development Council and in June the same year he was elected as a member of Anglesey County Council where he still represents the Llanfechell ward and holds the finance portfolio on the cabinet.
Announcing Mr Jones' selection at a meeting of the union's grand council, FUW life member Glyn Powell said: "Several names were put forward and after discussions on the amount of service they had given to the union we decided to recommend the election of Tom Jones." The recommendation was accepted unanimously by the union's grand council.
Responding to the appointment, Mr Jones said: "I am very grateful for this acknowledgment from my own kind of people and I consider it a great honour and privilege to be joining such an elite group."