Partners & Key Personnel

Phil's interests involve all aspects of cattle work in particular herd health management, nutrition and lameness control. As a founding director of RAFT Solutions, Phil is principally interested in livestock skills development and is very active in farm training initiatives and knowledge exchange. This training interest led to the establishment of the national ‘FarmSkills’ programme delivered by XLVets in the UK.

Phil has provided technical input for a variety of industry bodies including pharmaceutical companies, milk recording organisations, milk and meat processors, feed companies and the AHDB and has contributed across a wide range of the farming press. He holds the RCVS Certificate in Cattle Health and Reproduction, a Diploma in Ruminant nutrition from Harper Adams University College and is a licenced Category 1 foot trimmer.

Ian graduated from Cambridge University Vet School in 2003 and initially worked in mixed practice in Thirsk. He then chose to specialise in small animal care, moving to the PDSA in the North East of England. Ian became the Senior Veterinary Surgeon at the PDSA's Sunderland hospital and enjoyed three happy years at the helm. Ian joined the small animal team at Bishopton Veterinary Group in 2011 and became a partner in 2014.

Mark was born and bred in North Yorkshire, growing up on a mixed livestock/arable farm. He qualified from Liverpool Vet School in 2006 and joined Bishopton straight from university having seen practice there. After 3 years in practice at Bishopton Mark spent a year in New Zealand to widen his knowledge and experience of block calving and grass-based systems. Mark returned to Bishopton following his time in New Zealand and became a partner in 2018. Mark's main interests lie in herd health and cattle reproduction. He is advanced breeding director for RAFT Solutions Ltd, performing embryo work, bull fertility assessments and semen collections. He leads the SemenRate laboratory at RAFT, and was awarded a Master in Veterinary Medicine (MVM) for work looking at AI in cattle and objective semen analysis.  

Neil joined Bishopton Veterinary Group in July 2007 after graduating from Liverpool University. An upbringing on a dairy and sheep farm in Lancashire played a large role in him deciding to specialise in farm animal work. 

Katie ‘Fitz’ graduated from Nottingham Vet School in 2012 and joined the team at Bishopton. After a three year stint at the practice she got itchy feet and took some opportunities to gain different experiences through time in farm practice in Lancashire, Derbyshire and back at the University of Nottingham teaching final year vet students. The call of God’s own country was too strong and Katie returned to Bishopton in 2020. Katie's main interests are calf health, cattle housing and mastitis and her time in the peak district has given her a real appreciation of working with beef and sheep enterprises.

Rachael graduated from Glasgow University in 1998. She started her career in a small animal practice in Melton Mowbray, before moving to Sutton Coldfield where she became Clinical Manager for a group of seven small animal practices across the Midlands. In 2010, Rachael gained her RCVS certificate in Small Animal Practice. She moved to North Yorkshire with her family in 2014 to join the Bishopton team. 

Neil graduated from The RVC, London in 2010 and went on to complete an internship at Minster Equine Hospital near York. After spending just under a year working in first opinion equine practice he joined Mark Johnston Racing becoming one of two vets in charge of all the veterinary care for 250+ racing TBs. It is during the 7.5 years spent there that his passion for the sport of racing grew and along with his wife and now fellow colleague, Lucy, Neil has successfully gone on to train point to point and National Hunt racehorse winners, with hopefully many more to come

Claire started at Bishopton Vets in 2000 as a trainee nurse, and has been Head Nurse since 2007. She looks after the clinical and practice standards across all of surgeries. 

Sue has had a career in finance for over 30 years and has been working at Bishopton since 2015.