Harriet Lamb

Harriet Lamb "has been Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation since 2001. She has guided the Foundation through a period of staggering growth, which has seen estimated sales of Fairtrade products in the UK increase from £30m in her first year to more than £700m in 2008. Sales have been increasing by over 40% year-on-year since 2002. The number of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark has grown from 80 to more than 4,500 licensed products. This enables some 7.5 million farmers and workers and their families across the world to participate in Fairtrade. A flourishing grassroots social movement has also grown across the UK. There are now almost 500 Fairtrade Towns – towns where a commitment to Fairtrade has been made by the council, shops and businesses – together with 100 Fairtrade universities and nearly 5,500 Fairtrade Places of Worship.

"Harriet came to the Fairtrade Foundation from Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) in Germany where she was Acting Director and Banana Co-ordinator. Before this, she worked as Head of Campaigns at the World Development Movement (WDM) and with other non-governmental organisations, always with an interest in international development issues.

"Harriet spent part of her childhood in India when her businessman father went to work there. Later as an adult, she returned to work with farmers in rural villages and landless labourer cooperatives. Harriet did her degree at Cambridge, and later studied for an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex. As well as travelling extensively in India, Harriet has travelled in Sri Lanka, Africa and Central America

"Harriet was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2006, in recognition of her work in building Fairtrade in the UK. In 2007, Harriet was awarded the prestigious title of Credit Suisse Outstanding Woman in Business, and, named eco queen at the Ultimate Women of the Year Awards by Cosmopolitan magazine and in 2009 she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Aston University, Birmingham."