Brianne West
Environmentalist and entrepreneur; Founder and CEO of Incrediballs; Founder and former CEO of Ethique.
Brianne is best known for founding Ethique, a full-range solid, plastic-free beauty brand. She formulated the first products in her kitchen in 2012 and today the business sells in 22 countries. Ethique has prevented more than 28 million plastic bottles from being made and was one of New Zealand’s founding B Corps.
Since stepping down as CEO of Ethique last year, Brianne has founded a new start-up called Incrediballs to eliminate plastic bottles from the drinks world. She runs a podcast called ‘Now, that’s what I call business’ and has created Business but Better, a free education hub.
Brianne was named a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy magazine in 2016, the 2019 EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year and One Young World’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020. She has also been named a Blake Leader and inducted into the Women Entrepreneur’s Hall of Fame in 2023. She is a board trustee of WWF-New Zealand.
Ken Webster
Visiting Professor, Cranfield University, UK; Fellow, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership; Head of Innovation, Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2010-18); DSc h.c. FRSA
Ken is one of the world’s leading thinkers in the circular economy. For eight years, he led innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the world’s leading circular economy network.
He is the author of The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows (2017) and co-author of The Wonderful Circles of Oz: A Circular Economy Story (2022), Sense and Sustainability (2008) and ABC&D Creating a Regenerative Circular Economy for All (2022). He also contributed to the Handbook of the Circular Economy (2023).
Ken was awarded a DSc from the University of Brighton in 2023.
Paul Johnston
Co-founder, Bean Supreme; Supply Chain and Distribution Manager, Life Health Foods
Paul was one of the first people to introduce tofu to New Zealand, when he founded Bean Supreme in 1984. Since then, Bean Supreme has been creating plant-based food such as tofu sausages, wholefood burgers and mince. The company joined Life Health Foods in 2006, together with Lisa’s Hummus & Dips, Naked Kitchen and Vegie Delights.
Paul is currently Supply Chain and Distribution Manager for Life Health Foods. He was previously a mentor of SBN’s Good Food Boost programme for up-and-coming food businesses. He is also on the FGC Supply Chain Working Group.
Barry Coates
Founder and CEO of Mindful Money
Barry has been active in sustainability since the Earth Summit in 1992, working in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally on fair trade, climate change and poverty. He is the founder of Mindful Money, a social enterprise shifting investment towards ethical investment and sustainability.
Previously he was head of Oxfam Aotearoa for a decade, initiated a sustainability programme at The University of Auckland and was briefly a Green Party MP. He has a Master's in Management from Yale University and won the Sustainability Champion Award in the 2016 NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards.
Jacqueline Farman
Co-Founder of The Purpose Business, former CEO of Colmar Brunton
Jacqueline has almost 30 years' experience in marketing, governance and leadership, working with leading New Zealand businesses and brands. She is co-founder of The Purpose Business, a strategy agency. Previously she was CEO of Colmar Brunton (now Kantar). While there, she created the Better Futures report, which has been monitoring Kiwi attitudes to sustainability for 15 years. Jacqueline is also chair of the Sustainable Business Network board.