Helen Dickinson OBE

Chief Executive, BRC

Helen leads the team and sets the strategic direction of the BRC. She joined in January 2013 and has been working with retailers for over 25 years. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for Services to Retail.

Helen is passionate about diversity and inclusion in retail, acting as the BRC’s Social Mobility Commission ambassador; participating in the Timewise Innovation Unit, looking to support more flexibility in jobs, particularly at senior levels; supporting the Everywoman Retail Ambassadors Programme; and having previously been the Chair of Working Chance, a charity helping women offenders find employment.

Helen believes retail can make a strong contribution to communities, and is also on the advisory board for Pennies, a charity which offers digital charity boxes to businesses. Helen was previously UK Head of Retail at KPMG, driving and developing the retail practice and leading relationships and audits for many clients.

Marcus Hartmann

Regional Head of Public Affairs and Sustainability, H&M

Joined H&M in 2022 as Regional Head of Public Affairs & Sustainability for North Europe. Marcus is a leader with an outside-in perspective skilled in public affairs, sustainability, PR, and media management. Marcus' career is built from a variety of roles and industries within communications and sustainability such as Chief of staff at the Swedish government, Communications & Marketing Director at Teracom, and Nordics Corporate and Government Affairs Lead at Mondelez International.

Mark Sumner

Programme Lead for Textiles, WRAP

Mark Sumner is the Programme Lead for WRAP’s activities to improve the sustainability of Textiles. His remit includes developing the strategy for Textiles 2030, the UK industry’s initiative to reduce GHG emissions and water footprint, and to create the pathway to a circular textile system. He is also involved in WRAP’s growing international Textiles work.

Mark has worked in the textiles and clothing industry for over 25 years. He has a PhD in Textile Engineering, and spent over 15 years working in product development, supply chain management and sustainability for the UK’s largest retailer. He also spent 10 years at the University of Leeds as a Sustainable Fashion lecture completing research in a wide range of specialisms including consumer behaviour, modern slavery, microfibres and garment durability.

Throughout his work in Textiles he has focussed on understanding the system dynamics of the textile and clothing industries to ensure solutions are sustainable and reflect stakeholder needs, and incorporate key frameworks such as the UN SDGs and Just Transitions principles.

Philip Townsend

Senior Technical Manager - Environmental Sustainability, Ethical Trade

For the last 4 years, Philip has worked as the Environmental Sustainability Manager at Primark leading on Biodiversity Restoration, Water Stewardship, Chemical Management and Raw Materials.

Philip works across multiple projects and initiatives, driving change and formulating policy and strategy and work collaboratively with NGOs , other brands & retailers, academia and other interested stakeholders.

Philip has a lifelong passion in the natural world, and has worked in wildlife conservation with various conservation charities for over 15 years – including practical habitat management and biodiversity surveying. He is currently Reserve Warden at one of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s (BBOWT) chalk grassland and woodland reserves in the Chilterns.

Emma Thomson

Corporate Performance Research Workstream Lead, Global Canopy

Emma leads the Research workstream of Global Canopy's Corporate Performance programme, overseeing our research bringing great accountability and guidance to the companies and financial institutions in forest-risk commodity supply chains. This includes the development of our technical methodologies and assessment frameworks used in the Forest 500, Forest IQ and DEFT, guidance for the finance sector for our Deforestation-free Finance project, and the creation of our original assessment data embedded in Forest 500 and Forest IQ. Emma has worked at Global Canopy since 2019, and also represents Global Canopy in several NGO coalitions and partnerships. 

Before joining Global Canopy, Emma worked on corporate social responsibility and environmental coordination. Emma holds a BSc in Geography from Durham University, and an MSc in Global Environment, Politics, and Society from the University of Edinburgh.

Miranda Beckett

Project Manager, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Miranda Beckett is Project Manager within the Fashion Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation – working with businesses, governments and NGOs to fundamentally rethink the way products are designed, made, and used to create a resilient and thriving fashion industry.

Currently, Miranda oversees The Fashion ReModel, a demonstration project involving leading brands from across high-end, activewear, retailers, mid-range and high-street. It aims to identify solutions and unlock barriers to scale circular business models and begin to decouple revenue from production. Prior to joining the Foundation, Miranda worked in strategy and transformation roles within management consulting and NGOs.

Lee Kenny

News Editor, Drapers

Lee Kenny has worked as a reporter, feature writer and news editor in the UK, China and New Zealand. He began his career as a reporter in the West Midlands and worked at the Walsall Advertiser, Sutton Coldfield Observer and Birmingham Evening Mail.

He spent 10 years teaching journalism, film and documentary, most recently at the Centre for Journalism at University of Kent. He also spent five years living in Christchurch, New Zealand, working for Stuff, the country’s largest news organisation. He was education reporter but also reported extensively on Antarctica.

In 2020, he was a finalist for news story of the year in the New Zealand Media Awards. Before joining Drapers he was an assistant news editor at the Daily Express.  

Rachel Singer

Circular Economy Advisor, ReLondon

Rachel Singer is a Circular Economy Advisor at ReLondon and leads on textiles and electricals sector-based work.

In 2023, Rachel helped to deliver ReLondon's London’s fashion footprint report which links textile material flows with their associated carbon emissions across London’s supply chain, and she is now working with the Mayor of London and London boroughs to develop a pan-London action plan for fashion.

Prior to her role at ReLondon, Rachel contributed to a number of other research projects related to cities, sustainability and the built environment.

Gerrard Fisher

Co-founder, WEFT

Gerrard is co-founder at WEFT, a new business created from the successful EPR Sandbox project that was operated by QSA Partners and supported by the British Retail Consortium, the UK Fashion and Textiles Association and the British Fashion Council. WEFT is on a mission to drive a fair and equitable EPR fee system for the international fashion and textiles industry through real product data analysis.

Gerrard is also an expert in circular business model design and development, and advises governments on ecodesign and sustainability.

Sue Fairley

Head of ESG, New Look

Sue Fairley, Head of ESG at New Look,  leads the Sustainability, Sourcing and Quality Teams at New Look, and is responsible for New Look's Sustainability Strategy.

Sue has worked in UK Fashion retail and brand businesses for over 35 years, and has been with New Look for a total of 10 years. She has a lot of knowledge in how we make and source our products and understands the value chain well. This helps her guide and support New Look their partners and broader sector efforts to reduce their impacts on people and the planet.

New Look, Sue and her team are involved in several sector wide initiatives that aim to lower impacts and promote circular business models. New Look were happy to have submitted Science Based Targets this year, with full business participation in developing our plan to achieve decarbonisation.

Here is the link to New Look's Sustainability Strategy and Reporting.  

Sophie De Salis

Sustainability Policy Adviser, BRC

Sophie De Salis is a Sustainability Policy Adviser at the British Retail Consortium, the go-to Trade Association for British Retail with the largest retailers in the UK in membership.

Her work cuts across key areas of sustainability: from ethical labour and responsible sourcing to food waste and circular fashion. In her role, she engages and leads retailers on the latest policy developments, reactive issues and sustainable initiatives, as well as ongoing communication with government on the most pressing issues for retail.