Our board
Abi Rushton
Abi has over 15 years experience working across clothing manufacture, retail and international sourcing roles as well as director level experience of international development work.
Abi lived and worked in Asia for several years developing supply chains and working directly with communities involved in these.
More recently, as part of the Tesco Clothing team, she has launched and managed Fairtrade, Organic and Recycled ranges helping to make sustainable fashion more accessible.
Abi is on the Steering Group for the DEFRA Sustainable Clothing Action Plan which aims to improve the sustainability of clothing sold across UK and in the supply chains that produce it.
Abi brings a unique combination of experience which enables her to implement business change whilst understanding the impact of this on businesses, individual workers and their communities.
Alice Gartland
Alice Gartland is a corporate lawyer with an academic and business background in relation to Asia. She has an MA Chinese and Business and has previously worked and studied in China. Alice has a particular interest in business development and corporate responsibility.
She has worked on a number of projects relating to business law and human rights, including research for an NGO working to promote worker’s rights and corporate accountability in the garment manufacturing industry in India. Her academic research has focussed on the role of knowledge transfer, organisational learning and cross cultural communication in foreign investment in China and the development of Asian brands in the UK.
She is a member of Advocates for International Development.
Alice will be assisting the Ethical Fashion Forum with its business development strategy, particularly in relation to China and organisational development.
Courtney Blackman
Courtney Blackman is a London-based entrepreneur working in the fashion industry. In 2006, she co-founded and currently serves as co-chairman of London’s Fashion Business Club: a group of fashion insiders helping to shape the business side of the industry.
She founded London’s Forward PR in 2004, and serves as the managing director. Forward PR is a press relations agency focused on fashion, jewellery, accessories, media, and special events, located in London’s Mayfair. Forward PR works with renowned labels from around the world and has successfully secured media coverage in hundreds of outlets on a global scale.
Courtney is also a regular blogger on Drapers. She is a British-American living primarily in London, with residences in Canada and Panama.
Judith Condor-Vidal
Judith is an associate member of the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) and director of Trading for Development. TFD’s work involves opening markets for Fair Trade producers and building support for Fair Trade across Europe.
Her concern is to make world trade fairer, giving pride of place to small scale producers.
Kirstin McIntosh
Kirstin has background in strategy and change management, and now works in the sustainability arena. She believes that business has huge potential to both improve people’s lives and minimise our environmental impact, if done thoughtfully.
The Australian concept of “A fair go” probably summarises her quite well. Kirstin has more than fifteen years’ business experience in Europe, Asia and Australia, and her formal qualifications are an MBA from IMD and a Bachelor of Commerce. She also has trustee experience at a charity which helps women advance their careers in the manual trades.
Orsola de Castro
Orsola started From Somewhere in 1997. It Is an award winning that addresses the issue of pre-consumer waste and reproducibility in recycling for the fashion industry.
In 2004 From Somewhere won the ‘Green Apple National Bronze Prize For Commerce and Industry’,in 2007 was shortlisted for the ‘UK Fashion Export Best Ethical Fashion Label’, and in 2008 it was runner up at the Observer Ethical awards. It also won both Designer of the Year and Innovation Re:use awards at the RE:Fashion Awards in 2008.
Together with her partner Filippo Ricci, Orsola started Estethica, the sustainable fashion area at London Fashion Week which she still curates and organises for the British Fashion Council.
Orsola is a regular lecturer for various universities including the Royal College of Art, Chelsea College of Art and Nottingham Trent as well as guest speaker at sustainable fashion events and summits in the UK and internationally.
Pamela Daniels
Pamela specialises in branding, publishing and strategic marketing. She has over 9 years of experience in Canada and Europe through a diversity of roles in the creative sector, including art director, graphic designer, project manager, team building and development in advertising, marketing and publishing.
As a founder and creative director for the Ethical Fashion Forum, Pamela has played a pivotal role in developing the branding and marketing strategy for EFF work and projects.
Pamela has launched and managed a series of creative projects and events for the EFF, including INNOVATION at the Hospital Club, a high profile party during London Fashion Week and celebration of some of the most cutting edge emerging sustainable design leaders. Pamela also devised and developed “Conscious Style Leaders” a publication profiling leading designers in the ethical fashion arena.
As well as her work with EFF, Pamela unites a pool of creative fashion designers to collaborate on her own REMADE fashion label, and contributes to a range of other initiatives such as MADE BY as a freelance consultant.
Sarah Ratty
Sarah Ratty was one of the first fashion designers to actively address sustainability. In the early 1990’s Sarah launched the pioneering “Conscious Earthwear” label, and has been working to address the environmental impact of the industry ever since. Her work has been exhibited at the V&A, Barbican, Crafts Council and toured with the British Council.
She set up the fashion label Ciel is 2006, an environmentally conscious fashion label with a festive party style, and a celebrity client list to match — including Cate Blanchett, Sienna Miller, and Zoe Ball.
Sarah is an eco design consultant and a member of the Soil Association Textile Advisory Committee since 2002; she has worked with PAN UK Organic Cotton Working Group 2002-2005,Traidcraft and AHF in 2006. Sarah is a Fellow of the RSA.
Sarah has been on the board of EFF since 2006, and plays a key role on fundraising.
Sindhu Venkatanarayanan
Sindhu Venkatanarayanan is founder of DeviDoll.com, the UK’s first online luxury ethical fashion and lifestyle boutique and design incubator.
She is also author of the ‘Curate Your Consumption’ blog, which articulates a wide range of issues in fashion, ethics and social entrepreneurship, has been asked to speak about the definition and importance of ethical fashion and has been involved with Estethica at London Fashion Week.
Sindhu holds degrees in Political Science, PPE and Public Policy; prior to setting up DeviDoll.com, she was an investment banker. Sindhu also serves on the UK Advisory Board of Room To Read, which builds schools and libraries for children in the most needy parts of the world.
