Harriet lamb
Director
Fair Trade Foundation
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 just under £500m in 2007. The number of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark has grown from 80 to more than 4000. This has contributed to some 7 million farmers and workers in and their families across the world to participate in Fairtrade. A flourishing grassroots social movement has also grown across the UK. There are now more than 300 Fairtrade Towns - towns where a commitment to Fairtrade has been made by the council, shops and businesses - together with 60 Fairtrade universities and over 4,000 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 has travelled extensively in India, Sri Lanka, Africa and Central America. She lived in India for six years including time working with farmers in rural villages and landless labourer cooperatives. She also has an MPhil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex.
In 2008 Harriet's book 'Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles' was published through Ebury. The book is a fascinating story about the rise of Fairtrade and what that means for producers in the developing world.
She lives in south London with her partner and two children and can often be seen cycling around London. Harriet was awarded a CBE in the New Year's Honours List 2006, in recognition of her work in building Fairtrade in the UK.
