Charles Secrett

Charles Secrett is one of the UK's leading sustainability advocates.  Since the early 1980s, Charles has held a number of senior positions as CEO, Board member, government advisor and company consultant, working on a wide range of related economic, social and environmental issues to promote development that delivers for the economy, communities and nature.

He co-founded the business sustainability consultancy, the Robertsbridge Group, who specialize in helping companies develop robust sustainability, multi-stakeholder and supply chain strategies to improve their business performance.  He has advised corporate clients, including Interserve, Unilever, Asia Pulp and Paper, Heathrow plc, and Cargill Truvia, amongst others.  Recently, he has been accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Previously, Charles was head of Friends of the Earth in the UK for 10 years, Chair of the Board of Triodos Renewables for three terms, a Board member for the London Development Agency, and has been a special advisor on sustainability to the Mayor of London, as well as Conservative and Labour governments. He was a member of Shell Global plc External Review Committee, advising the Shell executive team on sustainability priorities.  He was the principle advisor to Base Cities, established to drive sustainable development in cities in the UK and EU.  He has held voluntary positions with a range of NGOs, including The Environmental Law Foundation, The Ecologist, London Wildlife Trust, and, most recently, Renewable World.

As director of Friends of the Earth, Charles led its transformation into becoming the UK’s leading campaign group for many years.  Between 1999-2001, he featured in every year of The Observer/Channel 4 ‘UK Power 300’ listings, with a highest rank as 36th most influential leader.

He has worked on a variety of environmental research and investigation projects in Brazil, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Indonesia – and experienced across a wide range of environmental issues, including climate change, biotechnology, sustainable city development, ‘Smart’ ITC technology, energy, forestry, agriculture, transport and resource management.

Charles Secrett is one of Britain's leading keynote speakers, comfortable talking about specific development topics as well as discussing the priorities of leadership, social responsibility and business strategy in our increasingly turbulent world.  With his deep familiarity with the worlds of campaigning NGOs, business behaviour and government policy-making, Charles is an ideal speaker to bring political, economic and social insights to the vexing question of how best to prosper.