Jo Fairley

Co-founder of the best-selling chocolate brand Green and Blacks, Jo Fairley developed a brand that captured people’s imagination and earned a Fairtrade mark. As a keynote speaker, she talks about the importance of corporate responsibility, harnessing the power of publicity, and being prepared to work harder than you ever thought possible.

Co-founder of Green & Black's, Jo Fairley is an inspirational keynote speaker .  With her background in journalism and the brand's astonishing success, Jo speaks on varied topics including entrepreneurism, corporate social responsibility, marketing and branding.

In 1991, Jo Fairley co-founded the pioneering organic chocolate company Green & Black’s (with her husband Craig Sams), which has now gone on to be ‘bigger than Marmite’ (in sales terms) and ‘cooler than Prada’ (according to two Coolbrands surveys).  In 2005, the brand was sold to Cadbury’s, but Jo remains in an ambassadorial role, travelling the world as the brand grows internationally in countries including the US and Australia.  In 2008, Jo and Craig collaborated on Sweet Dreams: The Story of Green & Black’s.

Jo left school at 16 (with six ‘O’ Levels), by the age of 23 was the youngest-ever magazine editor in the UK, editing first Look Now and then Honey Magazine. Jo now runs Judges Bakery - an organic one-stop shop - and The Wellington Centre, an 11-room ‘boutique’ wellbeing centre, in her home town of Hastings.  She continues to juggle this with her writing career.

Jo is a Contributing Editor to the Mail on Sunday’s YOU Magazine, as well as to a wide range of publications including the forthcoming National Geographic Green.

She is the co-author (with Sarah Stacey) of the bestselling Beauty Bible series of books, the world’s bestselling beauty books, including:  The Beauty Bible, Feel Fab Forever:  The Anti-Ageing Health & Beauty Bible, The 21st Century Beauty Bible, The Handbag Beauty Bible and most recently The Green Beauty Bible, which combines her ‘green’ expertise with her insights into the beauty world.  She is also author of The Ultimate Natural Beauty Book (all these books published by Kyle Cathie).  Jo and Sarah’s website, www.beautybible.com , is among the most successful beauty websites in the UK, with 55,000 subscribers.

For eight years Jo chaired the Soil Association’s Health Products Standards Committee, helping to set the standards for organic and natural bodycare in the UK.  She is a ‘matron’ of the Women’s Environmental Network, runs makeover workshops for young women at Centrepoint and sits on the Human Rights Watch Film Festival committee.

Jo is in high demand on the speaker circuit telling the story of the brand, which is fêted both for its quality and ethical credentials, and about a chocolate which is not only wickedly delicious and luxurious, but is also good for the planet and for the people who produce it.  As well as the environmental and CSR issues, Jo also focuses on more traditional messages of marketing and branding along with growth and development in a demanding retail environment.

Speaking Topics

Co-founder of Green & Black's, Jo Fairley is an inspirational keynote speaker.

• Branding
• Sales and marketing
• CSR and environmental issues
• retail
• entrepreneur