“Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality.”
Martin Luther King Jr., 1967
Our Vision
Farming communities do well from the sale of their produce. Trading relationships celebrate and respect the people and land that produce our food. Farmers, businesses and consumers recognise their power to act together to create food systems that are healthy and sustainable for everyone and the Earth.
Social Business Network is focussed on working with partners who share a similar vision of practical ways to research, understand and improve the social, economic and environmental situation of small-scale growing communities through trade.
Non-executive directors
Albert Tucker
Albert is a leading figure in the fairtrade movement, community regeneration and sustainable development. A trusted advocate for small scale farmers in global trade and policy, he has led and built successful farmer to market social enterprises e.g. Cafedirect, Divine Chocolate, and Twin Trading. He is also Chair of Karma Cola Foundation, supporting communities in Sierra Leone and marketing Fairtrade organic premium soft drinks globally. He sees trade as a tool for social development and has been part of developing some of the key farmer to market chains supported by Fairtrade and other ethical supply chains and brands. He was worked with a range of commodities and production systems and chains – coffee, cocoa, honey, nuts, chocolate, bush peppers, soft drinks, Kola nuts.
Nicholas Hoskyns
Nicholas is an experienced practitioner and trader linking co-operatives and their products to market. Partnering with smallholder organisations at all levels and commercial and social institutions to grow development investments in communities, mainly but not solely in Nicaragua. He has led Etico, the Ethical Trading Company into a high performing business benefitting smallholder co-operatives and marketing to key US and European markets. He has developed and implemented strategies for smallholders to remain active and viable in the market and contributed to growing their communities’ social economy.
Duncan White
Duncan is a social entrepreneur with a focus on inclusive and pro-poor business projects. He had a pioneering role in the Fairtrade sector, where he led the successful launch of Fairtrade nuts and fresh fruit companies in the UK market. Duncan has extensive experience working on international projects, including periods living in Africa. He has founded ethical businesses in the energy and agritech sectors and is an experienced consultant, specialising in creating sound commercial models for businesses with purpose.
Executive directors
Rachel Wallace
Rachel specialises in multi-stakeholder supply chain relationships, strategic development projects and supporting farmers and brands to tell their stories. Her passion is to create more just and resilient food systems globally, with women having equal participation and power in decision-making. Rachel grew up on her family’s farm and experienced first hand the destruction of farming communities when agricultural supply chains are consolidated and prices maintained below the cost of production. This has significantly shaped her thinking and career. Rachel is now based back on the farm with her family, growing a forest food garden and organic fruit and veg.
Sergio Novas Tejero
Sergio is a result-oriented entrepreneurial professional with ample international experience on local and rural development, mostly in the United Nations system in Latin America, providing strategic planning, programme management and business development. He has facilitated the implementation of various local development programs fostering rural and cooperative development, food security, territorial strategic plans and local economic development.
Associates
Felicity Butler
Felicity is an agricultural and gender expert and social scientist with 20 years’ experience working in ethical trade with a special focus on gender, sustainability and innovation in agricultural value chains. For her doctorate, Felicity spent seven years conducting qualitative and participatory research with farming communities in Nicaragua in collaboration with The Body Shop. Her PhD focused on an innovative pricing pilot on women’s unpaid work. This has had a direct impact on both policy and business practices. Her strengths are in leadership to both educate and influence strategic and policy change; programme design and delivery, including training; and working collaboratively in complex global commercial partnerships. She has worked extensively in Latin America and Africa and is bilingual (English/Spanish).
Elen Carys Jones
Elen is an expert in sustainable global supply chains. She has experience across all sectors in global responsibility. From policy, strategy, advocacy, to research and training. Her strengths include sustainable certifications, procurement, decarbonisation and ethical investment. She works on the premise that sustainable development is balancing the economic, environmental, social and cultural needs of our planet. She currently leads the Climate Change Coffee Project, which supports 3,000+ farmers in Uganda and the development of a new social enterprise, supported by Welsh Government. Clients include WWF Cymru, The Wellbeing of Future Generations Commissioner, MEACCE and Fair Trade Wales. She recently supported Intracen with the EU's Fair and Ethical City Award 2020 as a multi-stakeholder technical committee member and rapporteur.