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’ (Coolbrands 2007/2008); in the Coolbrands Survey 2009, Green & Black’s was the only food brand in the top 20.
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 her husband Craig Sams collaborated on Sweet Dreams: The Story of Green & Black’s (Random House).
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: although she left school at 16 (with six ‘O’ Levels), by the age of 23 Jo was the youngest-ever magazine editor in the UK, editing first Look Now and then Honey Magazine. She is a Contributing Editor to the Mail on Sunday’s YOU Magazine, as well as to a very wide range of publications including the new 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 independent non-retail beauty websites in the UK, with 65,000 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.
Testimonials
"Jo your keynote address was inspiring, entertaining and intuitive. The feedback has been extremely positive, as your personable and engaging approach really captured the imagination of our audience. The combination of a great story and refreshing presentation style, that was both real and light hearted really struck a chord with our guests. Thank you for delivering your speech with such aplomb and grace, you would add another dimension to any event. Thank you."
"Jo provided an insightful and enlightening session about her experiences of building a fast growing organisation - highlighting the professional and personal challenges that she faced, and how she tackled them to get the desired outcome. The audience were fully engaged, and definately left the event with some 'food for thought'. The session completely met our criteria, and we got the results that we wanted."
"Jo was amazing and out of all the feedback forms we had back, she got 'excellent for each and every one of them'".
‘Jo met the brief and event objectives 100%. She handled everything with the up-most professionalism and managed to keep the client at ease through every phase of the project. The reaction was very positive, Jo successfully engaged with the media. Event feedback included, informative, well-balanced presentation and rich in relevant content.’
Beauty Seen PR (event for Jergens beauty range)
Jo did exactly what we wanted by rounding off the conference on a high, reminding the delegates of what it is we are all aiming to achieve and sending them off with a very positive message about business support and social impact. Seeing as Jo was our last speaker of the event, after a late event the night before, the audience could have been disengaged. However, she completely captivated the group with her story and she certainly received the biggest round of applause at the end of her session.’
National Federation of Enterprise Agencies
‘The event went very well indeed. 1 hour and 5 minutes of extended talk, audience gripped throughout, then a very good 25 minute discussion and questions.’
London Business Forum
‘Just to say, Jo was wonderful. She pitched her story perfectly for our audience, speaking eloquently and with immense passion. As people left they said how inspired they were by Jo’s story. Particularly, she was incredibly approachable and gave everyone an opportunity to ask her questions whilst visiting the workshop tables. She was also very enthusiastic about the event and venue which contributed enormously to the positive atmosphere.’
Event for major management consultancy group of women executives.
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 her husband Craig Sams collaborated on Sweet Dreams: The Story of Green & Black’s (Random House).
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: although she left school at 16 (with six ‘O’ Levels), by the age of 23 Jo was the youngest-ever magazine editor in the UK, editing first Look Now and then Honey Magazine. She is a Contributing Editor to the Mail on Sunday’s YOU Magazine, as well as to a very wide range of publications including the new 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 independent non-retail beauty websites in the UK, with 65,000 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.
Testimonials
"Jo your keynote address was inspiring, entertaining and intuitive. The feedback has been extremely positive, as your personable and engaging approach really captured the imagination of our audience. The combination of a great story and refreshing presentation style, that was both real and light hearted really struck a chord with our guests. Thank you for delivering your speech with such aplomb and grace, you would add another dimension to any event. Thank you."
"Jo provided an insightful and enlightening session about her experiences of building a fast growing organisation - highlighting the professional and personal challenges that she faced, and how she tackled them to get the desired outcome. The audience were fully engaged, and definately left the event with some 'food for thought'. The session completely met our criteria, and we got the results that we wanted."
"Jo was amazing and out of all the feedback forms we had back, she got 'excellent for each and every one of them'".
‘Jo met the brief and event objectives 100%. She handled everything with the up-most professionalism and managed to keep the client at ease through every phase of the project. The reaction was very positive, Jo successfully engaged with the media. Event feedback included, informative, well-balanced presentation and rich in relevant content.’
Beauty Seen PR (event for Jergens beauty range)
Jo did exactly what we wanted by rounding off the conference on a high, reminding the delegates of what it is we are all aiming to achieve and sending them off with a very positive message about business support and social impact. Seeing as Jo was our last speaker of the event, after a late event the night before, the audience could have been disengaged. However, she completely captivated the group with her story and she certainly received the biggest round of applause at the end of her session.’
National Federation of Enterprise Agencies
‘The event went very well indeed. 1 hour and 5 minutes of extended talk, audience gripped throughout, then a very good 25 minute discussion and questions.’
London Business Forum
‘Just to say, Jo was wonderful. She pitched her story perfectly for our audience, speaking eloquently and with immense passion. As people left they said how inspired they were by Jo’s story. Particularly, she was incredibly approachable and gave everyone an opportunity to ask her questions whilst visiting the workshop tables. She was also very enthusiastic about the event and venue which contributed enormously to the positive atmosphere.’
Event for major management consultancy group of women executives.
Co-founder of the organic chocolate company Green & Black’s, journalist and business speaker Jo Fairley is also the co-author of the bestselling Beauty Bible series of books.
With her background as a female entrepreneur and creator of Green & Black’s, Jo’s presentations deliver a real insight into how to create, launch and grow a brand. Green & Black’s was started with just £20,000 of her savings, and has grown into a brand worth £100 million worldwide in less than 20 years. Despite its widespread global availability, Green & Black’s has retained its luxury cachet: it is the only food brand featured in the UK’s CoolBrands Top 20.
From its inception, Green & Black’s has also been an ethical brand, sourcing cocoa direct from Third World farmers who are paid a fair price. Green & Black’s was the first brand to be awarded the UK Fairtrade Mark with Maya Gold (in 1994), and in 2011 announced that by the end of 2011, all the many bars and products in its chocolate portfolio will carry this certification.
Jo’s presentations can address how ethical issues are becoming more important to consumers (over £500 million worth of Fairtrade goods will be sold in the UK per year alone) and how working for a company with a strong CSR programme can boost team spirit and dedication. She talks about the many lessons learned along the path to business success, including the emotional aspect of building a brand and then ‘letting go’, when it’s sold on, as well as the importance of design, branding, PR and marketing. (Jo remains an ambassador for Green & Black’s.)
Jo Fairley has been in rapidly increasing demand as a speaker at conferences, entrepreneurial events, networking occasions and corporate engagements.
From its inception, Green & Black’s has also been an ethical brand, sourcing cocoa direct from Third World farmers who are paid a fair price. Green & Black’s was the first brand to be awarded the UK Fairtrade Mark with Maya Gold (in 1994), and in 2011 announced that by the end of 2011, all the many bars and products in its chocolate portfolio will carry this certification.
Jo’s presentations can address how ethical issues are becoming more important to consumers (over £500 million worth of Fairtrade goods will be sold in the UK per year alone) and how working for a company with a strong CSR programme can boost team spirit and dedication. She talks about the many lessons learned along the path to business success, including the emotional aspect of building a brand and then ‘letting go’, when it’s sold on, as well as the importance of design, branding, PR and marketing. (Jo remains an ambassador for Green & Black’s.)
Jo Fairley has been in rapidly increasing demand as a speaker at conferences, entrepreneurial events, networking occasions and corporate engagements.
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