director producer chief executive
Lamb was born in England, lived in India as a child and then grew up and was educated in the United Kingdom, taking a first degree in political science at Cambridge University and an Master of Philosophy at the Sussex Institute of Development Studies.
Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the United Kingdom Fairtrade Foundation from 2001-2012. She has lived over six years in India including time working with poor landless labourers and with a cooperative of low-caste "untouchable" farmers selling grapes. She joined the Fairtrade Foundation after two years with Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), the Fairtrade umbrella body with responsibility for Fairtrade standards globally, in Bonn, Germany.
Under her leadership, Fairtrade has become one of Britain"s most active grassroots social movements.
In 2008, sales of Fairtrade topped £700 million, with over 4,500 Fairtrade products available from cotton to coffee, face-cream to ice-cream. She had become convinced of the importance of Fairtrade while Head of Campaigns at the World Development Movement (Wavelength Division Multiplexing ).
While visiting Costa Rica with Wavelength Division Multiplexing in 1997 to investigate local banana plantations" use of the pesticide dibromochloropropane (DBCP), already banned in the United States for making farm-workers sterile, she met a woman called Maria whose husband had been exposed to DBCP while working on the plantations. The couple had had a baby boy born with severe developmental abnormalities who died after a short and distressful life.
In her book "Fighting The Banana Wars", Harriet Lamb describes how "As we sat there and she showed me pictures of her baby, rage bubbled up inside me because the companies knew of the dangers of this chemical but they ignored them.
I have never, ever forgotten Maria."
Previous campaigning activities include the United Kingdom Minimum Wage Campaign at the Low Pay Unit and for refugee rights. She has lived and travelled widely in the developing world. She was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2006 United Kingdom New Year"s Honours List for her contribution to Fairtrade.
Other accolades include Cosmopolitan Eco-Queen 2008 and Orange Businesswoman of the Year 2008.
