Jo Fairley, the entrepreneur and co-founder behind Green & Black’s Chocolate will be the keynote speaker at the Isle of Man Sporting  & Dining Club event 29 October, 2009.

Green & Black’s is one of the best-known food brands, and is one of the very few to be feted both for its quality and for its ethical credentials. The chocolate is not only  delicious, it’s good for the planet – and for the people who produce it.  Green & Black’s Chocolate focuses on organic and fairtrade production based on a practical and viable blueprint for sustainability.

Jo has been “green” since 1972 when she got into trouble at school for putting bricks in loo cisterns to save water! Having left school with minimal qualifications, she started a career in journalism and soon became the UK’s youngest-ever magazine editor at 23.  She went on to become an environmental  columnist at The Times and  and co-presented a BskyB TV Show called Go For Green with David Bellamy.

She is Chair of The Soil Association’s Health Products Standards Committee, and helps to set the standards for organic and natural cosmetics in the UK, and is also “Matron” of the Women’s Environmental Network.

Jo created Green & Black’s with her husband Craig Sams, and together they wrote  a book Sweet Dreams, in which they tell  how their combined expertise in organic food, marketing, branding, integrity and ethics have helped grow and sustain Green & Black’s to a successful product.

John Wannenburgh of the Sporting & Dining Club said,  “Whilst Jo Fairley’s name may not be as instantly recognisable as that of her creation Green & Black’s, her entreprenerial spirit, business acumen and loyalty to her green roots have given us all a wonderful product to enjoy. Her story is one of David vs Goliath and her marketing skills single handedly changed how chocolate is sourced and sold.”

For more information contact John on 07624  49 57 49 or at  john(at) sportinganddiningclub(dot)com or see www.sportinganddiningclub.com

Posted August 18th, 2009 by sherrilynne No Comments » This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 06:08 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.