The Board of Belu Water has today announced that Natalie Campbell will take over as Chief Executive on 1 March 2020.
Belu is one of the UK’s best-known Social Enterprises serving the UK hotel, restaurant, and catering sectors to fulfil their water requirements with the lowest carbon footprint possible. The business prides itself on living its ‘environment first’ principle setting best practice standards in the sector.
As of March 2019, the multi award-winning brand, and exclusive partner of WaterAid, announced that over £4m of profits have been invested in bringing clean water, decent toilets and hygiene education to the world’s poorest communities.
Campbell is an award-winning social entrepreneur, HarperCollins author and co-founder of A Very Good Company (AVGC), a global social innovation agency, that has worked with brands like Virgin Media, Marks and Spencer, W Hotels, the Guardian and Channel 4.
As a Non-Executive Director, she chaired the Nominet Trust and NCVYS. She was also on the board of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs for 10 years. She is currently a Civil Service Commissioner, board member of the Big Lottery Fund, OPDC and LEAP, the Mayor of London's economic action partnership.
Campbell said, ‘It is a career highlight to be joining Belu at such an exciting time for the business and the social enterprise movement more broadly. I have been an admirer from afar for the last 10 years; leading Belu into the next 10 - continuing purposeful growth and changing lives as a result - is a privilege and honour.
'The world needs more businesses that put the environment, human rights and sustainable practice at the core of their values and operations, I can't wait to get started’.
Matt King Belu Non- Executive Director, said, ‘After an extensive search to find the right new leader for Belu, we are thrilled that Natalie has accepted our offer to join this incredibly impactful organisation.
'This business has set an exemplar from an environmental perspective and delivered immense social impact over the last decade. We needed an inspirational leader to take us into the next decade, and in Natalie we have found one.
‘She was our stand-out candidate and is a natural fit to be our new chief storyteller and will be able to build on the strong partnerships that Belu already has in place. She is a great fit for the Belu values and in leading ‘A Very Good Company’ Natalie has already lived and demonstrated the belief that business can be a force for good.'
King continued, ‘Natalie takes over the reins of an innovative, successful and sustainable business that has delivered an incredible social impact and many ‘firsts’. To mention a few, Belu was the first to use 50% recycled PET (rPET) in all our product lines in 2012, the first to move all lines to 100% rPET in 2019, and launched ‘ethical glass’ to bring the lightest weight UK made glass for mineral water bottles to market since 2014.
'These initiatives, combined with our highly innovative Belu Filter Initiative bringing water filtration systems without charge to the UK’s restaurant, hotel and catering industries, have led Belu to build a reputation as a small business with a huge impact. In turn this has led Belu to a multitude of awards including A Queens Award for Innovation in 2019 and a Queens Award for Sustainable Development in 2017.
‘Belu has had an incredible decade under Karen’s leadership, and whilst we will miss Karen’s constant presence we know we have her on-going support and we are delighted Karen’s work in the sector will continue through her Vice Chair role at Social Enterprise UK.’
Tim WaterAid CEO said, ‘We are thrilled to welcome Natalie as the new Chief Executive of Belu and look forward to working together on our valued partnership to help transform lives across the world with clean water and decent toilets.
'With Natalie's vast experience of creating purposeful growth with businesses, Belu will continue to be a market leader and we are excited to see how our partnership will develop from the wonderful legacy left by Karen, for which we are very thankful.’
Karen Lynch, outgoing CEO, said, ‘After building Belu as a brand and a business I’m elated that we have found Natalie to take over. This is an incredible role and the business still has an immense amount of opportunity and positive impact to realise. I’ll remain a lifelong friend and supporter of Belu, and will be cheering Natalie through the next chapter.’
