Encourage, reward and recognise sustainable Cornish businesses

Kim graduated from University College, Cardiff with joint honours in English and Economics, an academic grounding that played to his interest in narratives, people and business. After travelling and experience working in hospitality, he developed a career in publishing, progressing through the ranks in a number of commercial roles at Haymarket and other magazine publishers. Today Kim is also a member of and chairs, several business and education boards. He is a director of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, Chair of Cornwall Community Foundation, and has been a member of Truro & Penwith College Employment & Business Board, on the FEAST steering group and an advisory board member of Golden Tree Productions, Smartline and Cornwall Place Board. Kim was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall in 2019 serving on the King’s Award for Enterprise panel and the King’s Award for Voluntary Service group. He was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh in 2024 and given the bardic name Kannas Kann (Bright Messenger).

Gitty has a degree in Public Health Engineering from Tehran University and has settled in England since 1979, after gaining an M.Sc. in Occupational Medicine from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. After working for Cornwall Council she transferred to the Environment Agency (EA) in 1996 where she worked in waste planning, pollution prevention, waste minimisation, resource management and sustainable good practice. She recently retired after working as a Catchment Co-ordinator for the past 5 years in the Environment Agency (EA), where she worked closely with Flood Defence colleagues, landowners, SW Water, Cornwall Council and other interested parties on water management. Gitty has 37 years’ of experience and has a broad knowledge of environmental issues including Climate Change, Pollution Prevention, Sustainability, Waste and Resource Management, Environmental Legislation, Environmental Impact Assessments, Land Remediation and Management, Environmental Management Systems, Habitat Creation and Enhancement and Water Management. Gitty was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday 2010 Honours List “For services to the Recycling and Waste Industries in Cornwall”. As part of International Women’s Day in 2018, 2019 and 2020 Gitty was cited in the press as one of 60 inspirational and remarkable women who have made major contributions to Cornwall. She has worked closely with a range of Government Departments on both preventing and responding to the climate emergency and brings a focus on how we put people at the heart of that thinking. Gitty combines extensive regulatory experience with the ability to think creatively and strategically about the future and to engage others on that journey. She is very effective at networking and bringing people from all walks of life together.

Justin is a Senior Funding & Investment Manager working within the Environment Directorate of the West of England Combined Authority Justin also acts as the finance lead for the Department of Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) Local Net Zero Accelerator Pilots supporting Greater Manchester, West Midlands and York and North Yorkshire Combined Authorities. Justin has an extensive background in investment banking (capital markets and hedging infrastructure finance), education management, curriculum development, consultancy, social enterprise, and sector specialisms in renewable energy and environmental goods & services. Justin was born into an engineering and farming family in Cornwall and educated at a range of UK universities before working across the world in various roles before returning to his native Cornwall with the birth of his son. Justin is currently Chair of The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Climate Commission and a Director of South West Business Council, and he has previously served as an (Associate) Non-Executive Director of Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Chair of the Senior Executives Forum, a Special Advisor to The Office of the Third Sector in the Cameron-led coalition UK Government, the DEFRA representative of the South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC), Treasurer of Volunteer Cornwall and as a member of the Co-op’s National Member’s Council as well as a school governor for academies in both Devon & Cornwall in addition to serving on a number of other not-for-profit Boards aligned to his professional expertise.

Loic is a Cornwall Councillor (lead member for Environment and Climate Change) and Deputy Mayor of Truro, representing Tregolls Ward in Truro. He previously worked as a journalist and copy writer, and is now a singer songwriter and busker performing across Cornwall and beyond.