Categories: Best-selling Authors | Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility | Women's Spotlight | CEOS
Travels from New York, New York, USA
Freya Williams is the co-founder of OgilvyEarth, the North American CEO of Futerra, a global sustainability company, author of the best seller “Green Giants” and advisor to Coca Cola, the United Nations and Unilever on social responsibility.
Freya Williams specializes in helping leaders implement change within large, complex and siloed organizations where those skeptical of sustainability outnumber those who want to take a more progressive approach. Her achievements in pioneering initiatives include helping REI define its brand purpose; helping Target commit to a $15 an hour minimum wage for all employees; helping PVH develop its Forward Fashion strategy; and Hellmann’s transition to using free range eggs.
Freya Williams also masterminded the award-winning “Hopenhagen” campaign in support of the United Nations at the crucial COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, which recruited six million supporters within 60 days (70% of whom had never joined a climate movement before).
Combining her expertise in communications with hard data and an in-depth knowledge of how to make corporate responsibility and sustainability profitable, Freya Williams devises strategies that not only transform companies into leaders in sustainability but persuade key stakeholders to support these initiatives.
Freya Williams’ work with major global firms – including Google, Target, VF Corporation and Colgate Palmolive – and the tools and insights she employed are the subject of her book, “Green Giants: How Smart Companies Turn Sustainability into Billion-Dollar Businesses”.
Freya Williams’ work has been featured on NPR’s Marketplace, The Financial Times and Newsweek. Her work has also been awarded with a Cannes Lions for marketing excellence, a David Ogilvy award for innovation in market research and an Atticus Award for outstanding thought leadership. She was the co-founder of OgilvyEarth, the sustainability and CSR communications practice within leading global brand agency Ogilvy. Prior to that, Williams spent 10 years as a senior brand strategist, advising major global blue-chip clients as diverse as Dove, Goldman Sachs, Hershey, Kodak and American Express on their brand and marketing strategies.
Freya Williams is currently the CEO of Futerra North America. Futerra is an independent global change agency that helps unlock this opportunity. Dedicated to a positive vision of sustainability, Futerra combines technical issue expertise with outstanding creative communications to help clients drive change. Its mission is to make sustainability so desirable it becomes normal. Current clients include Danone, SAB Miller, Lancome, Kering, OVO Energy, AXA Insurance, the Forest Stewardship Council and Unilever.
