Good Business Charter who we are feature image

Who are we?

The Good Business Charter is an initiative of the Good Business Foundation, a charity registered in England and Wales. The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and the TUC (Trades Union Congress) both have trustee representation on the board of the Good Business Foundation to ensure that the voices of business and employees are heard.

Our Core Team

Jenny Herrera

CEO

Shamim Eimaan

Accreditation Officer

Ellie Peatman

Communications Officer

Sam Agnew

Brand Manager and Member Support

Alex Smith

Member Recruitment Manager

Alistair Crane

Marketing Executive

Our History

The Good Business Foundation was established in Autumn 2019 to develop the Good Business Charter accreditation. It launched in February 2020 with Capita as our first member, joined by other founder members Deloitte, Brompton Bicycles, Richer Sounds and London City Airport. It quickly attracted more members including small businesses and charities until the coronavirus pandemic slowed its progress. In spite of the pandemic, St. James’s Place joined in June 2020 as the first FTSE100 member, and TSB joined as the first retail bank in August 2020.

In January 2021 Federation of Small Businesses and the Good Business Foundation collaborated on a streamlined version of the Good Business Charter that was promoted for organisations with up to 50 employees and led to increasing number of organisations joining the scheme, making it the largest accreditation scheme in the UK, measuring responsible business behaviour.

The vision was then to see the GBC promoted across all sectors in a particular town, city or region as something to aspire to and sign up to. At the end of June 2021, York became the first GBC City with the University of York becoming the first University to join and Aviva the first insurance company. You can read more about what we define as a GBC City in our blog post here.

The Chief Executive of the Good Business Foundation is Jenny Herrera, who is both a chartered accountant and experienced charity CEO, having built up two successful national charities from scratch, one supporting victims of anti-social behaviour and the other helping people in poverty.

Our Trustees

Simon Fox

Simon Fox, previously Chief Executive of Reach plc, the company that owns the Daily Mirror, Express and Star newspapers, is chairing the board of trustees.

John Foster

Our CBI trustee representative is John Foster, Director of Policy and Communications at the CBI.

Tim Sharp

Our TUC trustee representative is Tim Sharp who is a Senior Policy Officer with responsibility for its work on employment rights.

Miatta Fahnbulleh

Miatta Fahnbulleh, Chief Executive at the New Economics Foundation, a charity which seeks to transform the economy so it works for people and planet, is also a trustee.

Katherine Chapman

Katherine Chapman is Director of the Living Wage Foundation, and brings her considerable expertise in running an accreditation scheme to the board of trustees.

Julian Richer

The Good Business Charter was the idea of Julian Richer who is the initial funder and a trustee of the Good Business Foundation also.

Acknowledgements

The GBC is partnering with the Living Wage Foundation, the Ethical Trading Initiative and the Prompt Payment Code amongst others as part of its accreditation process as it prefers to work with respected, established operators in their respective fields.

The GBC team would like to thank Julie Abraham, Robert Bamforth, Alistair Crane, Lol Lecanu, David Robinson, George Turner, Scott Wood and Claudia Vernon for their help in setting up the Good Business Charter. We would also like to thank Jennie Colville, Kasia Gulyk Rutkowska and Hannah Winter from Capita, Alex Maitland from Oxfam, and Tim Coote and Martin Peters from Commotion for their help in the developing the GBC.

Photo of Julian Richer: Gerardo Jaconelli

Good Business Charter

Take the first step now and sign up with us today. If you receive accreditation to the GBC, membership will be FREE for the first year.

Click here to sign up

Our 10 components

Find out more about the ideals that make up the cornerstone of the Good Business Charter.
Read more>

Whistle-Blowing

Calling all employees, customers and suppliers.

If you have reason to believe that a GBC accredited organisation is not meeting its obligations, please let us know.

Click here to report