About us
Meet our leadership team
Rosanne Gray, CEO
Rosanne most recently comes from the Shell Foundation, where she worked to bring development ventures to scale, creating financially sustainable solutions to global challenges. She built her business and marketing acumen working for Shell’s commercial operations in Europe and Africa. With Shell Foundation, she mastered the intricacies of growing businesses in the development arena across the globe, with a specific focus on sustainable cotton in recent years.
Susan Macdonald, Business Development Manager
Susan has extensive experience in Commercial and Business Management in the clothing and fashion supply chain across multiple product categories, working with major high street retailers and brands in the UK and EU. Susan’s career has spanned the whole product life cycle from product design through to delivery. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the needs and requirements of the supply chain.
Thomas Green, Finance Manager
Tom brings with him a broad range of experience from his eight years on the Senior Management team of a leading technology start-up company, having helped navigate the challenges of rapid growth to a successful exit in 2010 after their sale to a NYSE listed company. Tom is a Chartered Management Accountant with an excellent understanding of market development as well as the technology sector and its wider applications, having worked in a variety of roles from Finance to Product Development.
Sumit Garg, Value Chain Manager – South Asia
Sumit has a B.Tech in Textiles and has experience of industry and consultancy in the textile and apparel industry. His career comprises fabric production, fabric marketing and management consulting. Working in one of India’s leading textile and apparel consulting group, he has been involved in various strategy development projects for Textile and Apparel industries in India and globally. In addition to this, his connection to cotton trading and ginning family businesses give him a thorough understanding of farm dynamics.
Frank Wei, Value Chain Manager – China
Frank has a degree in Textile Engineering and Economics, with more than 15 years industry experience in technical and commercial roles. Having worked in both local and international textile and apparel companies in China he has a thorough understanding of value chains from finished garment back to farm.
Hardeep Desai, Senior Farm Services Manager - South Asia
A development professional, Hardeep has spent 9 years working on Water & Sanitation, Decent work, Tribal Development, Education and Agriculture with NGOs, Government Organisations and the UN. Prior to joining CottonConnect Hardeep worked on assignments for the UN, WASMO (State level Water And Sanitation Mission promoted by Government of Gujarat) and BAIF (NGO working towards sustainable livelihoods). Hardeep is committed to contributing to the sustainable cotton space with a special focus on decent work.
Wenxiang Liu, Farm Services Manager - China
Wenxiang has extensive experience in the private and governmental sectors, and knowledge of agricultural industry issues affecting businesses, solving sustainable development issues through business approaches and linking farmers to markets. Prior to joining CottonConnect Wenxiang worked for UNDP, ITC (CIDA’s Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets Project) and the Chinese Government. Wenxiang is dedicated to scaling up best practices amongst cotton farms and bringing real benefits and sustainability to cotton farmers and the Chinese cotton industry as a whole.
Anna Karlsson, Sustainable Development Manager
Anna has a background in conservation, and has worked within the not for profit sector as a researcher and with global rainforest conservation and development charities for the past 8 years. She is bringing her experience in sustainable development, conservation, communication and project management to the CottonConnect team.
CottonConnect Impact
By 2015 we aim to increase the land under more sustainable cotton cultivation practices by:
CottonConnect Impact
By 2015 we aim to aid the supply chain in the production of more sustainable fibre for:
500,000 GARMENTS
CottonConnect Impact
By 2015 we aim to positively affect the lives and livelihoods of more than:
500,000 FARMERS
Latest news
December 2012 - Bringing cotton products to life for John Lewis’ customers
John Lewis has this month launched a bath mat range made using more sustainable cotton from their very first Foundation cotton project in Gujarat, India. The project, developed and implemented by CottonConnect, is funded and supported by the John Lewis Foundation. Read more.
December 2012 - Building sustainability within your supply chain
With uncertainty of price and of availability of raw materials, it is ever more important to integrate sustainability into the supply chain. CottonConnect helps you engage within your supply chains. Read more.
October 2012 - Navigating the supply chain with less water
It can take around 2,600 litres to produce 1 t-shirt. We address water use efficiency amongst cotton farmers and this includes our recent farmer training on irrigation systems. Read more.
Philip Chamberlain
Head of Sustainable Business Development at C&A