robinmurray

For many years I have been actively involved in the social economy, within social enterprise on the one hand, and different spheres of government and public policy on the other.

I am an industrial economist. I was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and did my masters at the London School of Economics.  I then joined the London Business School, where I lectured in Economics, and then moved to the Institute of Development Studies, the national centre for the study and teaching of development at the University of Sussex, where I was a Fellow for many years.

During this time I acted as a consultant on industrial and development issues to a wide range of governments, and served as Director of Industry in the Greater London Council in the 1980s and as Director of Community Economic Development in the Government of Ontario in the 1990s.

This work led me to the conclusion that there was a major role that could be played in achieving social goals by mission driven third sector companies. In the field of development I co-founded Twin and Twin Trading in 1985. Twin works with existing farmers co-operatives, and helps establishes new ones, while Twin Trading imports and sells their products in the UK. They have in turn established producer co-owned branding companies, in coffee, chocolate, fresh fruit and nuts. Together with their partners, this group of companies (of which I currently chair two and am a board member of a further three) now has a turnover of £90 million, and acts as a trading and marketing arm for some 300,000 small farmers.

In parallel I have also developed a range of new ventures in the environmental field. My interest here is in the economy of distributed systems, and their potential for environmental and social sustainability. I co-founded the environmental partnership Ecologika, whose members work in the fields of waste, energy, transport, food and health. As a group they played a leading role in the re-direction of UK waste policy between 1996 and 2002, including new social venture formation, and between 2003 and 2007 worked with the Deputy Mayor of London to establish the London Climate Change Agency, and a London-wide Green Homes concierge service.

From 2004-5 I was seconded to the Design Council as Director of RED, its innovation unit, where I led the team working on new forms of health care, particularly in the areas of chronic disease management and public health.