Pollination appoints Dr. Helen Crowley to accelerate its global expansion

MEDIA RELEASE

25 November 2021

Pollination today announces that renowned sustainability leader Dr. Helen Crowley has been appointed as a Partner by the specialist climate change investment and advisory firm. Helen will spearhead the growth of the global climate advisory from the UK alongside fellow Partner at the firm, Gavin Templeton. She will support Pollination’s position as a trusted partner to corporates, investors and governments, ensuring the firm delivers pioneering and impact led climate and nature focused solutions for its clients.

Helen has spent 30 years working across the nexus of biodiversity conservation, nature-based solutions and corporate sustainability. Over the last decade she helped build and implement the sustainability strategy for the global luxury group, Kering SA which counts Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen among its stable of brands. She was involved in sector-wide initiatives such as the Fashion Pact and the ambitious Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) funded effort to transform the fashion sector through synergistic action on mitigating biodiversity loss, climate change and ocean pollution.

Prior to her role at Kering SA, Helen worked at the Wildlife Conservation Society focusing on conservation strategy, program development, market-based approaches and ‘bottom of the pyramid’ enterprise development. In this role she also worked alongside Governments to help establish pioneer REDD+ programs and design protected area networks in addition to providing technical advice to companies on their nature risk and opportunity.

Whilst on sabbatical in 2020 Helen was the Liu-Walton Fellow and Senior Advisor for Resilient Supply Chains at Conservation International and an advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Nature Action Agenda. She currently sits on the Boards of Textile Exchange and Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network and is an Ambassador for Nature for the London College of Fashion. She has Co-chaired Working Groups for the Task Force on Nature-related Risk Disclosure and the UN Fashion Charter for Climate, participates in the GEF’s Private Sector Advisory Group and is a member of the WEF’s Global Futures Council.

“We know what we need to do for Climate and Nature. It is now about how we act in a smart, effective and immediate way to pull the levers for broader system change. This takes new skills and bold thinking that draw on cross-disciplinary and cross-sector experience – something that is key to the unique value proposition of the impressive Pollination team –  I am excited to be part of that,” Dr. Crowley said.

Pollination Partner Gavin Templeton commented: “We are excited to draw on Helen’s broad sustainability experience and vision at Pollination. She will be responsible for providing senior counsel, working as part of a taskforce to challenge clients on their sustainability issues and supporting them to deliver real progress. She will help Pollination to think expansively and creatively, ensuring that we are well-positioned to play an even more vital and positive role in the years to come as a trusted partner to our clients.”

Tony O’Sullivan, Pollination’s Founding Partner said, “On behalf of all of us at Pollination it is an honour to welcome Dr. Helen Crowley as a Partner in the organisation. Her background in field and market-based conservation coupled with her strategic sustainability approach will enable us to achieve our key objective of accelerating the just transition to net zero and a nature-positive future.”