Greg Valerio MBE

Greg Valerio is an award winning activist with a background in human rights, anti poverty and environmental advocacy. He is an author, public speaker and campaigner. In 1991 aged 24 Greg started CRED a development education network on the south coast of England. In 1996 Greg branched out and started CRED Jewellery a pioneering fine jewellery company with a mission to make it 'culturally unacceptable to buy a piece of jewellery that is not independently certified as socially and environmentally responsible'. Some of the highlights of his career with CRED was the introduction in 2004 of certified green gold wedding rings to the UK, the publication in 2003 of 'Towards an Ethical Jewellery Business' and in 2009 the launch of the worlds first high street jewellery boutique that is fully traceable and recycled across all its jewellery collections. In September 2009 Greg resigned his directorship of CRED Jewellery in order to pursue more non-commercial projects. In 2005 he became a founding board member of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM). He has been foundational to the international development of Fair Trade jewellery and traceable supply chains from mine to retail. Greg worked with the Fairtrade Labeling Organisation (FLO) and Fairtrade Foundation (UK) to prepare the UK and other international markets for the adoption of Fairtrade Gold in 2010. After a successful launch in February 2011, he is now working with African small scale mining communities assisting them to become Fairtrade certified on their gold production. He is one of the co-founders of Fair Jewelry Action and was the winner of The Observer Ethical Awards, campaigner of the year 2011. Greg's personal interests and practices are; enjoying his Triumph Bonneville, Sea Kyacking, researching and practicing indigenous Celtic Christian spirituality and living as simple a life as is possible given his love of Indian food.