Madelyn Postman

That gave her pause for thought — and she often thinks back to his comment more than three decades later.

In the meantime, she graduated from Brown University with a double major, in visual Arts and with honours in Art History, lived and worked in Italy, and moved to the UK in 2000. In her working life, Madelyn has always focused on business objectives, be it connecting strategy with creativity in branding and design, or building the business case for sustainability.

With various design agencies and most recently as an individual, Madelyn has been a member of 1% for the Planet since 2008, donating 1% of turnover or income to environmental charities. She serves on its UK & Ireland Steering Committee, helping build membership and raise profile in the UK, as well as organising events and building the community.

She believes that businesses need to play a key role in creating an equitable and safe world and must take responsibility for their activities. Madelyn’s background is in branding and communications, working with a variety of purpose-led brands over the years. She shifted her focus wholly to sustainability after studying Business Sustainability Management at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in 2020.

You may have spied Madelyn on BBC News and BBC World, commenting on branding, business, and communications, and she lectures on sustainable fashion at the University of East London. She holds a BA from Brown University and speaks Italian fluently. In 2019 she received an honorary MBA from the University of West London’s Claude Littner Business School.

She is currently writing a book, Sixteen Stories, based on her family’s roots in California, Poland, Lithuania, and China.