Charles is a green entrepreneur and sustainability expert.
With a Political Science degree from Brown University in USA, Charles initially returned to South Africa to join the Independent Electoral Commission and helped organise the country’s first democratic elections and gained a role on the inaugural planning committee for President Nelson Mandela’s inauguration ceremony. Due to the subsequent international investment in South Africa, Charles took up a role as Marketing Manager of a new model of sustainability, Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
Post his MBA at Cranfield in the UK, he shifted to BP where he co-led the rebranding to beyond petroleum and then ran the renewable energy business under Lord John Browne. He went on to be Managing Director of Good Energy and then co-founder of SecondNature, which was one of the UK’s leading sustainability consultancies, recently acquired by Anthesis Group. He is also a co-founder of Gridserve Sustainable Energy (solar+batteries) before becoming an independent adviser to a portfolio of clients, including the UN for COP26 (and Bruce Jack Wines).
