Operators, not observers.

Brianne West is a microbiologist, entrepreneur and internationally recognised founder best known for creating Ethique, the pioneering beauty brand that helped transform solid, plastic-free personal care from a niche idea into a global consumer category.

Starting in her home kitchen in Christchurch, Brianne built Ethique into an internationally distributed beauty business sold across New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Asia and more than 20 markets globally, through major retail, distribution and e-commerce channels.

Her experience spans virtually every part of building and scaling a consumer brand: product development and formulation, brand strategy, manufacturing, supply chain, retail, e-commerce, capital raising, international market entry, sustainability and organisational growth.

Brianne is also an international keynote and celebrity speaker, regularly speaking to corporate, entrepreneurial and leadership audiences about building disruptive brands, entrepreneurship, sustainability, innovation and using business as a force for positive change.

Her work has received significant international recognition. Brianne has been named one of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers, One Young World Entrepreneur of the Year, an Obama Foundation Leader, and one of WORTH magazine's Worthy 100 entrepreneurs creating global impact.

In New Zealand, she has been recognised as EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Women of Influence Business Enterprise winner, a BLAKE Leader, a Kea World Class New Zealand Award recipient, and has been inducted into the Women Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame.

The innovation behind Ethique has also received global recognition, including being named among TIME's Best Inventions, while the business became one of New Zealand's most visible examples of a purpose-led consumer company successfully achieving international scale.

Brianne now works with and invests in ambitious consumer founders building the next generation of brands. She also founded Business But Better, a free education platform providing practical resources to founders who want to build commercially successful businesses with positive social or environmental impact.

She is a Board Trustee of WWF-New Zealand and continues to work at the intersection of entrepreneurship, consumer innovation and environmental change.

Focus

Brand and product

Creating exceptional brands, differentiated products and propositions with the potential to define or disrupt categories.

International growth

Taking consumer brands beyond their home markets through retail, distribution, e-commerce, localisation and international partnerships.

Founder partnership

Working alongside founders on the strategic and commercial decisions that determine whether promising brands successfully scale.

Innovation and sustainability

Using science, product innovation and commercial thinking to build businesses capable of delivering both financial performance and meaningful impact.

Tristan has spent his career in governance, investment and operating roles, working with private consumer and industrial businesses through growth, transition and periods of underperformance.

His experience covers board and directorship roles, investment and transactions, transformation and complex commercial work, and international business development. He works closely with shareholders, boards and management teams to establish a clear commercial position and deliver the change required.

Focus

• Governance
• Investment and transactions
• Transformation

Ella's particular strength is the combination of brand, commercial execution and operational general management. She has worked inside a New Zealand consumer business as it moved from entrepreneurial scale into a sophisticated international organisation, giving her first-hand experience of the challenges growing consumer brands encounter: entering new markets, scaling retail distribution, holding brand consistency internationally, managing different consumer and channel dynamics, coordinating geographically dispersed teams and balancing commercial growth with a strong underlying purpose.

Her Ethique experience means she brings considerably more than conventional marketing capability. She understands how product, brand, retail, people, supply, customer experience and commercial performance intersect when a consumer brand is growing across multiple markets. That makes her particularly effective in businesses that need someone who can operate between strategy and execution: understanding what the business is trying to achieve, converting those objectives into clear priorities, bringing the right people together and making sure the work is actually delivered.

Focus

• Brand and commercial execution
• Operational general management
• International growth