HJ

Hannah Jones

Earthshot Prize

Former CEO

Biography

Hannah Jones has spent her 30+ year career working at the forefront of sustainability, social justice and innovation. Her career began at BBC Radio before moving to a British charity producing pan European social action campaigns. Hannah joined the early “Corporate Responsibility” movement, as an advisor to Microsoft Europe on social impact programmes, then in 1998, as part of the newly formed Nike Corporate Responsibility team. After 6 years in EMEA, Hannah went on to become Nike’s first Chief Sustainability Officer. As CSO she stewarded the company’s work on labour rights, sustainability and social impact. A recipient of multiple awards, the work of her and her team at Nike has been covered in Harvard and Stanford Case Studies. In 2018 she founded Valiant Labs, Nike’s first digital incubator, bringing in entrepreneurs-in-residence and leveraging design thinking and lean start up methodologies to foster purpose-driven new businesses and alternative business models. In 2021, Hannah left Nike to become the first CEO of The Earthshot Prize, an initiative founded by the Prince of Wales, Prince William, with the goal of identifying, spotlighting and supporting sustainable innovations that if scaled, could change the world. In her 4-year tenure there, she grew The Earthshot Prize from an idea to a global annual prize that travelled the world, a rolling 12-month fellowship programmes for finalists, an annual week-long leadership programme for young change-makers, and a 2-sided marketplace, called Launchpad, connecting over 250 funders from across the capital stack to Earthshot solutions. The Earthshot Prize storytelling engine grew to reach over 400 million young people globally, the team raised over $100M in resources for solutions, and awarded £20M in awards, while growing an eco-system of partners - from over 20 Founding Partners to over 800 Global Alliance members all united by a shared vision of speeding solutions to scale. In April 2025, Hannah stepped down from The Earthshot Prize to ‘re-wild’ her life, get closer to nature and the ocean, tick off her bucket list of adventures, write and take her first ever sabbatical! Hannah has sat on the boards of Method and Ecover, and currently is on the board of Oatly.
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