Veganuary – the charity behind the month-long ‘try vegan in January’ campaign – has announced big changes to increase its impact, further revolutionise the British high street and spread its successful campaign overseas.
2019 saw the biggest ever Veganuary with 250,000 people registering to take part, and yet its founders have bigger aspirations and ambitions still. To help them realise these, Matthew Glover and Jane Land have appointed Ria Rehberg as CEO.
For six years, Berlin-based Rehberg worked as the Co-Executive Director at Animal Equality in Germany before taking on the role of Country Manager for the global ‘flash’ campaign, Million Dollar Vegan, which offered $1 million to charity if Pope Francis went vegan for Lent. Now, she has joined Veganuary and has plans for significant expansion and increased efficacy.
To support her, and to guide the charity as it grows, a range of trustees have been appointed. They are:
- Bradley Russell, an investment manager, entrepreneur and co-founder of Manchester Pig Save and the UK Save Movement. Bradley went vegan in 2014 and is a long-term supporter of Veganuary.
- Ciara Lynch is Chief Operating Officer at The Brilliant Club (an educational university access charity), where she oversees the charity’s Operations Division including Finance, HR, IT and Charity Governance. She became vegan after taking part in Veganuary 2018.
- Giles Fisher, Head of Category Trading at Waitrose. Giles was the driving force behind the first chilled vegan food bay in UK supermarket history. He was vegetarian for 31 years, before ‘upgrading’ to vegan more than a year ago.
- Jane Thurnell-Read, former university lecturer, now entrepreneur, philanthropist and inspirational speaker. Jane is long-time Veganuary supporter and became vegan after meeting the Veganuary founders.
- Marie Page, a digital and social media marketer whose expertise and advice the charity has long relied upon! Marie has been vegan since taking part in Veganuary 2017.
- Sagar Shah is a professional economist and has worked across the private, public and non-profit sectors on a range of issues including financial regulation and happiness economics. He has supported Veganuary in measuring its impact for animals and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions on dietary change.
- Seth Tibbott, Chairman and Founder of the family-owned Tofurky Company and its parent company, Turtle Island Foods. Seth has been a long-term supporter of the Veganuary campaign and is pleased to be waving the flag for us in the U.S.A.