11 inspiring people from 11 years of Escape: Charmian Love

When we first started Escape the City back in 2010, we had no idea how many incredibly inspiring people we'd meet along the way. We set out to help ambitious and talented people to do work that matters to them and the world, and through the years we've encountered thousands of people who demonstrate that it's possible to do something different with your career and make a difference in the process. While it was hard to choose just 11 stories, here we've outlined a few of the people who we come back to regularly when we're looking for a bit of inspiration ourselves.

We hope you enjoy reading their stories and that they can be an inspiration to you, too!

Charmian Love - The force for good

About Charmian:

Charmian, a proud Canadian, began her career is the insurance industry before deciding that the life of an entrepreneur was for her, successfully applying for a place on Harvard Business School’s MBA programme. After graduation, Charmian briefly forayed into the corporate consulting career as a Consultant at BCG before setting out on her own.

Charmian left the corporate world to co-found Volans, a London-based change agency working with global companies, innovators, government actors and civil society to help them move beyond incremental change to address systemic challenges. An important milestone for Volans was certified as a B Corporation - they were the second to do so in the UK. Charmian was so inspired by the mission and process that she decided to dedicate time to work with the co-founder of another early B Corp, James Perry, to support the creation of an active community of B Corps. Together they set up B Lab UK.

The Bcorp movement in the UK has grown from an initial 50 founding B corps in 2015, to more than 334 B corps in 2021 including the likes of the Jamie Oliver Group, Danone UK, and Innocent Drinks. Charmian’s hard work and dedication to the belief that business can and should be a force for good in society, and her having founded the Bcorp movement in the UK, is inspiring and motivating many businesses and individuals to be the change they wish to see in the world. 

Charmian is working to accelerate the transition to a more regenerative, circular and inclusive economy through her work as a Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University. Charmian is guiding the development of the Circular Economy Lab and designed and teaches MBA and Executive MBA courses on this subject. She has also been involved in shaping the adoption of the circular economy in London through her role on the Investment Committee of the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB).

In addition to her work on the Regenerative and Circular Economy at Oxford, Charmian also teaches an Executive MBA course on Systempreneurship: Innovating for Impact. Linked to this focus on system change, Charmian is actively engaged in how we might mobilise a 'Movement of Movements' – connecting people and organisations who share a goal relating to the need for deep and transformational levels of change in our economy.

Charmian is the Chair of B Lab UK, where she supports the growth of B Corps across the UK (and beyond) and is Co-Chair of B Lab’s Global Climate Taskforce where she is a member of the UNFCCC’s Marrakesh Partnership.

In addition to the many other titles and accolades, Charmian is a member of the Sustainability Advisory Council at the ICAEW (because she truly believes that accountants will save the world and is a member of the ‘Regenerative Capitalism’ working group at the Institute of Directors (IoD).

 What we love about Charmian’s story:

Charmian truly is a champion and guiding light of the business for good movement in the UK and beyond.

She started her life in Canada, made a huge leap to go to business school in the US, and another big leap to start her life in the UK. With that move, she brings boundless energy and resilience and serves as an inspiring example of the idea that one person who wants to change the world, truly can.

We love Charmian's humour, sense of purpose, and commitment to the B Corp movement, which serves as an inspiration to all of us B corps in the UK and crucially to the people within them.