Sophi Tranchell MBE

Sophi is managing director of Divine Chocolate Ltd, the innovative Fairtrade company co-owned by a cocoa farmers’ co-operative in Ghana. Previously she worked for the Metro Tartan Cinema group, introducing foreign films to new UK audiences.

Both in her personal and work life, Sophi has always been active in supporting social justice, leading her also to be very curious about who owns who in the corporate and commercial world, and who make the decisions that affect us all in the world of business. 

As well as growing a popular Fairtrade chocolate brand in a highly competitive market, for 15 years she has campaigned energetically for the terms of trade for small scale producers to change, and promoted more socially responsible business models. She is a founding trustee of Trading Visions a charity working to promote progressive change by amplifying the voices of small scale producers, starting with cocoa farmers. She is chair of the steering committee for Fairtrade London (the biggest Fairtrade city in the world), she successfully led the campaign to Make London a Fairtrade City.

In the New Year’s Honours List 2008/09 Sophi was awarded an MBE for services to the food industry, and is on the London Food Board led by Rosie Boycott. In 2010 she was given a Social Entrepreneur Award of the Year by Ernst & Young, and in 2013 she was awarded a Good Deals Pioneer Award for leading social entrepreneurs. In 2014 Divine was named as the Best Social Enterprise and a Divine bar was voted favourite Fairtrade product. This year Divine has been awarded the Guardian Sustainable Business Award for Social Impact Innovation, and is currently shortlisted for the Observer Ethical Product of the Decade.