The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has announced that Julie Hill will be appointed as Chair of the WRAP Board of Trustees next month.

Her appointment will be finalised at the next WRAP board meeting (on 19 November) and will see her replace Peter Stone as Chair, who will retire from the organisation after having been Chair for the past six years.

Hill has been appointed for an initial period of four years and will receive approximately £35,000 a year for her work (up to four days a month).

Hill commented: “WRAP’s staff have a track record of great authority, insight and the ability to turn ideas into action. This, combined with their powerful recycling and food waste consumer campaigns have helped to transform the way we think about waste and resources in the UK, and I am delighted to be joining an organisation that’s making such a difference.

“WRAP is at the forefront as these debates move forward, and I am very much looking forward to working with Liz Goodwin and her executive team on that journey.”

‘Delighted to have secured her deep expertise’

David Palmer-Jones, Non Executive Director of the WRAP board, who chaired the appointment panel, said the board was “absolutely delighted” at the appointment.

He said: “Julie Hill is internationally respected for her expertise in waste and resources issues, and is at the forefront of thinking about the circular economy. Julie is a passionate supporter of WRAP and the agenda we are working on.

“The board is delighted to have secured her deep expertise, and she has a strong commercial background, which will be helpful to WRAP.”

Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive of WRAP, also commented, saying: “Julie Hill is highly respected for shaping thinking around resources and the circular economy, and is passionately committed to WRAP’s vision of a world in which resources are used sustainably. WRAP has achieved much already, and Julie will be helping us to put our exciting plans for the future into action.”

Hill is a former Director, and a current Associate, of sustainability think tank Green Alliance. She was most recently Chair of the Green Alliance’s Circular Economy Task Force (Sue Armstrong Brown, Director of Policy at Green Alliance, has now taken over the role as Chair) and has advised governments and businesses on a broad range of environmental policy issues. Hill serves on the board of the Consumer Council for Water, and is a former board member of the Environment Agency and the Eden Project.

Having read English and Philosophy at Leeds University, Hill also holds a Master’s degree in Politics and Government of Western Europe from the London School of Economics.

She has also published a book, The Secret Life of Stuff (Vintage, 2011), and authored several reports, including ‘Reinventing the Wheel’ (Green Alliance, 2011) and ‘A Zero Waste UK’ (IPPR/Green Alliance, 2006).

WRAP is currently pursuing a bid for charitable status, to ‘access to a new source of funding’ and expects to be fully certified ‘by the end of March 2015’.

Find out more about WRAP.