About Positive News

Seán Dagan Wood

Chief executive officer

Seán joined Positive News in 2009 as a journalist, becoming editor-in-chief in 2012. Three years later, he led a crowdfunded ‘community share offer’ that transformed Positive News into a co-operative owned by its readers worldwide. Overseeing the publication’s relaunch in 2016, he then moved to the role of publisher in 2018 and CEO in 2020. Seán is a leading voice in the field of constructive journalism, having presented at events such as The International Journalism Festival and TEDx. He has been featured in media including The Guardian, BBC and New York Times. Seán is a member of the BMW Foundation's responsible leaders network and a fellow of the RSA.

Pauline Milligan

Chief operating officer

Lucy Purdy

Editor (maternity leave)

Lucy Douglas

Editor (maternity cover)

Harri Närhi

Publishing assistant

John Simmonds

Head of sales and marketing

Martin Wright

Chair

Martin is an experienced speaker, writer and adviser on sustainability and positive futures. Formerly Editor in Chief of Green Futures (now The Futures Centre) and Director of Forum for the Future (India), he now works independently with a wide range of companies and organisations. As an award-winning journalist and photographer, his work has been featured in numerous media, including The Guardian, The Times, New Scientist, Newsweek and The Times of India. He has interviewed business and political leaders, including Paul Polman (CEO, Unilever), former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, among others. He has broadcast on major radio and TV networks, including the BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera and independent television. He has also produced and directed a number of short films. Organisations he has advised at senior management or board level include Greenpeace, WWF, Unilever, Sainsbury’s, Tata, BT, Marks & Spencer, Brunswick and UK, Indian and Chinese government departments. As both a journalist and Visiting Judge / Assessor for the Ashden Awards, Martin has travelled extensively in Asia and Africa, researching and reporting at first hand on frontline environment and development issues, and in particular the potential of sustainable solutions to lift people out of poverty and simultaneously conserve the environment in some of the most challenging circumstances. He has spoken at and chaired events for The Guardian, the UK Government, the UN, the RSA and others in London, New York, Delhi, Mumbai, Beijing and Beirut. He serves as an MC at the annual World Sustainable Development Summit (Delhi) and the Responsible Business Summit (London). View his keynote on ‘The Case for Optimism’ at the Global Good Awards here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3G67IzmuhY

Jerry Lockspeiser

Treasurer

Jerry Lockspeiser is a wine-industry expert, entrepreneur, writer and business consultant. He has extensive experience in growing start-up businesses to scale. Much of his career has been as an entrepreneur in the wine business, founding Vinceremos Wines, a pioneer in the importation of Organic and Third World wines, and Bottle Green Ltd, a supplier of wines from around the world to the UK’s major retailers. He is currently Chairman of Off Piste Wines. Jerry is a supporter of international development charity ActionAid. He created the ‘Call My Wine Bluff’ event raising £1.2m over 6 years in support of their work, and the Millione wine brand, a social business whose profits have funded the building of 5 primary schools and community activities in Sierra Leone. Jerry writes an opinion column for Harpers Wine & Spirit. He has authored two books, the Thorsons Organic Wine Guide and “YOUR WINE QUESTIONS ANSWERED: The 25 things wine drinkers most want to know” published by Citizen Press. He is a fellow of the RSA, marathon runner and RAC qualified motor cycle instructor.

Catherine Jenkins

Cat spent some 25 years in international financial services, including – at board level – in investments and risk management, and as a policy adviser to the Isle of Man government's financial regulator. She is also a member of the Sustainability Committee, an examiner and fellow, of the London Institute of Banking and Finance, and the author of 17 books on matters such as collective investment schemes, lending and risk management. In more recent years she has been involved in environmental and social justice campaigning, and served on the Nominations Committee for Friends of the Earth England, Wales and NI; she helped establish and was lead co-ordinator of EcoVannin, a public/NGO partnership aimed at supporting sustainable projects. For seven years she wrote and curated a local news column on community and environmental issues, and in the UK she has worked with Citizens Advice and with a regional electricity DNO on strategies to support vulnerable customers. She is a member of TaxWatch IoM, a support worker at a pilot night shelter project, and the instigator and co-ordinator of www.theotherisland.im – an initiative which aims to partner marginalised individuals with mentors from the creative arts, to enable them to tell their stories to the wider public. A recovered alcoholic, she also facilitates recovery groups for people battling addictions. She has been a director of Positive News since 2018.

Veronique Mistiaen

Veronique Mistiaen is an award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee, who has worked as an editor, foreign correspondent and reporter for national and international media outlets in the UK and the US over the past 30 years. These include Newsweek, The Guardian, The Times, Telegraph, Economist, BBC, FT, Huffington Post, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Positive News, Le Monde, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle, among many other publications. She covers human rights, social and humanitarian issues, global development and the environment – telling stories of survival, resistance, environmental activism and economic empowerment. And she likes to explore solutions rather than merely exposing problems. This year, she chaired the One World Media International Journalist of the Year Award’s jury panel. She also runs training in constructive journalism, journalism skills for marginalised communities, and reporting diversity in areas of ethnic and religious tensions. She is bilingual English-French.

Séan Dagan Wood

Company secretary

Seán joined Positive News in 2009 as a journalist, becoming editor-in-chief in 2012. Three years later, he led a crowdfunded ‘community share offer’ that transformed Positive News into a co-operative owned by its readers worldwide. Overseeing the publication’s relaunch in 2016, he moved to the role of publisher in 2018 with responsibility for the strategic direction of the organisation. Seán is a leading voice in the field of constructive journalism, having presented at events such as The International Journalism Festival and TEDx. He has been featured in media including The Guardian, BBC and New York Times. Seán is a member of the BMW Foundation's responsible leaders network and a fellow of the RSA.

Sir Martyn Lewis CBE

Patron

Shauna Crockett-Burrows (1930 - 2012)

Founder