IMAGINE Leaders – Kim Paykel
Kim Paykel
EY, UK Sustainability Leader - Consumer Products & Retail Sector, & UK Sustainability Innovation Leader
I love working at the intersection of sustainability, innovation, purpose, strategy, technology and change. In my role as EY’s UK Sustainability Leader for the Consumer Products & Retail (‘CPR’) sector, I set the strategy and am responsible for building strong relationships with EY’s largest CPR clients, deeply understanding their challenges, and bringing the best of EY and our external ecosystem together to address them.
Prior to this role, I was Head of EY wavespace for the UK: EY’s network of innovation and growth centres helping clients solve their most complex strategic challenges, using design thinking, systems thinking and innovation methodologies. I also created the global CoE for sustainability within the wavespace network.
New forms of collaboration are essential in order to meet the challenges presented by the climate and ecological emergency in a fair and just way – and the food system urgently needs to change. Collaboration is core to ways of working in EY wavespace: ‘people buy in to what they help to create’; and to how I personally work. I’ve worked with clients to stretch across silos within their organisations to drive change, but also within supply chains, value chains and between business and society – for example through creating the Climate Business Forum which brought together youth activists and business leaders to innovate together.