Alison Hill
CEO, Lifestraw
The Basics
Company Name: LifeStraw (Legal Name: Vestergaard Frandsen Inc.)
Location: Baltimore, MD
Founded: Parent company – 1957, LifeStraw Retail Brand- 2012
Full-Time Employees: 51
Products: Water filters and purifiers.
Social: Instagram
Claim to Fame: Humanitarian DNA – founded in effort to eradicate Guinea worm and work in low resourced countries. For every product sold, a school child in need receives safe water for a year.
The Culture
DEMOGRAPHICS (OPTIONAL):
(defined as all people employed at any point in 2019) 54% Female, 46% Male; 35% Asian, 29% Black or African American, 29% White, 4% Hispanic or Latino, 2% Mixed/Other, 0% Native/Indigenous
The best thing about working at lifestraw is:
Being able to tangibly participate in the impact of our work by providing access to safe water to low resourced communities around the world in places like western Kenya, Juarez, Mexico, Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.
When we’re not working, we’re:
Volunteering in our community, traveling to hard-to-reach places, going for a hike with a beer in our backpack
What we’re reading:
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, No Impact Man, AntiFragile
What we’re listening to:
Queen, Diamond Platnumz – Kanyaga, Gulabi, Chhalla' - Hari & Sukhmani, GABYLONIA-soy mujer
If they made a movie about our workplace, it would be called:
Where sarcasm and compassion combine for action
Inclusion in the outdoors matters because:
We work around the world and we take a global look at this – most of our colleagues and users in non-developed countries live in beautiful places but don’t have access to the outdoors because of time, money, safety issues etc. Instead, rich and often white people fly in to take advantage of these beautiful places where locals often have not even been. We want barriers broken down and better access for LOCALs to the outdoors. And then in the US, this industry HAS to change – both because its right and necessary. Its right because everyone should have access to, feel safe in and be able to see people like them enjoying the outdoors. It’s also necessary for business – we need a wider more diverse set of customers and we need to better serve those customers. Lastly, diversity just makes us stronger – we all benefit from a wider group of opinions, backgrounds, cultures and experiences.
Five years down the line, it’s our hope that:
Safe water doesn’t hold anyone back. That safe water issues no longer disproportionately impact black and brown people. Lack of safe water is in itself a symptom of systematic racism globally. We hope this will change.