Member Article

Gentoo's Peter Walls named HRH The Prince of Wales Ambassador for responsible business

Peter Walls has received the prestigious Prince’s Ambassador Award at the annual Responsible Business Awards, recognising his in-depth understanding of social issues, particularly in disadvantaged and economically challenged communities.

The Prince’s Ambassador Award is one of Business in the Community’s (BITC) Awards for Excellence and recognises the powerful contribution made by individual business leaders to improve the communities in which they live and work through responsible business. The Ambassador in each part of the UK is tasked with working closely with BITC and its members to champion responsible business best practice.

Ambassadors are chosen not only for their inspiring personal impact, but also for demonstrating leadership which has both transformed their own business and inspired other organisations to take action.

Peter who is Chief Executive of Gentoo Group was chosen as North East Ambassador for HRH The Prince of Wales’ for his leadership and commitment to responsible business.

The announcement was made at the North East Awards for Excellence gala dinner run by Business in the Community, on 26 June 2014.

Speaking via video message at the dinner, president of BITC, HRH The Prince of Wales, said: “My ambassadors are those individuals who are recognised for driving the responsible business movement through the actions they take in their own workplace.

“I could not be more grateful to them for the work they do, or have agreed to take on, focused on the key priorities of tackling youth unemployment and building stable and sustainable local communities.”

Speaking about his award, Peter Walls said: “This is a tremendous honour with great responsibility to champion responsible business practice across the region.

“At Gentoo, this activity is not a bolt on or an afterthought, but core to the way we operate. We are open to a world of new possibilities, we continue to set ourselves ambitious targets and measure success on the social impact our decisions have.”

Liz Needleman, Area Director England East, Business in the Community said: “Congratulations to Peter - a worthy and inspirational leader and winner of this esteemed accolade who has worked tirelessly to make a difference to disadvantaged and economically challenging communities.”

Gentoo Group received further recognition from the BITC and was awarded a Workwell Big Tick, a Responsible Business Big Tick and reaccreditation of its Big Tick in the Education category for the Group’s work with Academy 360, as well as a platinum certificate in the BITC Environment Index 2014. The Group will now go forward to the national awards which will take place on 8 July in London.

Gentoo Group’s whole ethos is about believing nothing is impossible and finding new ways to challenge conventions, Gentoo aims to make society a better place to live and to make a real difference to the way people live their life. To find out more about Gentoo, visit gentoogroup.com for more information or follow @gentoogroup on Twitter.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Facey .