Well the big idea started with us, Jared & Ruth Honore, when we decided to launch wurld in 2009. We’re the directors, I guess you’d say.
We both come from a corporate, financial background, but after being impacted by poverty we saw on some trips during our OE and seeing some cool charitable brands doing great things while on our travels, we decided we wanted to do something similar right here in NZ.
Jared spent 8 years as a kid growing up in Zambia. After taking Ruth to visit Africa a few years ago, it really hit home that our business skills could make a difference there, and we decided that setting up a charitable brand was what we wanted, and needed, to do. We’ve taken the best bits of what we’ve seen and weaved them together to create wurld - a cause-related brand giving all profit to charity, with a focus on actively volunteering in the local community. We call it our ‘little less conversation, a little more action’ approach to charity.
As we’re a charity we also needed to find a team of ‘trustees’ to help keep the business on the straight and narrow, always giving that 100%.
trustees
Mark Compton
Mark’s been a friend of ours for a good 10 years. He’s a very creative guy, and works as a printmaker in between painting, making prints and promoting his flourishing art career. Check out some more of his work at prints.co.nz.
He’s been very involved in working with the wurld brand that Paul Smith developed, and taking it to places we couldn’t imagine. His influence can be seen in our bottles, T-shirts, stall design… pretty much everywhere!
Mike Taylor
Mike and Jared studied finance and played the share market together at uni and have stayed good friends since.
Mike’s the Managing Director of Pie Funds, a boutique funds management company, and is always keen to talk to people about stocks and business. Mike and his wife Jacqui both have a charitable outlook, and his keen financial mind is also one of the main reasons we’ve got him on board!
Kelly Christie
Another good friend of ours, Kelly, has worked as a creative in advertising and marketing agencies, so always has an opinion on branding! She’s now a freelance copywriter, so get in touch if you need great copy.
She’s also been quite involved in helping us set up wurld for launch. Much of what you’re reading was written by Kelly, which is good, because Jared has a problem with too much detail!
And of course there are many others involved too… and these are some of our biggest helpers.
key people
Paul Smith
With his fantastic design talents, Paul Smith has taken wurld from an idea into a fully-fledged brand, and in just one conversation he encouraged us to ‘jump into the lake!’ and start wurld.
The wurld brand would simply not exist without him and he now has as much water as he could possibly drink!
Kay Tiddy
Kay has a passion for water, and all things creative, and an infectious energy. Thanks for all the ideas, days and nights you’ve put into our stall, your photos, your hook-ups… and for all the km’s you’ve driven up and down from Hamilton.
Naomi Coombridge
Naomi has common sense in spades, and has been a vital listening ear we never knew we’d have. When Naomi speaks, it’s always worth listening to, thanks for your great ideas, opinions and for being awesome with a T-shirt paint dryer!
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