Molly Harriss Olson is a global pioneer and collaborative innovator for human survival on a living planet, with more than 30 years of experience as a CEO and board director across major trade, economics, science and sustainability organisations in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. She currently serves as a board director of the Council for the Human Future, convening global experts on the polycrises, and as a director of Silver Wattle Quaker Center and of Permaculture Australia & Permaculture International.
She earned a joint Bachelor of Arts in economics and environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Environmental Science from Yale University, which recognised her in 2020 with its Distinguished Alumna Award. Olson began working as a marine researcher on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and led Greenpeace conservation campaigns, including efforts to protect the Southern Right Whale. She went on to become founding CEO of the Natural Step US in 1996, alongside Founding President Paul Hawken and Swedish scientist Karl-Henrik Robért. For fifteen years, from 1998, she was founder and convenor of the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development, building a network of hundreds of CEOs from business, government and civic organisations.
Her leadership has also shaped sustainability policy and standards across government, trade and industry. For five years from 1993, Olson led the first US President’s Council on Sustainable Development at the White House. She then served for nine years, from 2014, as chair of Fairtrade International and CEO of Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand. Further roles have included a World Economic Forum “Global Leader” persuading the CEOs of global car manufacturers to adopt greener practices. Olson also sat as a board director of the Green Building Council of Australia, helping transform building standards. She convened the first GP marine scientific experts panel, developing the plan for Australia’s National Marine Protected Areas beyond the Great Barrier Reef, later passed into law.
