Hilary Berg

I’m Hil. Like most Liverpudlians I got to know Alder Hey early in life – I was born with problems with my vision so arrived in Ophthalmology at the age of two and was a patient through infant school. This continued a tradition as my dad was a long-term patient from the age of four, when he famously injured his legs, learning to fly by jumping off the family air raid shelter.

Officially, I’m a Chartered Public Relations Practitioner. I started out in fashion PR with Littlewoods and then built a consultancy that I ran for 10 years working for national and international clients on consumer and corporate communications. In my 30s a bunch of things happened, personally and professionally that led me to radically change my career (too long a story for this introduction, and tbh, one best told over a glass of wine).

In short, 25- plus years ago I committed to use my skills and experience just for positive change, and since then I have worked on projects all over the world, solely on climate and social justice and devoted a third of my professional time to volunteering. I’ve run two consultancies and now work as an independent advisor. My business, One Planet, involves 10 other specialists, the One Planet Collective – we collaborate to help organisations develop purpose-driven strategies, embrace sustainability, drive systems change and spark social innovation.

Occasionally I take on an in-house challenge. So, I was Director of Marketing and Communications at Alder Hey from 2013 to 2015, to help with the move into the new hospital. Then I led sustainability strategy for the supermarket Iceland for six years, including global campaigns on palm oil and plastic, and work on child poverty. I just spent two years co-running a London-based global sustainability consultancy, M&C Saatchi LIFE.

Recently my clients have included the likes of Barclays, Chanel, Warner Bros Discovery, and Universal. I’m also a university lecturer and assessor, and a Trustee at the anti-hunger charity Feeding Britain and at the Rothesay Foundation.

 I live in Parkgate on the Wirral with my husband Nick. I’m a keen amateur photographer and our passion is travelling to interesting places, like the Forbidden Kingdom of Upper Mustang for my 60^th birthday – and, in January, the Arctic Sea. Suffice it to say, our neighbours think we’re crazy.