Salterbaxter, the creative consultancy pioneering business progress for the global agenda and Publicis Groupe’s global centre of excellence in sustainability, has appointed Helen Rushton as Head of Sustainability Transformation. Rushton will draw on her 27 years of leading and shaping the corporate sustainability agenda to boost the deep technical expertise they bring to clients and further the firm’s creativity and credibility-led consulting model.

Rushton has built a career around engaging big business in the challenge of building a more sustainable future – from her pioneering work as Head of Social Responsibility at Camelot Group in 1999, to 17 years as a Director at sustainability consultancy Corporate Citizenship. For the last two years Rushton has been Director of Sustainability for Chime Group.

In this new board-level role, Rushton will support the centre of excellence by driving an ever-deeper understanding of the interplay between sustainability issues and business strategy and by amplifying the culture of knowledge within the consultancy and its client community. Key to her role will be to keep clients on the front foot in the fast-evolving and increasingly regulated landscape of sustainable business.

Rushton’s appointment slots firmly into Salterbaxter’s ethos that sustainability strategies can only succeed and deliver genuine progress if they engage both credibility and creativity in lockstep and in equal measure.

Helen Rushton said: “This is a hugely exciting opportunity to work with some of the best creative minds in sustainability. All too often, consultancy work is technically competent but uninspiring, or alternatively it looks amazing but is not robust. Salterbaxter embeds creativity from the outset, investing research and deep thinking into their strategies and concepts. The business world needs more of the types of strategies that Salterbaxter delivers and I am so excited to be a part of this and support their expansion.”

Rushton reports to Kathleen Enright, Global Managing Director, Salterbaxter. Enright said: “It is a pleasure to welcome Helen to Salterbaxter. She brings a hugely impressive background of pioneering sustainability thinking, and a wealth of knowledge on what makes corporates tick when it comes to the strategies that will help them to deliver progress. Combined with our creative flair to inspire behaviour change, Helen’s in-depth knowledge will further our mission to help businesses on the path to a just transition.”

Rushton joined Salterbaxter in October 2022.