LifeStraw, the manufacturer of water filtration products for the outdoor enthusiast and award-winning humanitarian company, announced that Allison Hill, the brand’s long-time managing director, will assume the role of CEO.
Fifteen years since the launch of the LifeStraw brand and more than 20 years leading LifeStraw’s parent company, Vestergaard, Owner and CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen passed the reigns to Hill. Frandsen will continue driving humanitarian entrepreneurship businesses through a position on the Vestergaard board and plans to launch a new venture called Sceye.
During Hill’s tenure, LifeStraw has grown more than 80 percent in the last five years in the outdoor sports and emergency retail markets and, in 2019, the company entered the household market with the launch of LifeStraw’s Home Water Filter Pitcher. The growth of Lifestraw’s retail business drove the launch and success of one of the largest private investments to provide kids around the world with safe drinking water. And, recently, the brand reached a milestone to provide over three million kids safe drinking water for a year through its give back initiative and expansion into Mexico and Ghana in 2019.
Hill has been with parent company Vestergaard and the LifeStraw brand for more than 10 years overseeing the company’s development from a core humanitarian brand to a successful retail brand while maintaining the company’s strong humanitarian roots. She has a deep background in global public health including a Master’s degree in public health and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.
“As we head into the next decade, we still have a tremendous amount of work to do to bring safe water to people around the globe including right here in the U.S.,” commented Hill. “This is why we are expanding our research, innovation and product design and scaling our safe water programs so we can continue to meet the needs of emerging water quality issues around the world. At its core, LifeStraw is a humanitarian company first. This mission will continue. We see our commitment to social impact as a business driver—not a cost to the company.”
The LifeStraw leadership team has grown to include Tara Lundy, the head of brand, who has raised the company’s profile over eight years and Daniel Luipersbeck, CFO. The team will continue to build the business upon the foundation of humanitarian entrepreneurship and stay true to the company’s Danish roots as a leader in innovation and design.
Photos courtesy LifeStraw
