Paul Hargreaves is the founder and CEO of Cotswold Fayre, one of the UK’s leading specialty food wholesalers supplying over 2,000 retailers nationwide. Beginning with a single car and a few boxes in 1999, Paul built a £30M mission-driven company rooted in sustainability, purpose and people-first values. Originally coming from the charity world, his early vision was to create a business that not only generated profit but also improved lives. After years of operating in “business as usual” mode, a transformative trip to Kenya reignited that mission and showed Paul the profound impact a company can have when it aligns success with service. His journey is marked by defining challenges: the near-collapse of the business, the breakdown of his marriage and a serious illness that forced him to rebuild himself completely. These moments reshaped him from a traditionally “masculine,” achievement-focused leader into a compassionate, reflective and deeply intentional one. Today Paul is recognised as a leading voice in sustainable business, a two-time author and one of the UK’s early adopters of the B Corp movement – proving that doing good is not only right, but commercially smarter.

In this session, Paul shares the pivotal transformation that reshaped his life and leadership. He opens up about the period when everything fell apart – nearly losing the company, losing his marriage and being hospitalised with malaria. Instead of seeing it as failure, Paul reframed it as the turning point that forced him to question who he was and what kind of leader he wanted to be. He explains the shift from doing leadership to being leadership: creating space, embracing silence and cultivating a culture where creativity, reflection and humanity come before constant productivity. Paul speaks candidly about following your dreams, why people regret not living authentically and how leaders must serve rather than be served. He shares practical insights on resilience, purpose, slowing down to think better and building companies that people genuinely want to buy from, work for and grow with.