Duncan has a background in the marketing sector having worked for a number of communication agencies in London, specialising in the FMCG space and later in business development. It was a 2-year motorbike trip around the world that opened his eyes to the challenges many counties and their communities face. Being caught in Hurricane Mitch in October 1998 which killed over 10,000 people and did $6bn of damage became a catalyst for change for him.

Duncan’s passion for brands and marketing and interest in the then emerging world of Corporate Social Responsibility led to the development of a bottled water brand called One which has now donated over $25m to fund clean water and sanitation programmes in Sub Saharan Africa, impacting on over 3.4m people.

It was a speech at 10 Downing Street in 2015 to a group of supporters and CEO’s that led to the development of Water Unite – an idea based around One, but pulling together the retail and bottling sectors globally around the shared idea of a 1 cent per litre micro-levy on bottled water sales. An idea, which if achieved at scale, could raise up to $5bn a year to be used for catalytic investments in the water, sanitation and waste management sectors.

Duncan has been awarded many times for his work including receiving an Honorary Doctorate.

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