Betsy Hickman

Nature Lead, Americas
Betsy Hickman

Betsy leads Nature offerings for Anthesis Group across the Americas. Her work focuses on empowering organizations to accelerate a nature positive future by developing solutions that align business goals with planetary boundaries, strengthening the resilience of enterprises and ecosystems alike. 

With a depth of expertise in nature-based climate solutions, business acumen, and an aptitude for forging strategic partnerships between NGOs and the private sector, Betsy partners with purpose-driven organizations to drive transformational change in the way we approach our relationship with nature and redesign countless systems to restore our planet to health. 

Betsy is a recognized thought leader, guest lecturer and speaker on sustainable supply chains, regenerative agriculture, nature-based solutions, and social innovation. She is a member of the advisory councils for Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for Sustainability, focusing on Financing the Transition to Regenerative Agriculture, and for Drawdown Georgia’s Business Compact. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors for EarthShare Georgia. Betsy resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and young daughter.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

Dedicating the past decade of her career to advising executives and investors on effective and meaningful sustainability strategies, Betsy has partnered with leading companies across the agriculture, apparel, beverage, finance, food, forest products, restaurant, and retail sectors to harness purchasing power and investment capital into a force for good.  
 
Through her leadership of Field to Market, the largest multi-stakeholder initiative dedicated to advancing sustainable agriculture, she united diverse organizations and competitors such as PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Target, and Walmart behind a shared vision and pre-competitive approach to building a future in which farmers, business and nature thrive.
 
Earlier in her career, Betsy spent nearly six years with the World Wildlife Fund, directing stakeholder engagement for their global sustainability partnerships with companies like The Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Sodexo. She also led stakeholder engagement and strategic communications for WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network across 34 countries. Betsy has also held a variety of leadership roles in communications and marketing for publishing and investor relation firms after cutting her teeth in the advertising industry.  

  • Led cross-sector coalition to scale innovative finance and incentive strategies to tackle barriers to scaling sustainable agriculture, uniting Cornell University, Corteva, EDF, MIT, Nestle, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, TNC, TSC, and Unilever to share and amplify lessons learned. 
  • Co-authored Financial Innovations to Accelerate Sustainable Agriculture: Blueprints for the Value Chain, equipping companies with 12 tangible innovative finance and incentive strategies to support farmers in the risk and reward of transition to sustainable agriculture. 
  • Architected Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator, a pre-competitive, outcomes-driven and science-based platform, driving collective action through 105 projects across 35 states to collectively engage 4.5M acres and 3,100 farmers in delivering sustainable outcomes for agriculture. 
  • Recognized thought leader in sustainable supply chains, nature-based solutions, and social innovation, speaking at 3BL Forum, Innovation Forum, Sustainable Brands, and Sustainability and Circular Economy Summit and lecturing at Virginia Tech’s Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability. 
  • Instrumental in Field to Market’s growth, directly responsible for evolving the Alliance from a fledgling non-profit with only 48 members in 2014 to the leading multi-stakeholder initiative of 150+ member organizations. 

AFFILIATIONS 

  • CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Adviser, Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Transition Financing for Regenerative Agriculture, 2021-Present 
  • DRAWDOWN GEORGIA, Adviser, Business Compact, 2021-Present 
  • EARTHSHARE GEORGIA, Director, Board of Directors, 2021-Present 
  • VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY, Guest Lecturer, Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability, Collaborative Social Innovation, 2021