I
f you’re a social butterfly who loves wildlife, if you yearn for purpose alongside visibility, consider this a save-the-date. The planet’s first Nat Gala — a green alternative to the Met Gala — is in a couple of weeks, on September 21.
The driving force of New York’s biggest green event is Gail Gallie, the 54-year-old Brit known for her infectious energy and being behind pretty much anything in activism that is fun and non-hair shirt.
Coming from what she terms a “working-class Geordie” background, Gallie left for Oxford at 17. By 26 she was a BBC marketing director, rebranding Radio 1 from a station of “old men in bomber jackets” to the home of Glastonbury and Ibiza. Then she became the chief executive of the advertising agency Fallon.
“The timing was awful,” she has said. Her appointment followed the financial crash and her ability to lead based on optimism clashed with aggressive cost cutting. She had a second child and the family moved to Bath. Then a conversation with an old friend on New Year’s Eve 2013 proved pivotal.
