Good morning, this is Kasmira. In an era of missed targets and rollbacks on climate promises, interviewing conservationist and philanthropist Antoinette Vermilye was a wonderful reminder of what a single person – albeit no ordinary individual – can achieve. Over several cups of tea, she briefs me on the art of environmental activism. |
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Antoinette Vermilye (Geneva Solutions/ Kasmira Jefford)
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Antoinette Vermilye sits down at the Nyon cafe where we have agreed to meet and immediately apologises. She has the dregs of a cold and is wearing a green hand-embroidered mask to err on the side of caution. But it does little to muffle her enthusiasm as her eyes, which seem to smile with child-like mischief, do the talking.
Vermilye is an environmental activist with deep pockets and an iron will. Together with her husband, John Vermiyle, who she met in Geneva while both working in the airline industry, they launched the Gallifrey Foundation in 2016, a philanthropic organisation focused on marine conservation, after making a tidy sum in the United States from the sale of his luggage security business a decade earlier.
Their life and fortune, she says, changed overnight. “We asked ourselves, at the time, how much do we really need to live? What do we really value?” she says, sipping on lemon and ginger tea, her mask now cast aside. Vermilye grew up in Nigeria, where she lived near the Atlantic Ocean, which she credits for having a formative influence on her life. “Our answer was that we loved the ocean, but we also loved doing things for social good. So that’s always been the driver of things – doing social but also environmental good,” she adds, acknowledging that the latter is harder to do through business.
Read the full story on Geneva Solutions.
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