Blue Earth Summit

Andrew Denton has been working in Outdoor Recreation & Sport since 1984, with brands such as Rohan, Mountain Equipment, Sprayway, Ronhill, Cotton Oxford and more. He may be best known in the industry as the co-owner of the of Mountain Equipment where he worked for 17 years. After selling most of his commercial interests Andrew is now focused on the non-profit sector. He is CEO of the Outdoor Industries Association the non-profit that represents the UK Outdoor sector to government and across the world. He was the founding Secretary General of the European Outdoor Group’s ‘Its Great Out There’ and a founding Director of ‘Opening Up The Outdoors’ - to increase diversity outdoors in Europe. He was the Chair of the Sheffield Outdoor City project, sat on the National Trusts’ Wild Network Council, the OutDoor by ISPO Advisory Board and is Chair of the Wider Activity Group at the UK Active Council. In 2015 Andrew worked at Number 10 with David Cameron as an Ambassador for the GREAT campaign, and was subsequently appointed by the Sports Minister to co- chair a National Outdoor Recreation strategy for the government’s Sporting Futures. Then as follow up in 2023 he previewed the Government’s 2023 ‘Get Active’ strategy to contribute on Outdoor Recreation. He sits on multiple steering groups & committees all related to outdoor recreation. Through the 2020 LockDown Andrew curated a daily newsletter for the outdoor sector, and co-wrote government approved guides for the safe reopening of campsites, caravan sites, hostels, climbing walls, vertical adventure & outdoor stores. In 2023 Andrew was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts & Commerce for his work at the OIA. As well as the non-profit sector Andrew still works as a commercial business consultant and co-owns Parthian Climbing one of the UK’s largest climbing wall groups. He is an accomplished ski mountaineer, mountain biker and team GB Ironman triathlete, with first ascents in Patagonia, the Arctic, Antarctica and a huge variety of outdoor adventures across the world.