Chris Gorell Barnes

Christopher Michael Jack Gorell Barnes (born May 1974) [1] is an English digital entrepreneur and marine conservationist best known as executive producer of the award-winning documentary The End of the Line.

Early life

Gorell Barnes was born to Henry Gorell Barnes (1939-1983),[2] merchant banker and a director of Morgan Grenfell,[3][4] and Gillian (née Carruthers), a therapist.[5][6] His paternal grandfather was Sir William Lethbridge Gorell Barnes (1909-1987), a War Cabinet official later of the Treasury and Colonial Office (where he was Deputy Under Secretary of State from 1959 to 1963), and who had been Personal Assistant to Prime Minister Clement Attlee from 1946 to 1948.[7] His paternal great-grandfather was Sir Frederic Gorell Barnes (1856-1939), M.P. for Faversham, Kent from 1895-1900, Assistant Food Commissioner and Commissioner of the Education and Propaganda Branch of the Ministry of Food from 1918 to 1921.[8] The Gorell Barnes family were of Ashgate House, Ashgate, Derbyshire, with the Barons Gorell descending from Henry, elder brother of Chris Gorell Barnes's ancestor Charles (1818-1886; of Mossley Hill, Lancashire, J.P., a merchant).[9] The politician and colliery owner Alfred Barnes was the youngest brother of Henry and Charles.[10][11]

Gorell Barnes was raised at Maida Vale, and studied at Bedales and the European Business School at Regent's University London.[5][12]

Career

Gorell Barnes founded a digital content agency called Adjust Your Set in 2008.[13][14][15] He was named by the London Evening Standard newspaper in 2013 as one of the most powerful 'Tech Stars' in the UK.[16] Adjust Your Set was named in New Media Age's Top 100 Interactive Agencies 2010 as 'one to watch'[17] and in 2011 it was named as a winner in the Brightcove Online Video Innovation Awards. Gorell Barnes has sat on the board of Eagle Eye Solutions, a digital consumerism business, since 2007.[18] Other board members include Sir Terry Leahy, former Tesco chief executive.[19]

Gorell Barnes was executive producer for The End of the Line, a documentary film that changed attitudes towards seafood, including among companies such as Pret A Manger and Marks & Spencer.[20][21] It won the inaugural Puma Creative Impact Award in 2011 for its success in changing consumer behaviour.[22][23]

A study by the BRITDOC Foundation found that it had been seen by more than one million people and had created press and media attention worth more than £4 million.[24] The film was described by the Chicago Tribune as "an apocalyptic documentary that is as beautiful as it is damning".[25]

Marine conservation

In 2009, Gorell Barnes and fellow producer George Duffield founded a marine conservation charity, the Blue Marine Foundation which aims to create marine reserves.[13][26][27][28] In 2010 it brokered a deal that created a huge marine reserve around the Chagos Islands[29] and two years later one that protected the waters around Turneffe Atoll in the Caribbean.[30] Among its supporters are Helena Bonham Carter.[31][32]

Personal life

Gorell Barnes lives in London with his long-term partner Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho. Their identical twin sons, Milo and Felix, were born in 2016.[33]

References
  1. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/W_hxJ9Ig1ufBDz2YGQwPkyQ_1OA/appointments
  2. Gov.uk Probate Record Search, Surname 'Barnes', Year of Death '1984' (n.b. date of death given as 13 November 1983), p. 495
  3. Money Market Directory 1982, ed. T. H. Fitzgerald, p. 1105
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/17/business/london-exchange-entering-new-era.html
  5. The Sunday Times, Hattie Williams, 13 April 2014 URL= https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-i-made-it-chris-gorell-barnes-founder-of-adjust-your-set-9vt3hqn8p7m Date accessed= 27 November 2018
  6. Working with Families, Gill Gorell Barnes, Macmillan, 1984, p. iv
  7. The Routledge Guide to British Political Archives: Sources since 1945, ed. Chris Cook, Routledge, 2006, p. 13
  8. Alumni Cantabrigienses, vol. 2- From 1752 to 1900, Part 1: Abbey-Challis, ed. John Venn, J. A. Venn, Cambridge University Press, p. 162
  9. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 2, p. 1597
  10. Obituary - Alfred Barnes", The Times (36625), London, 29 November 1901, p. 6
  11. Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat Armour, seventh edition, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Hurst & Blackett, Ltd, 1929, p. 96
  12. https://www.standard.co.uk/business/markets/chris-gorell-barnes-video-venture-adjust-your-set-is-really-clicking-with-the-big-brands-8708945.html
  13. Article in The Sunday Times
  14. Article in Evening Standard
  15. Article in The Sunday Times
  16. Article in Evening Standard
  17. Article in New Media Age
  18. London Stock Exchange site
  19. Article in The Daily Telegraph
  20. Article in The Guardian
  21. Article in London Evening Standard
  22. "Press release on Puma site". Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  23. Article on Screen Daily website
  24. The BRITDOC study document
  25. Article in Chicago Tribune
  26. Article in Superyacht Times
  27. Blue Marine Foundation website
  28. Article in The Tatler
  29. Article in The Independent
  30. Article in The Sunday Times
  31. Article in Daily Telegraph
  32. Article in New York Daily News
  33. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/05/lastminutecom-founder-martha-lane-fox-becomes-mother-12-years-af
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