Leigh Barnes contributes to UN Blueprint for Sustainable Growth

June 2025

Intrepid’s President of the Americas, Leigh Barnes, has joined with marketing leaders worldwide to support the launch of the United Nations Global Compact’s (UNGC) Blueprint for Sustainable Growth, a unifying framework to help CMOs and brand leaders deliver their organisation’s sustainability agenda and drive the UN SDGs forward. 

Barnes was appointed to the UNGC’s inaugural CMO Impact Think Lab in 2024 in his previous role as Intrepid’s Chief Customer Officer, joining 34 leading CMOs from across the globe to advise on the challenges, opportunities, and needs of global marketing leaders and inform the design of the blueprint. 

Formally launched this week at the world's preeminent gathering of creative and marketing leaders, the Cannes Lions Festival in France, the guidelines provide recommended actions in the key areas of growth strategy, brand strategy, innovation, communication, advertising and media, and collaboration and partnerships. 

Barnes was one of only two representatives hailing from Australia and drew on Intrepid’s 35-years of purpose-driven leadership to build the world-first resource. 

Most recently, Intrepid has led on DEI with an expansion of its ethical marketing guidelines and joined the ranks of top large B Corps globally by achieving a recertification score of 102.5.   

Commenting on his involvement, Barnes said: “It’s been a true honour to join the UNGC’s CMO Impact Think Lab and lend Intrepid’s expertise in purpose-led business.  

The marketing function is uniquely positioned to drive behavioural change in the area of sustainability through impactful storytelling and strategies, and we know that by working together, we can better support each other to deliver progress on the SDGs.”  

The resulting programme will serve the marketing industry and CMOs all around the world, with deliverables shared at the global, regional and local levels to help marketing teams embed sustainability into strategy, drive long-term value creation and accelerate transformation at scale. 

The blueprint is available to download in full HERE.