Gun Denhart, a native of Sweden, has lived in Portland, Oregon for more than 40 years.
In 1983 she and her husband Tom, founded the Hanna Andersson children’s clothing company in the garage of their Portland home. Through her leadership, the company became known for its quality clothing made from soft cotton materials, family friendly employee policies and innovative contributions to the community through non-profit and school partnerships. She pioneered, and was nationally recognized for, many family friendly work place policies including childcare reimbursements for employees and flexible working hours.
Before it was widely fashionable Gun was an early supporter of the use of organic cotton requiring vendors to meet the Oko-Tex standard – a European ecological certification process that tests garments for harmful substances.
Gun co-authored the book Growing Local Value, showing how to leverage every aspect of a business – from product creation to employee recruitment, vendor selection, and raising capitol – to benefit both the community and the bottom line.
Gun’s passion lies in her work with local and national groups on children’s, environmental and sustainability issues. She is keenly interested in making sustainable improvements in our society, be it through business practices, socially responsible investing, advocacy, public policy or philanthropy.
Gun has served as Board Chair of Ecotrust, Oregon Business Association and Stand for Children as well as served on the board of Mercy Corps and Business for Social Responsibility. She presently serves on the board of Oregon for Climate Action. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum.
Gun is a Civilekonom from the Lund University School of Business.