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Seb Bishop (35) is the International CEO of (RED), the business set up by Bono to combat Aids in sub-Saharan Africa through its partnerships with leading fashion and retail brands. Seb started out as an art director in advertising but at the age of 26 left to found Espotting, a company that pioneered online search marketing and pay-per-click advertising, which he sold in 2003. He joined (RED) in 2007.

How’s business?
Good. In the last few months we have partnered with Bugaboo, Starbucks and Nike along with Special Edition partners — iconic jewellery designer Solange Azagury-Partridge and music discovery app Shazam. To date we’ve raised $140m for the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

How did (RED) come about?
In 2002 an organisation was set up called The Global Fund. Its aim was to try and eradicate Aids, malaria and TB on a global level. Those three diseases kill roughly six million people a year. But, while it was doing a fantastic job at raising money from governments, it was struggling to engage the private sector. Up stepped Bobby Shriver and Bono in 2006 and they launched (RED) as a brand to engage the private sector with the sole aim to raise money for the fight against AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. (RED) is a business, not a charity, which is an important difference. We are all believers that enterprise is a very powerful force for change. We launched with American Express, Gap, Armani and Converse. And from then we have gone on to announce partnerships with Apple, Hallmark, Dell, Microsoft, Starbucks, Bugaboo. So there are ten global iconic partners, each of them contributing in different ways.

So the money doesn’t get lost in admin?
No. 100 per cent of the money that we raise through the sale of these products goes directly to those people who need it. There is no overhead taken out because (RED) is run with the licence fee that we charge our clients. There are 225,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda, of which 75,000 need anti-retroviral drugs, and (RED) together with its partners in The Global Fund provides one third of the drugs on the ground. There are 33 million people that live with HIV/AIDS globally, 22 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.

The hard nosed world of business and global social responsibility aren’t exclusive...
Well, I think there is a big trend. Gone are the days of Generation X and I think we are starting to see more of what we like to call Generation We — a more inclusive society that thinks of everybody. We are not telling people to go out and buy a laptop, go and consume, we are telling people, when you do buy a laptop buy a (RED) one, when you do go to choose an MP3 player choose the Apple (RED) one, when you do buy a cup of coffee go and buy the Starbucks one because it contributes.

And how did you get involved?
In 2008 I got involved with a television programme called The Mission. I was asked to go out to Uganda to see if enterprise could play a part in fighting poverty. I jumped at the chance. I got the Africa bug then, living in a tent for about a month and a half, no water, no electricity, but went out there with $30,000 of my own money to see if we could kick-start business, and then came back and that is when I was asked if I would be interested in running the international business for (RED). So my job is to raise as much money for the Global Fund as possible but I do that through raising awareness of (RED) but also bringing on board new partners, and convincing either special editions to come on board or drive our current partners.

Is there an ultimate goal for (RED)?
Yes. I think the goal is to eradicate AIDS effectively. And just from my perspective, if I had been asked, “Are you interested in running (RED)? It’s a charity,” I am not sure I would have been interested. I believe in enterprise. It works.

Presumably getting new partners isn’t difficult for you?
We actually spend a lot of time turning companies away. We don’t want to over-dilute the brand, so if there is (RED) everywhere we lose some of that coolness factor. And our job is really to create a sustainable flow of money to The Global Fund, not to have a quick spike and find that (RED) disappears in four to five years because we have over-diluted the product and over-saturated the market.

Do you have any new partners?
Yes, Nike came on board in December. The concept is Lace Up and Save Lives. It is great because, together with the World Cup in 2010, they have come out with these fantastic, iconic (RED) laces, which means at a grass roots level everyone can be involved.

The rise of (RED) has been dramatic...
It is about running it as a business and creating what I think is an incredible brand. Let’s not forget that (RED) didn’t exist three years ago, and I can’t take credit for this. The people who have set this up and founded this are inspirational in terms of the success.

Do you find the work you do now more fulfilling than your previous work?
A different kind of fulfilling. I was with a group of eight mums, all HIV positive, the kids HIV negative because of the drugs that we provided, and I said to the interpreter, “Would you ask them if they have a question for us?” One of the mothers, a 21 year old, piped up and said something and the interpreter turned round to look at me, and just as he went to deliver the line, he started crying. He stood up and left the tent. He came back and it took him two or three minutes to conjure up the words: “Please don’t forget us.” That is all she said, and he couldn’t pass it on to us. When you think about those children who are now healthy because someone went out and bought a Nano, or a T-shirt, or a cup of coffee... I’m not sure I understood this until I had children. When my first son was born something changed inside me. I want everybody to be able to do something.