John Bird

Founder of The Big Issue, John Bird has radicalised the way the world views anyone who is in need of help or charity. He created a business model that would help people to help themselves rather than rely on generosity or pity.

Over the last 14 years, The Big Issue has been replicated throughout the world. The magazine is sold in every major British city with around 10,000 joining the scheme in the UK each year. The Big Issue can be found across the globe, with offices in Europe, Australia, Japan, South America and South Africa. The Big Issue aims to enable homeless people to earn a legal income through opportunities to help themselves, invest profits in services to help homeless people and Big Issue vendors, tackle obstacles to them helping themselves, provide people with a voice in the media, produce a quality magazine which engages readers with issues that affect their lives but are overlooked by other media and provide an example of a socially responsible business and an alternative to conventional charity as a response to homelessness.

Services that support vendors' attempts to overcome homelessness and related difficulties are provided by The Big Issue Foundation, set up to strengthen and develop support services for Big Issue vendors and homeless people. For those in real need the Foundations’ Vendor Support Fund can be accessed for anything from a pair of boots to a training course. John holds a doctorate at Oxford Brookes, is a Fellow of John Moores University, Professor at Lincoln University and in 2004, was awarded the UN Scroll of Honour and the BBC London Living Legend.

John was born in post-war London. Suffering privation and homelessness and in an orphanage at the age of 7, John soon had a record for shoplifting, housebreaking, arson and vandalism. Gradually, John turned his life around, finding a vocation as a printer and eventually going on to own a successful printing and publishing business. In the 80’s, John met up with Gordon Roddick, an old friend who started The Body Shop, with his wife Anita. Out of the friendship grew The Big Issue which first hit the streets in 1991. Today, The Big Issue sells up to 450,000 copies each week in Britain, facilitating thousands into secure accommodation and getting back into work.

"His energy and commitment is inspirational and his dogged determination to move homeless people from dependence on handouts to being able to stand on their own two feet was the catalyst that made The Big Issue the publishing phenomenon of the nineties”

Lucie Russell, Director, SmartJustice

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