Divine Chocolate founder Sophi Tranchell has received an award in recognition of her significant and lasting contribution to positive social change.
Tranchell was presented with the Good Deals Pioneer Award by presenter of the BBC's Women's Hour Jane Garvey.
Divine Chocolate is a farmer-owned, fairtrade chocolate brand established in 1998. Tranchell was the brand's first Managing Director and oversaw its breakthrough into the mainstream chocolate market.
She has spent the last 14 years championing fair-trade and social enterprise, and currently chairs the Fairtrade London Steering Committee, which campaigned successfully to secure Fairtrade City status for London five years ago, and she is on the London Food Board headed up by Rosie Boycott.
In 2009,Tranchell was made an MBE for services to the food industry.
She said: "I am very honoured to receive this award. I was given the chance to take an incredible story – cocoa farmers who wanted their own chocolate company, so they could have a share in the wealth they were helping to create – and help make it a reality, and a force for change.
"It is a privilege to be a social enterprise pioneer and to catalyse change around you. I hope Divine Chocolate will continue to raise the bar, carry on championing a different way of doing business, and be part of a world that many more people have a real stake in."
Good Deals is now in its sixth year and brings together social entrepreneurs and investors "to get good deals done".
This year, it has broadened the scope to welcome enterprising charities exploring new models of revenue generation and investment.
Dr Sakeena Yakoobi, founder of Afghan Institute of Learning, and Sir Ronald Cohen, chair of Big Society Capital, are also receiving Good Deals Pioneer Awards.
