Madison Hopper, 39
Creative Content Manager, Equifruit , Montréal, Canada
June 10, 2025 | 3 min to read
SHORT BIO
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Hobbies: Woodworking, Snowboarding, Hiking, Building really bad robots
Family/Community: Married, 1 daughter
Motto in life: Courage is contagious.
Hopper is known as the creative engine behind Equifruit’s disruptive communications and marketing strategy and has long had a passion for fairness in business. In graduate school, from 2016 to 2018, she studied business and the environment, focusing on fair trade. During this time, she co-founded the Green Campus Cooperatives, a student- and faculty-owned cooperative that launched and managed two businesses on campus — a Fairtrade-certified clothing company and a campus café. During her graduate studies, she served her first term on the board of Fairtrade Canada, where she was introduced to Equifruit.
After graduating in 2018, she joined Equifruit part time doing special projects, and in 2019, she transitioned to a full-time role as marketing coordinator. In 2021, as Equifruit underwent a major rebrand, Hopper played a role in bringing that vision to life. In 2024, she was promoted to creative content manager after her experiential marketing strategies garnered major attention at trade shows across North America.
She is currently serving her second term on the Ontario Produce Marketing Association (OPMA) board of directors, and was a founding working committee member and multi-term chair of the OPMA Young Professionals Committee. She also sits on the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) Marketing Council.
Q: How did you begin working in the produce industry and why?
I joined the Equifruit demo team in 2016. I was that person handing you a banana chunk on a toothpick at the trade show. But what hooked me wasn’t the fruit, it was the mission and the company’s president, Jennie Coleman. Jennie was a leader I admired instantly, and, over time, she became someone I call a mentor and a close friend.
Q: What do you know now you wish you knew when you first started your career?
That your network is more than LinkedIn connections. For a long time, I thought knowledge lived only in books and reports. But in the past two years, I’ve made it a priority to get to know my colleagues, peers, and mentors in the industry. I’ve learned that wisdom lives in hallway conversations, panel debates, WhatsApp group chats, and shared laughter. My network has made me a better marketer, a better teammate, and a more creative problem-solver.
Q: What is the one thing in your business you are most passionate about?
When Equifruit signs a new contract, it is an eruption of joy. We know that more business means more Fairtrade pay and premium for farmers. We get to watch communities thrive, soils rejuvenate, and new social innovations take root, such as living wage benchmarking. We see farming communities build water infrastructure where there was none before and install toilets in their children’s schools. We see farmers emerging as leaders, representing their communities on a global stage at Fairtrade International or running for local office. I am most passionate about the long game, the continuous push to correct this market, I love to witness the unlocking of human potential at the farm level, simply because farmers are being paid what they should be for their products.
Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of in your career?
I’m proud of how we’ve made Fairtrade bananas cool — from Vogue-inspired photo booths at trade shows to viral social campaigns and edgy point-of-sale signs. But more than that, I’m proud that this creativity is working, it’s getting attention, driving sales, and pushing the entire category forward.
NOMINEES
