Saasha Celestial-One is a British entrepreneur, business leader and sustainability advocate best known as the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Olio. She has built a career that combines commercial strategy, technology, community action and environmental responsibility. Her work has helped turn food sharing from a small neighbourhood idea into a global movement used by millions of people. Today, she stands among the most recognised female founders working to reduce waste through practical technology.
Her professional journey is far broader than Olio alone, with senior experience at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & Company and American Express. She has also founded businesses, worked across international markets and developed new models for childcare and food redistribution. Her education at the University of Chicago and Stanford Graduate School of Business gave her a strong foundation in economics and management. That mix of experience has shaped the confident and commercially focused leadership style seen throughout her career.
Saasha Celestial-One Age and Early Life
Saasha Celestial-One was born in September 1976 and turned 50 in September 2026. Her hometown is Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she spent much of her early life in a large entrepreneurial family. She has described her parents as Iowa hippies who believed strongly in reusing things rather than wasting valuable materials. That childhood culture later became an important influence on her work in sustainability and the circular economy.
Her mother regularly rescued unwanted goods that could be reused, repaired or sold, and Saasha often joined these salvage trips. Items such as plants, building materials and aluminium cans could still have value instead of being thrown away. This taught her at an early age that waste was often the result of behaviour rather than a lack of usefulness. Olio later turned that simple lesson into a digital system that helps millions of people share unwanted items.
The Story Behind Her Unusual Name
The name Celestial-One has naturally attracted attention because it is highly distinctive. Saasha has explained that the surname comes from her unconventional family background and was created by her parents. Her upbringing was therefore very different from the traditional corporate world she entered as an adult. Yet the values she learned during childhood remained closely connected to the businesses she would later build.
Saasha Celestial-One also showed entrepreneurial instincts when she was young and experimented with small business ideas during her teenage years. Her ambition was not simply to work in business but eventually to create something of her own. That goal took time to develop because she first built experience within major global companies. Those early lessons later proved valuable when she moved from corporate strategy into entrepreneurship.
Saasha Celestial-One Education
Education played an important role in preparing Saasha for a demanding international business career. She attended Phillips Academy and also attended Centre International de Valbonne during her school years. She later entered the University of Chicago, where she studied Economics between 1994 and 1998. The course provided strong training in markets, economic behaviour, analytical thinking and business decision-making.
During her undergraduate years, she also spent time studying Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her connection with Britain therefore began well before London became the centre of her professional and family life. After completing her undergraduate studies, she entered investment banking and gained first-hand experience in global finance. She later returned to university to strengthen her leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Saasha Celestial-One attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business from 2002 until 2004 and completed an MBA. Stanford became especially important because it placed her in an environment that encouraged ambitious entrepreneurial thinking. She also met future Olio co-founder Tessa Clarke through their Stanford connection. Both women graduated from Stanford GSB in 2004 before developing successful careers of their own.
Her MBA added strategic management, leadership and commercial development skills to the financial experience she already possessed. These abilities later became essential when she began building businesses from the ground up. Running a technology platform requires far more than having an attractive idea, especially when food safety and corporate partnerships are involved. Her professional training helped her manage these operational challenges while Olio expanded.
Saasha Celestial-One Career Before Olio
Morgan Stanley
Saasha Celestial-One began her professional career at Morgan Stanley after completing her undergraduate degree in 1998. She worked there as an analyst and associate until 2002, gaining experience within a demanding financial environment. Investment banking gave her exposure to complex transactions, commercial analysis and high-level corporate decision-making. It also provided the discipline that would later support her work as an entrepreneur.
McKinsey & Company
After entering Stanford, Saasha Celestial-One moved into management consulting and developed her strategic experience at McKinsey & Company. Her work included positions in New York before she later became an Engagement Manager in London. She worked with sectors including media, retail and organisational strategy during her years with the firm. Consulting strengthened her ability to analyse difficult business problems and turn complex ideas into practical plans.
American Express
In 2007, Saasha Celestial-One joined American Express and remained with the company for approximately six years. She initially worked within the internal strategy team before moving into senior business development responsibilities. She later became Vice President of Business Development and worked with partnerships across major European markets. Her final responsibilities included developing and maintaining relationships with banking partners in six European countries.
This period gave her deep experience in partnerships, international expansion and negotiations between large organisations. Those skills became particularly useful once Olio began working with supermarkets, catering businesses and major food companies. A community app can grow through individual users, but large-scale redistribution also requires strong commercial relationships. Saasha’s corporate background helped connect those two sides of the business.
My Crèche and Her First Major Founder Experience
Before Olio became her central business, Saasha Celestial-One co-founded My Crèche in London in 2013. The company introduced a flexible pay-as-you-go childcare model designed for parents who did not require conventional full-time nursery arrangements. It aimed to support freelancers, working families and stay-at-home parents who needed childcare for shorter periods. The business operated for five years before closing in 2018.
She served as co-founder and CEO while also moving into the early stages of building Olio. My Crèche gave her direct experience of launching a new service, understanding customer needs and handling everyday operational pressures. It also reflected her interest in solving practical problems through business rather than following an established model. That founder experience became valuable when a much larger opportunity emerged in food sharing.
Saasha Celestial-One and the Creation of Olio
Olio was founded in 2015 by Saasha and Tessa Clarke as a response to the enormous amount of usable food being wasted. The original idea grew from Tessa’s frustration at being unable to give away food when preparing for a house move. Saasha immediately recognised the potential to connect people who had surplus food with neighbours who could use it. The pair quickly developed the idea into a community-focused digital platform.
The basic system was simple enough for almost anyone to understand. Users could photograph food or household goods, add the item to Olio and allow nearby people to request it. Collection normally took place locally, turning unwanted goods into useful resources without creating complicated delivery systems. This neighbour-to-neighbour model placed community participation at the heart of the company.
How Olio Expanded Beyond Household Food
Olio gradually developed far beyond its original purpose as a household food-sharing app. Users can now share food, toys, books, household goods and many other items that still have useful life. The company also works directly with businesses that need to redistribute or sell surplus food instead of disposing of it. This combination has turned Olio into both a consumer platform and a commercial sustainability service.
The company’s current impact is substantial, with 9.3 million community members worldwide and more than 100,000 trained volunteers rescuing unsold food. Olio states that 159 million meals and 17 million household items have been shared through its wider system. It also calculates that its activity has prevented the waste of 344,000 tonnes of CO₂e and 49 billion litres of water. These figures show how a simple sharing concept has developed into an operation with measurable environmental scale.
Major Business Partnerships
Partnerships have become a major part of the Olio business model under Saasha’s operational leadership. The company has worked with major brands including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Iceland, Pret and Compass Group. Its services help businesses move edible surplus food into local communities while also improving waste performance and sustainability goals. Companies can measure outcomes rather than treating surplus food as an unavoidable disposal cost.
The company’s work has continued to develop through collaborations with retailers, caterers and waste-management businesses. Olio has also expanded its commercial services to include surplus redistribution and discounted food programmes. Saasha frequently presents this model as both an environmental solution and a sound commercial choice. That approach has helped move food sharing into mainstream corporate sustainability programmes.
Leadership, Sustainability and Tech for Good
Saasha has become a regular speaker on entrepreneurship, food waste, community-led growth and technology with social purpose. She speaks about building marketplaces, creating scalable communities and the realities of developing a company as a female founder. Her work places strong emphasis on changing behaviour rather than relying solely on large institutions to solve environmental problems. Olio gives ordinary households and volunteers a direct role in reducing waste.
Her leadership also combines social goals with business discipline. Olio needs reliable systems for food safety, volunteer coordination, corporate relationships and impact measurement to operate effectively at scale. As COO, Saasha has played a central role in building the operational side of this model. The company therefore reflects both her sustainability values and her long experience in business strategy.
Saasha Celestial-One Husband and Family
Saasha Celestial-One is married, and her social media identifies her husband as Mat Hawkins. Her Facebook details state that the couple have been married since 31 March 2023. She is also a mother and has openly included motherhood as an important part of her personal identity. Her son is named Nolan, a detail also connected with her family life outside business.
Family life can occasionally be seen through the personal moments she shares on social media. She has posted about holidays, outdoor adventures and time spent travelling with her family in Britain. A 2026 Lake District trip included hiking, kayaking and cold-water swimming near Ullswater during the school half-term. She described it as her first Lake District visit despite having lived in the UK for more than 20 years.
Nationality, Hometown and Life in London
Saasha Celestial-One’s background connects the United States and the United Kingdom. She grew up in Iowa, with Cedar Rapids identified as her hometown, while London is now her current city. UK corporate records give her nationality as British and her place of residence as England. Her life and career have therefore developed across both American and British environments.
London has been particularly important to her entrepreneurial journey. My Crèche operated there, Olio began in North London, and much of her senior corporate career was also based in the city. Her international education and work experience gave her a wider perspective, while London became the base for her founder career. That combination has helped her build businesses with both local community roots and global ambitions.
Saasha Celestial-One Company Appointments
Her business record includes five UK company appointments across different ventures. She became a director of Olio Exchange Limited in February 2015 and remains connected with the active company. She was also a director of My Crèche Ltd, Gee Whiz Baby Ltd and Indie Capital Ltd during different periods. In May 2025, she became a director of 11 Brackenbury Road Freehold Limited.
These appointments show that her business activity extends beyond a single company. However, Olio remains the venture most closely connected with her professional identity and international recognition. Her role there combines operational leadership, corporate development, environmental goals and community building. Few of her other ventures have reached the same scale or social impact.
Social Media and Personal Interests
On Instagram, Saasha Celestial-One uses the handle @saashacone and describes herself as a co-founder of Olio. Her bio focuses on sharing more, wasting less and helping make the world a better place. She also mentions motherhood, mischief and nachos, giving her online presence a lighter tone than her corporate work. Her posts include business activity alongside travel, family experiences and outdoor adventures.
Her interests include hiking, swimming, kayaking and spending time outdoors with family. These personal glimpses help show the person behind a career built on strategy, sustainability and corporate partnerships. They also fit naturally with the environmental values that have shaped much of her entrepreneurial work. Her public-facing life combines serious business goals with an informal and community-focused personality.
Why Saasha Celestial-One Matters
Saasha Celestial-One has built a career based on the belief that valuable things should not be wasted. What began as a lesson learned during childhood salvage trips in Iowa eventually became part of a global technology business. Her corporate experience helped turn environmental purpose into a structured operation capable of working with major companies. Olio demonstrates how community behaviour, technology and commercial partnerships can work together.
Her journey from Cedar Rapids to Chicago, Stanford, London and global entrepreneurship is both unusual and highly focused. She has moved through finance, consulting, business development, childcare and food technology without losing the entrepreneurial drive formed during childhood. At 50, she continues to lead Olio as it expands its work against food and household waste. Her career shows how a practical idea can grow into a powerful model for environmental and social change.
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