BHR Masters Curriculum 2023

Nnimmo Bassey, Rafto Laureate; Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria

Nnimmo Bassey is the Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and the Chair of Friends of the Earth International. Bassey first became an activist after oil conflicts with the Shell Petroleum Development Company escalated into a massacre in 1990, leaving 80 people dead and nearly 500 houses destroyed in the village of Umu Echem. Since then, he has become one of Africa’s leading advocates for the environment and human rights. He was named one of Time magazine's Heroes of the Environment 2009, and in 2010 Bassey was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. He won the Rafto Prize for human rights defenders in 2012.

Vicky Bowman, Director of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business

Vicky Bowman CMG has been the Director of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) since July 2013, based in Yangon until November 2022, and currently based in London. She is on the International Advisory Council of the Institute of Human Rights and Business (IHRB), and is an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL). Vicky is a member of the board of the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA).

From 2011-2013 she led global mining company Rio Tinto's policy approach to transparency, human rights and resource nationalism/resource curse issues. She was Director of Global & Economic Issues and G8 sous-Sherpa for the United Kingdom from 2008-2011 and Head of the Southern Africa Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK Government from 2006-2007. Vicky served as ambassador of the UK to Myanmar from 2002-2006 and as second secretary in the Embassy from 1990-1993. She has also worked in Brussels as Member of Cabinet of European Commissioner Chris Patten (1999-2002) and as press spokeswoman for the UK representation to the EU (1996-1999). 

Vicky has an MA in Natural Sciences (Pathology) from University of Cambridge, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford, and is an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College.

Sigrid Brynestad, Senior Sustainability Advisor, Eksfin

Sigrid’s academic background is in biology, with 10 years of research in bacterial molecular microbiology with a focus on food poisoning bacteria. She then worked in Det Norske Veritas (DNV) for 12 years working on a wide variety of projects, including sustainability related issues. She started work in GIEK in 2013 as a Senior Sustainability Adviser, that has now merged with Export Credit Norway to become Export Finance Norway – Eksfin. This work has provided an opportunity to work with the leverage of financial systems on environmental and social issues in an international context related to Norwegian exports.

Carine Coudeville, VP Human Rights, Sustainability & Climate Division, TotalEnergies

Graduated in international law from Paris I-Pantheon Sorbonne (France) and University College of London (UK), Carine practiced for 25 years as a lawyer in international affairs on all continents, 20 of which with TotalEnergies. She handled the Myanmar crisis pursuant to the coup in February 2021 from Singapore where she was based. Now in charge of human rights for TotalEnergies, she has taken part to the works related to the disengagement from Myanmar as announced by TotalEnergies in January 2022.

Dominique Day, Chair, UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Founder, Daylight

Dominique Day is the Chair of the U.N Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, one of the Special Procedures of the U.N. Human Rights Council responsible for investigations and fact-finding on the situation of people of African descent globally. Dominique is a human rights attorney and the executive director of DAYLIGHT. Internationally, her litigation, public policy, teaching, and capacity-building work over the past two decades has focused heavily on racial justice, non-discrimination, and human rights advocacy. She has extensive experience in criminal and civil litigation on behalf of individuals and communities within the Black diaspora, in addition to working on rule of law and access to justice issues in post-conflict and transitional States. Dominique maintains her legal practice as a partner with Beldock, Levine, & Hoffman, a civil rights law firm, where she focuses heavily on the stop-and-frisk litigation against the New York City Police Department. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a juris doctor from Stanford Law School.

Kathryn Dovey, OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct

Kathryn is based at the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct. She joined the OECD in 2014 and previously ran the network of National Contact Points for Responsible Business Conduct across 50+ governments. She also worked with multiple countries on the fight against international tax evasion and during this time established the Africa Initiative on tax transparency. From 2020-2022 Kathryn was Executive Director of Open For Business – a global coalition of companies building the economic and business case for LGBT+ inclusion. In 2009, Kathryn co-founded the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights and in 2007 she created Entreprises pour les droits de l'homme, an organisation of large multinational companies headquartered in France. Over the past 20 years, Kathryn has provided human rights expertise to governments, business and civil society in a wide range of countries including Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Jordan, Liberia, Myanmar and Russia. From 2012-14 Kathryn was a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Human Rights and in 2014, she was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the WEF. She has lived and worked in Canada, France, Portugal and Russia.

Hermien Botes, Head of Sustainability Engagement, Anglo American

Hermien Botes is Head of Sustainability Engagement at Anglo American where she has worked for the past 15 years in various sustainability roles, including human rights, strategy, ESG reporting and systems. Hermien is based in South Africa and currently focuses on engagement with civil society, human rights and two special projects – gender-based violence and the just energy transition. In late 2019, Hermien led the launch of Anglo American’s Living with Dignity programme, which includes a comprehensive suite of initiatives to tackle sexual and gender-based violence in mines and mining communities. Hermien was also a co-author of Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan – now in its fifth year of implementation.

Frode Elgesem, Chair, National Contact Point, Norway; judge, Borgarting Court of Appeal

Frode Elgesem is a judge at Borgarting Court of Appeal and Chair of the Norwegian National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct. He has a law degree from the University of Oslo and a Masters of Laws degree (LL.M) from King´s College, University of London. He was admitted to the Bar of Supreme Court in 1995. His main practice areas have been General Litigation, Human Rights and European Law, and Compliance, including anti-bribery and competition law. He has been a member and Chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Bar Association and is a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Judges Association. Frode has written the book «næringsliv og menneskerettigheter» («business and human rights») together with Njål Høstmælingen.

Heidi Furustøl, Executive Director, Ethical Trade Norway

Since 2017 Heidi Furustøl has been the Executive Director at Ethical Trade Norway, part of a sister network with Ethical Trading Initiatives in the UK, Denmark and Sweden. Furustøl has extensive experience with advising SMEs and large enterprises on due diligence and sustainable supply chain management. She holds a M.sc from the London School of Economics in political science and a bachelor degree from the University in Bergen, in comparative politics. Furustøl has experience from both civil society as well as from the government sector, and served as a boardmember of Transparency International Norway and the Norwegian European movement for many years. Furustøl was member of the government appointed Ethics committee who wrote the draft to the Transparency Act.

Erika George, Professor of Law, University of Utah

Erika George is Director of the Tanner Humanities Center and Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at the University of Utah. Prior to joining the University of Utah, Professor George served as a law clerk and litigation associate at prominent firms in both Illinois and New York. She also worked as a fellow and later consultant at Human Rights Watch, where she conducted investigations in South Africa on women’s rights, children’s rights, violence, the right to education and abuses related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She wrote a book-length report, Scared at School: Sexual Violence Against Girls in South African Schools. She currently serves as special counsel to the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Professor George has served on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Department of State Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan and as a member of the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. She is an Editor for the blog globaljusticeblog.com.

Isabel Hilton, Founder, China Dialogue; Visiting Professor, Lau Institute, Kings College London; Contributing Editor, Prospect Magazine; International Advisory Council, IHRB

Isabel Hilton is an international journalist, broadcaster and author who writes on geopolitics, climate change and China. She has worked for Sunday Times andThe Independent and presented  the BBC’s flagship news programme, The World Tonight and the arts programme Nightwaves; she was a  columnist for The Guardian, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and her work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Granta, the New Statesman, El Pais, Index on Censorship and many other publications. In 2006 she founded China Dialogue, an independent newsroom focussed on China and climate change.

Zainab Hussain Siddiqui, VP Sustainability, Telenor

Zainab is the Vice President and Head of Sustainability at Telenor Group. With more than 19 years of experience in key positions within Telecom, Government and Development sectors, Zainab leads an expert team on aspects of business and human rights, supply chain sustainability, health and safety, global sustainability partnerships and ESG reporting across Telenor’s footprint in Asia and Nordics. Zainab has an MSc in Development Administration & Planning from the University College London (UCL), UK and a Masters in Business Administration from Pakistan.

Payal Jain, H&M

BIOG TO FOLLOW

Therese Jebsen, Senior Advisor, Rafto Foundation

Therese Jebsen is Program Manager for Business and Human Rights and Senior Advisor at the Rafto Foundation. Jebsen was the Executive Director of the Rafto Foundation from 2008 to 2014). As Executive Director of the Rafto Human Rights House from 1997 to 2008 she was instrumental in developing a platform for the Rafto Foundation to grow and expand. Jebsen has a Master of Science Degree from Norwegian School of Economics, NHH (1994) and has completed a highly ranked organizational leadership programme (2012).

Scott Jerbi, Senior Advisor, Policy and Outreach, IHRB

Scott has over two decades of experience working on business and human rights issues with the United Nations and in academic and civil society roles. His published work focuses on public-private standard setting and multi-stakeholder governance initiatives addressing human rights challenges.

Scott is IHRB's representative in Washington, DC where he contributes to a range of activities across the organisation. He also serves as Senior Advisor to the Geneva based Centre for Sport and Human Rights.

From 1997 to 2002 Scott worked in the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights where his duties included development of the Office’s policies and interactions with the private sector. From 2002 to 2010 Scott served as Senior Adviser to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.

Harpreet Kaur, BHR Specialist, UNDP Asia-Pacific

Harpreet Kaur is the Business and Human Rights Specialist at the UNDP’s Regional Bureau of Asia and the Pacific where she leads a regional project aimed at Promoting Responsible Business Practices through Regional Partnerships in Asia. Prior to this Harpreet led the Genpact Centre for Women’s Leadership at Ashoka University where she steered the agenda on ‘Women, Workplace & Rights’ and designed programs that enabled women to lead with equality and dignity.

Harpreet has held senior leadership and management positions at Ashoka University, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Conciliation Resources, BBC Media Action, and consulted with various international organizations. Harpreet has a PhD in Anthropology from University of Delhi, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Rights Law, National Law School, Karnataka, India. She is a certified SA 8000 Auditor.

Deanna Kemp, Director, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining; Co-Chair of Trustees, IHRB

Professor Deanna Kemp is the Director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) – part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) at the University of Queensland (UQ). She leads an international programme of work enabling a team of over twenty applied social researchers. Deanna has worked on mining and social performance for eighteen years, in corporate, operational, consulting and research roles. Her research focuses on company-community conflict, displacement and resettlement, and human rights and development challenges. Deanna serves on the International Council of Mining and Metals’ (ICMM) New Member Review Panel and is a member of the International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA). She was recently appointed a Senior Associate of the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership.

Maryam Al-Khawaja, Rafto Laureate and Human Rights Defender

Maryam Al-Khawaja is a human rights defender from Bahrain and has been a leading voice on human rights in the Gulf. She is currently a human rights advisor and sits in the boards of International Service for Human Rights and Urgent Action Fund. She formerly served as the Co-Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. Maryam Al-Khawaja is a human rights defender from Bahrain and has been a leading voice on human rights in the Gulf. She sits on the boards of International Service for Human Rights and Urgent Action Fund. Maryam was Acting President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights when it won the Rafto Prize for human rights defenders in 2013.

Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt, Executive Director Rafto Foundation

Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt was appointed Executive Director of the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights in 2016. Jostein has a long track record of working with civil society groups and social movements in Africa, South-America and Asia and from advocacy towards the United Nations (UN), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He served as the Area Representative for Southern Africa in Norwegian Church Aid, based in South Africa (2011-2014). Jostein was a member of the UNCTAD working group on responsible sovereign lending and borrowing (2009-2011). He has worked as a policy advisor for the African Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) in Zimbabwe. Jostein holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from London School of Economics and a bachelor degree from the Universities of Oslo and Bergen.

Morten Kristiansen, Corporate Attorney, Telenor

Law Degree from University of Oslo 1983, Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunication until 1989 and from 1990 experience as Telecom lawyer both domestic and international projects with different telecom operators. After 2000 I’ve been working mostly with Telenor internationally on different projects and engagements in both Asia and Europe (CEE region). Today I’m a part of Telenor ASA Group Legal Asia team and has been working with Telenor’s engagement in Myanmar from the start, thru the exit and now follow up different processes. Also working with Authority Requests, Human Rights Responsible Business and Governance related issues.

Rachel Kyte, Dean of The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Rachel Kyte is the 14th dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Prior to joining Fletcher, Kyte served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). She previously was the World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change, leading the run-up to the Paris Agreement. She was also vice president at the International Finance Corporation responsible for ESG risk and business advisory services. She served as co-chair of UN Energy.

Kyte is a member of the UN secretary-general’s high-level advisory group on climate action and an advisor to the UK presidency of the UN climate talks. Kyte is co-chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), and chair of the FONERWA, the Rwanda Green Fund. She serves on the boards of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), the Climate Policy Institute and CDP. She advises investors, governments, and not-for-profits on climate, energy, and finance for sustainable development.

A British citizen, Kyte earned ​her undergraduate degree from University of London and ​a Master of Arts in International Relations (GMAP) from The Fletcher School. She is a regular contributor on global media. Kyte has received numerous awards for leadership in climate and sustainable development and was named by Time magazine as one of the 15 women that were leading climate action.

Reidun Blehr Lånkan, Senior Advisor, Etisk Handel Norge

Reidun Blehr Lånkan is a Senior Advisor in the Ownership Department at the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. Previously she has worked several years in Ethical Trade Norway with responsible supply chain management, as well as with human rights and development projects for different NGOs. She has a masters degree in human rights from the University of Oslo.

Iain Levine, Senior Human Rights Advisor, Meta

Iain Levine has worked on Meta’s human rights team since 2020. Previous experiences include many years of humanitarian work in Sub-Saharan Africa with UNICEF, leading Amnesty International’s work at the United Nations in New York and a long stint as deputy executive director for program at Human Rights Watch. Iain is also an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia Unoiversity.

Rae Lindsay, Partner, Clifford Chance LLP; International Advisory Council, IHRB

Rae Lindsay is a partner in Clifford Chance LLP, specialising in public international law, international litigation and transnational regulation. She has practiced in Canada, the United States and England, and has worked in the area of business and human rights for more than a decade, her interest initially stemming from client representations in US litigation involving alleged violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. She now heads her firm's business and human rights practice, and has served on public-sector working groups convened to advance respect for human rights in business, including the development of due diligence frameworks.

Bonny Ling, Executive Director, Work Better Innovations; Research Fellow, IHRB

Dr. Bonny Ling is a scholar and practitioner who works on international human rights and development. She has worked in the UN system and in international civil society. Bonny is Executive Director of Work Better Innovations, a research consultancy with a community service mission working on new ideas for a responsible economy; Senior Non-Resident Fellow with the University of Nottingham Taiwan Studies Programme; and Research Fellow with the Institute for Human Rights and Business.

Bonny wrote her PhD in Law on human trafficking and China at the Irish Centre of Human Rights and is an expert on human trafficking and modern slavery. She graduated from Cambridge University (criminology) and the Fletcher School, Tufts University (law and diplomacy). Bonny has served as an international election observer in East Timor and for the OSCE. Previously at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, she writes on human rights, migrants, business responsibilities and international development and is a contributing writer for Ketagalan Media, New Bloom, Taipei Times, Taiwan Insight and The News Lens.

Anton Mifsud-Bonnici, Advocate

Anton Mifsud-Bonnici is an advocate in private practice. He is passionate about societal-friendly resources and mining. He advises on non-technical risk and ESG strategy related to the energy transition. He is an expert in human rights due diligence and governance in conflict prone regions. Anton is on the advisory council of Good Governance Africa. 

Early in his career Anton co-authored the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. He served as a Commissioner overseeing the review of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights multi-stakeholder initiative. He worked wit UNHCR and with BP. He holds a Doctor of Laws from the University of Malta and a Master in Interntuional and Public Affairs from Columbia University.

John Morrison, CEO, IHRB

John has been CEO of IHRB since its formation in 2009 under the leadership of Mary Robinson (the former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights). John leads IHRB’s global strategy, fundraising, and outreach. Before IHRB, John directed the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (2003-9), was Head of Public Affairs for The Body Shop International (2000-3), and before this worked in the field of refugee protection (in relation to the former Yugoslavia and on issues of human trafficking).

Frank Mugisha, Executive Director, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Rafto Laureate, Human Rights Defender

Frank Mugisha is a respected champion of Human Rights, an anti-violence advocate and one of the few openly LGBTI activists in Uganda, serving as the Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). In 2009, Frank led human rights activists in a march to petition the Ugandan Parliament to stop the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which then had a death penalty, and was among the petitioners to fight the anti-gay law that was eventually nullified by the Ugandan courts.

Frank was awarded United Nations Human Rights Defenders Recognition in 2010, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the Rafto Prize, the Cinema for Peace Human Rights Award. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from Ghent University in Belgium and Glasgow University in Scotland.

Sidsela Nyebak, Vice President, Head of Corporate Sustainability, Statkraft

Sidsela Nyebak is a leading corporate responsibility professional in Norway with extensive experience in the sustainability field. At Statkraft, she works mainly on human rights issues, including implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in a telecommunications context. She has also managed partnerships with international organisations, looking at how to use mobile phones and connectivity for social good. Prior to joining the Telenor Group, Sidsela worked at PA Consulting Group in Oslo and the European Public Health Alliance in Brussels. Sidsela holds an MSc in European Politics and Governance and a BSc in International Relations, both from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Beena Pallical, Rafto laureate; Chair, Dalit Arthik, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights

Beena J Pallical is a Dalit woman Leader and currently General Secretary of the Economic and Educational rights wing within the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)focussing on  Dalit Economic Rights. She has been passionately working towards policy changes for the marginalised communities (Dalits &Tribals ) and been demanding that Dalit Women be included in policy formulation. Her main focus continues to be on Economic Justice and specifically looking at Gender Equity.  She also works towards building equitable solutions for the marginalised communities in both the public and private sectors.

Michael Phoenix, Head of Research and Campaigns, Supporting the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

Michael Phoenix, from Belfast, is head of research and campaigns in the team of Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. He has previously worked as a consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency, as well as for civil society organisations including Front Line Defenders and FIAN Belgium. He has a background in continental philosophy and human rights law and is currently a visiting researcher at the Centre for Social Innovation in Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin.

Ron Popper, Chief Executive, Global Business Initiative on Human Rights; Co-Chair of Trustees, IHRB

Ron has more than a decade of hands-on experience of leading efforts to respect human rights at the corporate level. He was Head of Corporate Responsibility at the ABB Group, focusing on due diligence, capacity building and engaging with societal partners (including communities, suppliers and investors) in different parts of the world until his retirement in 2016. Ron is a former newspaper and radio journalist, working for 25 years in the United Kingdom, Middle East and Switzerland concentrating on international current affairs.

Anita Ramasastry, Professor of Law, University of Washington; International Advisory Council member, IHRB

Anita Ramasastry is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law and the Director of the Sustainable International Development Graduate Program at the University of Washington School of Law. She researches in the fields of law and development, anti-corruption and business and human rights. From 2016-2022 she served as a member and for part her tenure chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights.  She currently serves as the Special Representative to the Chair on Combatting Corruption at the OSCE.  Ramasastry is an Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of the Business and Human Rights Journal, published by Cambridge University Press.  She is also co-founder and immediate past President of the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association.  Ramasastry has advised and worked with numerous intergovernmental and civil society organizations including the World Bank, the EBRD, the European Commission, USAID, Global Witness and the Institute for Human Rights and Business .

Nick Robins, Professor in Practice - Sustainable Finance, London School of Economics, UK

Nick is Professor in Practice for Sustainable Finance at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment. He has also worked as Co-Director of the UN Environment Programme’s Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System for the past four years. Prior to that, Nick was Head of the Climate Change Centre of Excellence at HSBC in London. Nick has co-authored research on: strategic climate investment theme, climate risk, emerging market opportunities, the links between climate change and fiscal stimulus, the outlook and results of the Copenhagen climate conference, the climate vulnerability of G-20 nations and the latest understanding of climate science.

In July 2009, Nick was presented with the Extel Award for best individual analyst for integrated research on climate change. Nick is also co-editor of Sustainable Investing: the Art of Long-Term Performance (2008), co-chair of the UNEP Finance Initiative’s Climate Change Working Group, a member of BT’s CSR Leadership Panel as well as GE’s Corporate Citizenship Panel.

Pia Rudolfsson Goyer, Founder, Ahead for Business and Human Rights

Pia Rudolfsson Goyer is a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience working with companies’ responsibility for human rights. She was for 12 years a Senior Advisor to the Council on Ethics of the Government Pension Fund Global, and runs since 2018 her own consultancy providing guidance about human rights due diligence for companies and investors. Pia also works for Norsif - Norwegian Forum for Responsible and Sustainable Investment, and is a board member of the international think-and-do tank Institute for Human Rights and Business.

She assists Shades of Green (now part of S&P Global) in assessing companies’ sustainable bonds under the EU taxonomy and supports the work of Celsia; a start-up that builds software to help companies to apply several EU regulations. Pia started her career at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm.

Sanchita Banerjee Saxena, Professional Faculty, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley and Senior Advisor, Article One

Dr. Sanchita Banerjee Saxena has close to 20 years of experience working on issues related to labor rights in global supply chains, with a special focus on the garment industry in Asia. Her expertise includes actionable research, stakeholder engagement and coalition building, business development, training, and advocacy. She is currently a Senior Advisor to Article One, a specialised strategy and management consultancy with expertise in human rights, responsible innovation, and sustainability.

Dr. Saxena is also a professional faculty member at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley where she teaches classes about business, labor and global supply chains. She is also a visiting scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Dr. Saxena is the editor of Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza (Routledge, 2020), author of Made in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka: The Labor Behind the Global Garments and Textiles Industries (Cambria Press, 2014), and author of a number of articles, reports, and research briefs.

She has served as an advisor to a number of organisations including the Human Rights Measurement Initiative, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, the H&M Foundation, and Caribou Digital. She is currently a non-resident Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Rights and Business, serves on the BRAC USA Advisory Council, and is a member of the Research Network on Sustainable Global Supply Chains. She frequently gives invited lectures and publishes commentaries in the popular media. Prior to these roles, Dr. Saxena was the Executive Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Saxena holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nina Schefte, Head of Social Responsibility, Group Sustainability, Norsk Hydro

To follow.

Deryne Sim, Media & Entertainment Lawyer

Deryne is a media and entertainment lawyer and an LGBTQ activist. She runs Same But Different, a community group which educates LGBTQ people living in Singapore about how local laws impact them.  Prior to this she was part of Pink Dot SG, a social movement which promotes acceptance and equality for LGBTQ people in Singapore. In 2021, she was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship and obtained an LL.M in Law and Sexuality at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Marte Johnson Stensrud, Equinor

• Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU)
• 20 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, mainly from large development projects, various leadership positions within procurement and supplier relations
• International experience including assignments in Russia and Spain
• Since 2018, responsible for Equinor’s corporate human rights and social responsibility function, reporting to SVP Climate & Sustainability
• Born in 1977, married and mother of one, Norwegian citizen

Mark Taylor, Senior Program Manager, Docket Initiative, Clooney Foundation for Justice

Mark B. Taylor is a Senior Program Manager with the Foundation’s Docket initiative where he leads work on commercial and other enablers of international crimes. For two decades, Mark has conducted research and investigation into conflict and post-conflict transitions and advised governments, civil society, trade unions, and companies on the theory and practice of responsible business. Before joining the Foundation, he held research and management positions at the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, Oslo, where his subjects ranged from strategic litigation, business and human rights, and sustainability in global value chains. Mark was a member of the expert group of the Corporate Crimes and Human Rights Project as well as a government-appointed committee in Norway on supply chain transparency, and sits on the advisory councils of several social movement organisations. His most recent publication is War Economies and International Law: Regulating the Economic Activities of Violent Conflict (Cambridge, 2021). Mark holds a B.A. from McGill University, Montreal, an LL.M from Leiden University in the Netherlands and a DPhil from the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo.

Salil Tripathi, Senior Advisor, Global Issues, IHRB

Salil Tripathi is senior adviser - global issues, at the Institute for Human Rights and Business. He leads the Institute’s work on human rights defenders, discrimination, technology, and conflict. He cowrote the UN Standards of Conduct for Business with regard to LGBTI rights and was co-author of the Red Flags Initiative. He has been a researcher at Amnesty International and policy adviser at International Alert. He has researched human rights in Nigeria, Bosnia, South Africa, Colombia, and  many parts of Asia. He has been on panels to promote sustainability at major corporations, a fellow at Harvard University, and teaches classes on human rights at Cambridge University. Salil was recently named as one of the world’s leading ‘influencers’ on corporate social responsibility. He was educated at the University of Bombay and Dartmouth College, and lives in the United States.  

Owen Tudor, Deputy General Secretary, ITUC

Owen Tudor was elected as Deputy General Secretary of the ITUC in December 2018 and re-elected at its Fifth World Congress in Melbourne, Australia, November 2022.

Owen was recruited into the union movement in 1984 off a picket line and worked for the TUC UK, on youth, training, disability and social insurance issues before moving onto health and safety, disability and industrial injury compensation. He founded the TUC’s weekly bulletin Risks, aimed at safety representatives, and acted for the TUC on the tripartite Industrial Injuries Advisory Council and Health and Safety Commission. He was also a founder member of the Social Security Advisory Committee and the Civil Justice Council, and sat on the board of the European Agency for Safety and Health, and on the EU Advisory Committee on Safety and Health. In 2004 he became head of the European Union and International Relations Department at the TUC UK, covering international solidarity, trade and migration policy, labour standards, global supply chains and Brexit.

In addition, Owen has been a Director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, a Director of the Occupational and Environmental Diseases Association, and has held Trustee positions at the British Occupational Health Research Foundation, the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID), and the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine.

He is a member of the UK Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, the Advisory Council of the Foreign Policy Centre and the Politics without Borders Advisory Board.