PROGRAMME

Raquel works as a team at amfori. Her work at amfori is focused on two pillars: one is providing expertise for the strategic priority of Food & Agriculture, whereas the second is on providing expertise for the strategic priority on Transparency. She is involved in three of amfori’s Project Groups: Transparency, Sustainability of the Food Industry and Sustainable Wine Programme 2.0. Raquel’s previous experience was on multistakeholder projects on smart-agriculture for the livestock and commodities sectors. Her latest education endeavour is as an executive MBA candidate on Food & Agribusiness from Wageningen University.

Mitsuru is the Social and Environmental Policy Advisor of amfori. Before joining the Advocacy team, he worked for the European Parliament for a research project on violations of fundamental rights in specific legal systems. He also worked for Moody’s Investor Service as a Sustainability Analyst, where he conducted research on sustainability trends and analysed sustainability policies. He holds a degree in Law obtained in Milan, and a Master’s degree in European and International Law pursued in Amsterdam.

Jean-Marie works as an Environmental Sustainability Senior Expert at amfori, within the Strategy & Innovation department. He studied initially chemical and environmental engineering, and completed this academic background in 2010 by a specialized masters on eco-design and environmental management. Before joining amfori, we has worked for 19 years for 3M, mostly in Research & Development and Sustainability positions.

Dr Leon Mol was educated as an agronomist at Wageningen University. He started his career establishing a large potato farm in Egypt, followed by international, technical and commercial jobs in the potato sector. Later, Leon was employed as Agronomist at Albert Heijn (The Netherlands) working on long term availability and sustainability of fresh fruit & vegetables, flowers and plants, with an emphasis on food safety, social compliance. Now, Leon is Director Product Safety & Social Compliance at Ahold Delhaize. The (global) scope of the activities includes product safety, social compliance, animal welfare and sustainability of animal and plant related products.

Rogier studied international law at the Utrecht University. Before joining the European Commission, he worked several years at the Dutch Ministry of Finance. Within the Commission he dealt ia with issues relating to the accession of Central and Eastern European countries, copyright, clearing & settlement and insurance.  Rogier currently works in the Unit “Corporate Reporting, Audit and Credit Rating Agencies” at DG FISMA. He is involved in the ongoing revision of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Jean Johnson is the Director, Apparel and Accessories. She has more than 15 years of experience in the socially responsible apparel, home goods and giftware sector, including eight years as Director of Product Development and Merchandising for the fair-trade nonprofit SERRV. She also served as Country Director for Aid to Artisans in Macedonia, and has consulted with organizations around the world on issues related to export development, including marketing, product development, and ethical business practices. Jean has an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a graduate of Yale University.

Trade Union Organiser, Trainer and leader has more than twelve years of experience in National Trade Union and 4 years of experience in Global Labour Movement, with specific three years in Advocacy, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation of Projects in Multi Industries such as Steel, Ship Breaking, Ready Made Garments, Leather and Tanneries, Textiles and also ILO project of Child Labour in Rajasthan Mines.

Presently as National Coordinator, All India Unorganised Workers Congress, working exclusively with informal workers-specifically Home Based Workers and Agricultural workers, deals in all aspects of poor income, illiteracy, ill health, gender inequality, and environmental issues.

Basically, she has been interested to work for women and children education, health welfare and sustainable development. She has been in teaching profession for the past 17 years. She resigned from Jusco School, Tata Steel for her greed to enhance her skills and to focus more independently in social sector activities and societies.

With educationist background and in depth knowledge of Organising, Rights advocacy of Gender issues she has experience in planning, designing projects, developing strategies for collective actions of multiple unions at Local, National and also Regional levels including Evaluation of all the projects. During four years’ extensive work in Global Union, she has been an integral part in planning, designing, implementation of project activities, advocacy and evaluation and future planning for sustainability were the core strength. Had also been an Evaluator in an ILO project on Child Labour in Mining sector. Has critical understanding and evaluation of RMG in EPZ’s in India and SriLanka, Textiles in Tamilnadu, Tanneries in Kolkata and Community work involving women in the downstream industry in India and Bangladesh.

• Joined the UK based international labour rights NGO Homeworkers Worldwide in 2017, initially leading a study of working conditions in UK apparel manufacturing, and completing Gender reviews for a major supermarket and a food distribution company for the UK’s Ethical Trading Initiative.
• Currently leads HWW’s advocacy work with companies and multi-stakeholder initiatives through the Hidden Homeworkers programme – Improving Transparency and Traceability to Improve Working Conditions of Homeworkers in Apparel and Footwear Chains in India, Pakistan and Nepal, co-funded by the EC.
• Between 2017-18, Lucy worked alongside Jane Tate, our longstanding International Co-ordinator, co-ordinating work to improve working conditions for homeworkers stitching leather shoe uppers in footwear manufacturing supply chains in Tamil Nadu.
• Lucy’s doctoral thesis explored the situation of homeworkers within a globalising world, focusing specifically on homeworkers – and the NGOs working with them – in the UK and Chile.
• Prior to re-joining HWW as a staff member in 2017 Lucy worked for Oxfam managing their livelihoods programme in England between 2008-14, and as a researcher at universities in Bradford and Manchester.

As amfori’s country Representative, Natasha has a rich background in the area of sustainability. Natasha worked with Bloomberg LP for 7 years, she was their South Asia Manager. In 2011-2012 she worked to build Bloomberg’s sustainability database across Environmental, Social and Governance parameters. In 2013, she co-funded her own social compliance consultancy. Here she gained insights into on-the-ground working conditions. She is experienced in assessing compliance across health & safety, compensation & benefits, occupational hazards, fire safety, child labour and bonded labour, among many other key supply chain issues such as gender equality and women empowerment. Since early 2015, Natasha has assisted in rolling out amfori trainings and capacity building efforts (pan-India). She assumed the role of amfori Network Representative India in 2016. She speaks fluent English, Hindi, Marathi and some French.

Eric Gravier is the Environmental & Chemical Programme Lead of amfori, the Trade for Purpose association, since March 2019. His current mission is to improve the environmental footprint of various industrial supply chains. To achieve this goal, this French native safety & environment engineer tries to benefit from its 20 years of experience in industry, firstly as head of HSE consultant in the French plastics converting industry, offering technical and regulatory support to SMEs and PMES, then as Environmental Head in an International Belgian company, leader in the Plastics fluids handlings systems. This journey allowed him to achieve environmental improvements both at manufacturing unit and at product levels. Key milestones were for him: ISO certifications, regulatory affairs management, energy savings, VOC reduction, hazards prevention then eco-conception and development of LCAs. He was active as expert or convenor in various European or national standardisation bodies, industrial trade associations and EU initiatives as the Product Environmental Footprint.

Florence is the Environmental Policy Advisor at amfori. She has studied European and international law in France and in Finland. Before working in advocacy, she has developed the BEPI platform and participated in pilot of amfori’s Timber Due Diligence tool.

Kathy Roussel is amfori Manager of the Policy and Government Affairs Team. As such she designs and implement strategies to push amfori policy agenda towards open and sustainable trade.Graduated in both Political Sciences and European Law, Kathy has more than 15 years of experience in Public affairs. In her past role, she was running the Brussels representation office of AHDB and also acted as the Secretary General for a European Platform of national agri-food promotion organizations.

Oscar has been working with El Corte Inglés, one of the largest retailing groups from Spain, for over 15 years, holding different positions in its sourcing offices around Asia (China, Korea, South East Asia and Bangladesh). Due to his years of experience in sourcing and managerial positions in the company, he was appointed in 2018 as the CSR Manager for Asia Pacific Region focused on ensuring the match between the CSR strategies and requirements of the company and the business needs. Prior to his present company he also worked in South East Asia promoting infrastructure projects developed by a Spanish engineering company with Official Development Aid from the Spanish Government.

Sarah has over 10 years’ experience in responsible sourcing of forest impact commodities, particularly within the timber sector and due diligence systems. Drawing on experience working with diverse companies, Sarah provides bespoke business solutions for responsible sourcing and supply chain management.Sarah joined NEPCon in 2017.

Annelise works with BSR members across sectors to promote women’s empowerment through consulting, collaboration, and research. She supports the work of the Business Action for Women collaborative initiative.
Prior to joining BSR, Annelise worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she led the OECD Policy Dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment, a global multi-stakeholder community committed to promoting women’s economic empowerment. Her research focused on identifying barriers to women’s economic empowerment, women’s unpaid care work, and time use. During her time at the OECD, she worked on the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), conducted research, and led trainings on social norms and gender equality. She also worked closely with bilateral donors to ensure that their development programming supported gender equality and women’s empowerment and worked on issues such as combatting sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment.
Annelise holds a M.A. in International Relations from the American University of Paris and a B.A. in International Affairs and French from the University of Georgia.

Franzis Wimmer is the Senior Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator at amfori, where he coordinates amfori’s work to advance women’s empowerment in global supply chains as well as living wages. Franzis is also responsible for coordinating the strategic engagement of amfori’s key stakeholders including international organisations, civil society and trade unions. In his role, he is responsible for identifying and forging strategic partnerships to advance amfori’s mission to create a global trade framework that uses natural resources responsibly and benefits everyone. Before working for amfori, Franzis worked for different international non-profit associations, such as CSR Europe and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, to advance sustainability in both the private and public sector. Franzis holds a Bachelor of Arts in European Studies and a Master of Science in Sustainability Science and Policy from the University of Maastricht.

Guggi Laryea is amfori’s Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships Senior Manager and as such is in charge of managing amfori’s relationships and co-operation with stakeholders, as well as overseeing amfori’s climate change program. Prior to joining amfori last year Guggi spent over 10 years with the World Bank Brussels Office where he was responsible for amongst others relations with civil society actors in Western Europe and partnerships with the private sector to support job creation for youth.

Katja leads ‘WeEmpowerAsia’, a joint programme of the European Union and UN Women, that aims to increase the number of women who lead and participate in private-sector businesses in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, thereby advancing inclusive and sustainable growth along with stronger links between European and Asian markets through gender-sensitive trade and supply chains.
She has more than 15 years of experience in the private sector. Prior to joining UN Women in 2019, she was Director of Global Partnerships and Advocacy for Women’s Economic Empowerment, Inclusive Business and Enhancing Livelihoods at Unilever, a company she had served since 2003.
Katja is a member of the Advisory Board of Dharma Life, a social enterprise working to improve the quality of life in rural India through female entrepreneurship.

Dr Leon Mol was educated as an agronomist at Wageningen University. He started his career establishing a large potato farm in Egypt, followed by international, technical and commercial jobs in the potato sector. Later, Leon was employed as Agronomist at Albert Heijn (The Netherlands) working on long term availability and sustainability of fresh fruit & vegetables, flowers and plants, with an emphasis on food safety, social compliance. Now, Leon is Director Product Safety & Social Compliance at Ahold Delhaize. The (global) scope of the activities includes product safety, social compliance, animal welfare and sustainability of animal and plant related products.

Adrian has been involved with the Federation of Migros Cooperative, Switzerland for more than 15 years and has developed deep insights into the retail business of the company. For the past six years as the Head of Department Sustainability & Quality Assurance in Asia he has ably led sustainability teams in India and Hong Kong. During this period, he has ensured consistent delivery on the responsibility of the implementation of social standards, execution of sustainability initiatives and the safeguarding of quality standards.

Since 2000, Adrian has held several positions with the company, including Quality Planning, Chief Buyer, Head of Quality Department and Head of Buying Department.

Mr. Samuel Bouillé has been working in METRO, a leading international specialist in food wholesale, for over 14 years. Samuel is currently the Head of Quality Assurance of Metro Sourcing International Limited, which is responsible for procurement services within the group. He leads the Quality and Sustainability teams and his role is to define and implement company policies, standards and processes related to suppliers and products management with his expertise in quality assurance. He was the Head of Own Brand Non-Food of METRO AG in Duesseldorf for 5 years and Non-Food Project Manager of QA Department of METRO CASH AND CARRY France for 4 years.

Prior to joining METRO, Samuel was Customs Officer at the Direction Générale des Douanes for 10 years where he belonged to the Market Surveillance Department.

Samuel graduated from Université ANGERS in History. He also holds a Master degree of Political Science from Université RENNES I

Ms Joyce Chau joined amfori as the Network Representative of the organization in Greater China in June 2011.  She leads the Greater China team based in Hong Kong and acts an intermediary between the Main Office in Brussels, members, suppliers and local stakeholders in Greater China and support amfori services in neighboring sourcing countries. Her role is to promote free trade and sustainable supply chain through supporting sustainability activities related to business social compliance (amfori BSCI), environmental performance (amfori BEPI) and trade policy (amfori advocacy).  Started from Jan 2019, Ms Chau takes up the position of Director Asia Pacific and leads the regional team in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India and Turkey, to drive open and sustainable trade in the region.

In more than 20 years, Ms Chau has been working as a corporate communications practitioner for various organizations with focus on sustainability, CSR, and supply chain management.  Her major expertise is in public affairs, stakeholder and media relations crisis and issues management, etc.

Prior to joining amfori, she was the Senior Vice President of the HSBC Corporate Sustainability Asia Pacific Region Office, Dell China’s Corporate Communications Director and she also worked for HKSAR Government’ Innovation and Technology Commission, HK Airport Authority and GS1, a global supply chain standard organisation.  She possesses a BSoSc in Communications and a Master of Arts in Translation

Sian Fenner over fifteen years experience in macroeconomic research and forecasting across emerging markets. She is currently a Lead Asia Economist for Oxford Economics responsible for the forecasts and research across key ASEAN economies. As part of the Asia leadership team her role includes driving OE’s Asia views and forecasts, undertaking related risk analysis and consultancy work and client presentations. In addition, she specializes in macro-modelling and scenario analysis aimed at quantifying risks to the short and medium-term outlook on different economies. Prior to joining Oxford Economics Sian worked for Lloyds Bank as the lead emerging market economist responsible for forecasting the economic outlook, fx and monetary policy across key emerging economies. Sian spent the first five years of her career as an economist at the Australian Federal Treasury and worked on forecasts and modelling for the Australian economy and a broad range of research for advanced and emerging economies.

Mr. Alex W.H. Young is the Group CEO of TexRay Industrial Co., Ltd., a globalized vertical integrated textile group publicly listed in Taiwan, with over 30+ years of extensive technical management, academic and consultancy experience.

Young graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Textile Technology. He also holds a MSc from the University of Stirling, the UK and a Master of Advanced Business Practice from the University of South Australia. He is currently a Visiting Professor of the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art (SIVA), Shanghai and an Adjunct Professor of Practice of the Catholic Fu Jen University, Taiwan, published over 60 referred journal papers, conference papers, chapters, and over 103 trade journals and newspaper articles.

While actively serving the industry, Young is a Member of the Hong Kong Institution of Textile and Apparel (HK) and has served as the Honorary Secretary of the Hong Kong Institution of Textile and Apparel (HK) and the Hong Kong Chapter of the Textile Institute (HK). He has served an advisor of the Taiwan Garment Industry Association, an advisor of the Taiwan Textile Industry Promotion office, IDB, MOEA, a Deputy Convener of the Taiwan Smart Textiles Alliance (TSTA), Member of the Executive Committee of Taiwan Textile Printing Dyeing & Finishing Association

Heidi is a Finnish Member of the European Parliament representing the Greens, and Vice-President of the European Parliament.

She is involved in several committees (International Trade, Human Rights, Legal Affairs) and delegations for relations with Southeast Asia and Russia.

She is the founder of the European Parliament working group for Responsible Business Conduct, which involves a number of stakeholders and MEPs from different political groups.

She holds a Master of Agriculture and Forestry (M.Sc.) degree.

Mitsuru is the Social and Environmental Policy Advisor of amfori. Before joining the Advocacy team, he worked for the European Parliament for a research project on violations of fundamental rights in specific legal systems. He also worked for Moody’s Investor Service as a Sustainability Analyst, where he conducted research on sustainability trends and analysed sustainability policies. He holds a degree in Law obtained in Milan, and a Master’s degree in European and International Law pursued in Amsterdam.

Nina von Radowitz is a lawyer and started working at METRO in 2006 as Head of Regulatory Affairs. She mainly worked on Quality Assurance related issues close to the EU-policy making bodies. She has also served as the Vice Chairman of the retail federation EuroCommerce Food and Consumer Policy Committee.

Since 2015 Nina is responsible for the Social Compliance Management of METRO’s Supply Chain. She drives forward CR communication and reporting. Nina supports the embedding of sustainability aspects into METRO’s Human Resources processes such as integration of CR in leadership development programs

Damla Taşkın is the Senior Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion Officer for United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges Turkey Operation. She oversees the employment, entrepreneurship, skills building and training programmes related to labor market integration of refugees with the overall objective of self reliance. She has worked in the first Cluster Development, Competitiveness and Women`s Entrepreneurship programmes in Turkey and has provided consultancy services to Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology as Industrial Strategy and Sectoral Strategies Key Expert as well as various private sector companies, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, Ministry of European Affairs, Ministry of Maritime, Transport and Communications.

She prepared the United Nations Post 2015 Development Agenda – Engaging with the Private Sector, Turkey Country Report for Sustainable Development Goals, after extensive consultations.  Damla Taşkın is a graduate of TED Ankara Koleji, Hacettepe University, Middle East Technical University and İstanbul Bilgi University. Currently she is also serving as Executive Commitee member for the Technology and Innovation Programmes of Tübitak, Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey ans a Board Member of the Global Entrepreneuship Network. Damla Taşkın will be acting as the Senior Livelihoods and Economic Inclusion Officer for the Asia Pacific countries at UNHCR as of November 2020 based in Jakarta Indonesia.

Ms. Müge Tuna Kurt is an international consultant and trainer in social compliance more than fifteen years experience. With having worked in textile and apparel factories for 8 years, then in 2012, she started to work for an NGO as a lead auditor for EMEA region and conducted numerous audits in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Hungary and India. She had also assisted various projects on cotton supply chain risks, excessive overtime in textile industry and piloting USDA Guidelines in hazelnut supply chain.  In 2014, she started to work as a consultant and also provided supplier trainings on labor conditions and workplace rules for amfori (prior to FTA) in Turkey as an accredited trainer for amfori. During her work experience, Ms. Tuna has conducted extensive research on Turkey legal context for labor rights. She has also assisted various mediation sessions between companies and workers representatives on workplace disputes.

Since July 2016, Ms. Müge Tuna Kurt is working as a Network Representative for amfori (Prior to FTA).  She owns Aleph CSR Consultancy, Training Services Co. Ltd. supporting to companies in implementing social compliance.

Ozlem Guneyli has 30 years experience in apparel industry. She worked as a leader at sourcing departments of national and multinational brands at development and buying processes. She worked to settle down the social compliance codes of the brands. During her work experience, using textile engineer background she also prepared and gave textile technology educations to sourcing and sales employees. In 2016 she joined to Karbel Konfeksiyon as Team Leader for UK Markets. Two years later in order to share her experience in more efficient way, she began to work as Process Development Leader. Then she also took the responsibility of the Social Compliance subjects, where she worked with the teams to develop the social compliance codes within the company and gave social compliance seminars to the workers.

Millat joined amfori in Jan 2018, with 17 years of strategic and operational experience in the fields of CSR & Sustainability in South Asia. He worked for reputed brands of US & Europe on ethical business & responsible purchasing practices, stakeholder engagement, capacity building etc. He also worked on humanitarian, disaster & crisis situation and on projects on Child Protection, Women Empowerment, Living Wage calculation etc.  Millat holds a masters in management from a European university and remains affiliated with many social clubs & communities

Anna Stancher has joined amfori in November2016 as part of the BSCI team. Since 2019 Anna is assigned to the Strategy and Innovation team of amfori, where she leads work on food sustainability and is Product Owner for the amfori Sustainability Platform.

Previously Anna worked for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in the promotion of value chains and private sector development. She is an experienced project manager and has successfully collaborated with national governments, private foundations and international donors.

Her regional experience covers Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.  She holds a MSc in International Development from the University of Manchester, UK. Anna is an Italian native speaker and is fluent in English, German and Spanish.

Hanna has been working for Systembolaget, the Swedish state-owned retail monopoly for alcoholic beverages and one of the world’s larger buyers of wine, beer and spirits, for the last six years within the Sustainability department. The department is responsible for ensuring responsible purchasing practices and sustainability work throughout Systembolaget’s global agricultural supply chains, from primary production to the Systembolaget stores.

Her current role is Sustainability Manager Human Rights and Global Relations, where she focuses on Systembolaget’s alignment with the UNGPs and is also responsible for supply chain stakeholder engagement. This includes roles in global collaboration with unions, chair for the Nordic Monopolies Social Sustainability Group and board member of Ethical Trade Initiative Sweden.

Miina has a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering and has been working with supply chain sustainability in different capacities for the past 8 years. In her current role, she is responsible for managing the development and implementation of Salling Group’s supplier due diligence processes – social and environmental compliance policies in the food and near-food product categories across Salling Group’s business formats in Denmark, Germany and Poland. Prior to joining Salling Group, she worked for a large international food ingredient manufacturer and is therefore accutely aware of the sustainability challenges and complexities that exist across food supply chains.

Raquel works at Strategy & Innovation team at amfori. Her work at amfori is focused on two pillars: one is providing expertise for the strategic priority of Food & Agriculture, whereas the second is on providing expertise for the strategic priority on Transparency. She is involved in three of amfori’s Project Groups: Transparency, Sustainability of the Food Industry and Sustainable Wine Programme 2.0. Raquel’s previous experience was on multi stakeholder projects on smart-agriculture for the livestock sector and diverse agriculture commodities. Her latest education endeavour is as an executive MBA candidate on Food & Agribusiness from Wageningen University.

Rena Hinoshita is a junior policy analyst in risk-based due diligence for the agricultural sector. She supports the Centre’s efforts in promoting the uptake of the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains. Rena is currently leading the pilot project with companies in Southeast Asia along agricultural supply chains under the EU-ILO-OECD Responsible Supply Chains in Asia programme with funding by the European Union. Prior to her current role at the OECD, she was a project formulation advisor for agricultural and fishery value chain development at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Senegal and served as a consultant at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), promoting knowledge sharing on inclusive business.

Shivani Kannabhiran is a specialist in risk-based due diligence at the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct (RBC). She is the sector lead on responsible agricultural supply chains and the implementation of the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains.  Shivani provides technical advice to policy makers and practitioners on integrating due diligence into policies and standards. She collaborates with industry, civil society and workers to prevent and address risks in human rights, labour, land, the environment and governance. Shivani is also experienced in due diligence in the minerals sector with subject matter expertise on child labour and gender.

Anna Cavazzini is a German member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA, since July 2019. She is a member of the Committee on International Trade and a substitute member of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. In addition, she is Vice-President of the Brazil Delegation, substitute member of the Central American Delegation and deputy speaker of the German delegation. She studied European Studies and International Relations in Germany. She previously worked as an adviser for the NGOs ‘Bread for the World’ and Campact, and as counsellor at the UN on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Since 1994 I work for METRO. From 1994 until 2010 in the customs department of the department store Galeria Kaufhof and since 2010 in the mother company METRO, responsible for customs and foreign trade.

Claudio Francavilla is Human Rights Watch’s EU Officer. Based in Brussels, he supports the organization’s advocacy work vis-à-vis the European Union. Before joining Human Rights Watch in 2014, Claudio interned with Search for Common Ground, a peace-building NGO, first in Liberia and then in Brussels. He holds a M.A. in Human Rights and Conflict Management from Sant’Anna School, Pisa, Italy, and a Law Degree from the Catholic University of Milan.

Following his studies, Walter worked for Oxfam Novib supporting programmes in Africa, and for the ILO in Nigeria on employment strategies including enterprise development and child labour.  He then worked for the European Commission in Thailand dealing with trade policy which he followed with a period in the Dutch Foreign Service.  After passing an EU competition, he joined DG Research and later moved to the EU’s humanitarian aid department.  Recent postings include Indonesia and the Philippines, where he served as head of the trade section of the EU Delegation, engaging government and civil society on free trade agreements, and various market access issues.  He joined DG TRADE’s Trade and Sustainable Development unit in 2018, coordinating the EU’s GSP using EU trade to improve labour, human rights and environmental standards in our trading partners.

Stuart started his career at the UK Patent and Trademark Office dealing with trademark applications.  He quickly moved to the IPR policy department where he represented the UK at meetings in Brussels and Geneva and once had to draft a reply for the Minister of Trade to a letter written by someone claiming to be the “astral time twin of the Prince of Wales”.

He was later seconded to the EU Commission, first to the IPR unit and then to Market Access.  At the former, he once examined Slovenia’s claim that Lipizzaner horses (that make the Spanish Riding School in Vienna so famous) should be protected as a geographical indication.  At the latter, he tried to combat counterfeit Scotch whisky and illegal market approvals of pharmaceuticals in Turkey.

After a short stint at Novartis in Basel, he returned to Brussels to work for the Foreign Trade Association (now called Amfori) representing EU importers, retailers, and brand-names.  Here he specialises in the world of anti-dumping (on which he has written several articles), customs and international trade.

Christian Ewert is the President of amfori, the leading global business association for open and sustainable trade, bringing together over 2,400 retailers, importers, brands and associations from more than 40 countries. Our membership contains organisations of all sizes and all sectors with a combined turnover of more than one trillion euros.

Prior to his role at amfori, Christian worked as President and CEO of ICTI CARE Foundation, the International Council of Toy Industries’ (ICTI) programme to promote social compliance in the supply chain producing for the toy and children’s products industry. Christian previously worked as the Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Board of Zapf Creation, Europe’s leading manufacturer of branded play & function and collector dolls and doll accessories. For more than 10 years he held the position of Managing Director and Chairman of North Sails Lanka which is the leading manufacturer of products for the windsurfing industry, operating two factories and employing more than 1000 staff. Christian had previously held the position of the CEO of Mistral Sports, the market leader in the windsurfing industry.

Eric Gravier is the Environmental & Chemical Programme Lead of amfori, the Trade for Purpose association, since March 2019. His current mission is to improve the environmental footprint of various industrial supply chains. To achieve this goal, this French native safety & environment engineer tries to benefit from its 20 years of experience in industry, firstly as head of HSE consultant in the French plastics converting industry, offering technical and regulatory support to SMEs and PMES, then as Environmental Head in an International Belgian company, leader in the Plastics fluids handlings systems. This journey allowed him to achieve environmental improvements both at manufacturing unit and at product levels. Key milestones were for him: ISO certifications, regulatory affairs management, energy savings, VOC reduction, hazards prevention then eco-conception and development of LCAs. He was active as expert or convenor in various European or national standardisation bodies, industrial trade associations and EU initiatives as the Product Environmental Footprint.

Guggi Laryea is amfori’s Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships Senior Manager and as such is in charge of managing amfori’s relationships and co-operation with stakeholders, as well as overseeing amfori’s climate change program. Prior to joining amfori last year Guggi spent over 10 years with the World Bank Brussels Office where he was responsible for amongst others relations with civil society actors in Western Europe and partnerships with the private sector to support job creation for youth.

Joe Hobbs is a 17-year old youth climate activist who currently attends college and high school, working on an associate in cybersecurity. He is part of Fridays for Future USA, and Fridays for Future International. He is also the Operations Director for international organization Climate Cardinals. He has worked with multiple organizations, corporations, and companies as well as with the media to bring everyone together on the topic of climate change.

Lindita Xhaferi Salihu leads work on sectors engagement in climate action as part of UN Climate Change wider Global Climate Action work. She led development of both Sports for Climate Action and Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and works closely with a variety of stakeholders to mobilize key actors and catalyze ambitious action towards decarbonization. Before joining UN Climate Change, Lindita worked in public relations and coordinated projects promoting multi-stakeholder engagement in policy and sustainability. Lindita has an educational background in engineering, international relations and global energy & climate policy.

Dr Rachel Alexander is an independent consultant, a senior research associate at the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, and a visiting researcher in the Centre for Business and Development Studies at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. The main focus of her work is sustainable production and industrial policy.