Supplier Capacity Development
Speakers
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President and CEO, BSR
Aron is recognized globally as a preeminent authority on corporate responsibility and sustainability strategy by business, NGOs, and the public sector. Under his leadership, BSR has doubled its staff and expanded its global presence, which currently includes offices in Copenhagen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Tokyo. On a day-to-day basis, Aron advises senior executives at more than 250 member companies and other global businesses and is regularly featured as a speaker at major events and in a range of top-tier media outlets. Aron is co-author of the book Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World, which spotlights some of the sustainability strategies that drive business success.
Aron joined BSR in 1995 as the founding director of our business and human rights program and opened BSR’s Paris office in 2002, where he worked until assuming his current role as President and CEO in 2004.
Previously Aron practiced law in San Francisco and worked as a journalist at ABC News in New York.
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Director of Better Work, International Labour Organization
Dan Rees is the Director of Better Work, a partnership between the United International Labour Organisation and the International Finnce Coprporation that brings together government, employers, workers and international buyers to improve working conditions and competitiveness in the global garment and footwear industry. Better Work is currently operational in 8 countries and engages around 1100 factories employing over 1.3 million people.
From 1999-2010 Dan was the first Director of the Ethical Trading Initiative and spearheaded its growth from start up to a field leader wth respected international reputation in ethical trade in global supply chains. He is a leading expert on this aspect of corporate and has advised numerous governments international organisations and leading companies on best practice in improving working conditions in supply chains.
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Head of Responsible Sourcing, Packaging and Plan A, Marks and Spencer
Louise Nicholls is Head of Responsible Sourcing, Packaging and Plan A with responsibility for setting strategic direction of Marks & Spencer’s Food sustainability plan. Her team work closely with buying teams on a day to day basis with issues as diverse as Ethical Trade, Water stewardship, Global community programmes, Lean manufacturing and sustainable raw material procurement. Louise is a board member of Sedex and a key part of her role is interaction with a wide range of stakeholders and suppliers. In last 12 months Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, America, China, Vietnam and Europe meeting with over 1,000 suppliers and local stakeholders to understand their issues and perspectives.
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Vice President, Sustainability, Levi Strauss & Co.
Michael Kobori has led sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co. since 2001. Under his tenure, the company has been a pioneer, reducing the environmental impact of its products through its Levi’s® Waste<Less™ and Water<Less™ collections, Dockers’® WellThread collection, Care for Our Planet program, and leadership on the Better Cotton Initiative.
In addition, the company has gone beyond labor compliance by publicly disclosing its manufacturing supplier locations, leading the industry in banning sandblasting, and partnering with NGOs and key suppliers to support programs that improve workers’ lives.
Based on its sustainability work, Levi Strauss & Co. was recently named one of the most innovative companies in the world by FastCompany magazine, which also named Mr. Kobori one of its 1000 Most Creative People in Business.
Prior to joining Levi Strauss & Co., Michael served as Vice President at BSR and before that spent nearly a decade at The Asia Foundation, supporting human rights and economic development in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Michael is a lecturer on sustainability at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
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CEO, GoodWeave
Nina Smith is the founding Chief Executive Officer of GoodWeave International, the leading global NGO working to stop child labor in global supply chains by bringing visibility and voice to workers; restoring childhoods; and providing assurance to companies and consumers. Under Nina's leadership GoodWeave has pioneered and innovated a system that has directly rescued more than 6,000 children from exploitation and provided rehabilitation, education, and other critical support to these and thousands of other children in producer communicates in India, Nepal, and Afghanistan. A longtime advocate for children’s rights and an expert on addressing labor violations in manufacturing supply chains, Nina has spoken on these issues at fora such as the Skoll World Forum, the World Economic Forum, Harvard University, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the American Bar Association, among others. She is winner of the Skoll and Schwab awards for social entrepreneurship, and the Center for Nonprofit Advancement’s EXCEL Award for excellence in chief executive leadership. Currently Nina sits on the board of the Fair Labor Association, and is a practitioner affiliate of the Social Enterprise Graduate Degree program at American University. She is a graduate of Tufts University.
