Speakers and Panelists for the
Future of Global Value Chain Governance Conference
October 2024
Anna Burger
served as a top ranking officer at the Service Employees International Union and was the first chair of the Change to Win labor federation. She also served on President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and held a Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow. She is currently a board member at Katalyst Initiative and Chair of the Cornell Global Labor Institute Board.
Robert Masua Bwana
is a researcher at the University of Amsterdam Business School. He worked on the Crowdsourcing Application for Responsible Production in Africa (CARPA) project with the NWO and has won multiple grants to study technology deployed in mining sites in East and Central Africa. He also studies the interaction between these technologies, Just Transition requirements, and equitable access to information.
Martin Curley
is Head of Research & Policy at Katalyst Initiative. A former Policy Leader Fellow at the EUI School of Transnational Governance, and Policy Officer at Fair Wear, he brings extensive experience of value chain dynamics and their relevance for governance.
Klaas Hendrik Eller
is Associate Professor of Private law at the Amsterdam Law School, University of Amsterdam, and Katalyst board member. His research focuses on the legal regulation of global supply chains, especially regarding human rights and environmental sustainability, as well as on corporate reactions to value chain regulations, at the national, European, and transnational level. He is a Katalyst Initiative Board Member.
Luc Fransen
leads the Responsible Business Conduct Lab and is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the global organization of production, the regulation of worker rights, human rights and environmental sustainability in global supply chains; and transnational organization of civil society activism.
Wiranta Ginting
is Deputy International Coordinator for Asia Floor Wage Alliance. Based in Indonesia, he is an organizer and labor rights educator who has worked with trade unions, small grassroots NGOs and worker-led organizing programs in South-East Asia for twenty years.
Caitlin Helfrich
Caitlin Helfrich is senior policy advisor to the Deputy Undersecretary for International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. Previously, she was worked for the ILO, where she implemented the organization’s action programme on global supply chains; Talbots, Inc.; and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Labor Affairs.
Mekhla Jha
is an Inclusive Trade Specialist at the World Economic Forum's Centre for Regions, Trade and Geopolitics. Her work on sustainable trade includes engagement with the Thinking Ahead on Societal Change (TASC) Platform, and has worked on projects to integrate better labour protections into trade policy.
Jason Judd
is Executive Director of the ILR Global Labor Institute at Cornell University. He previously led the Ship to Shore Rights Project at the International Labor Organization in Bangkok and has organized global labor campaigns for 20 years
Sarosh Kuruvilla
is Academic Director of the ILR Global Labor Institute and Professor of Industrial Relations and Asian Studies at Cornell University. His research focuses on the linkages between Economic Development strategies and national human resource policies in Asia, and more recently, on human rights in global supply chains.
Anne Lally
is Chair and co-Founder of Katalyst Initiative. She focuses on developing regulatory structures that defend worker rights in the global economy, innovating with civil society groups like Fair Wear and designing practical tools for living wages and freedom of association in garment supply chains.
Sonia Mistry
is Climate and Labor Justice Director at Solidarity Center, having led the programme’s launch in 2021. Her prior experience includes supporting worker rights and union building programmes throughout South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as organising for SEIU.
Lilianne Ploumen
is a feminist activist and former Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands. She is a fierce promotor of sustainable value chains in the RMG sector and has joined forces with the Clean Clothes Campaign to advocate for legally binding agreements on severance pay and freedom of association.
Sandra Polaski
is a non-resident Senior Fellow, Global Economic Governance Initiative at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. An expert on trade, labor and social policy issues, she has served as ILO Deputy Director-General for Policy and US Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Labor Affairs Bureau.
Gabriela Russo Lopes
is a researcher at the UvA Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation, and an expert on sociobiodiversity value chains and deforestation dynamics in Brazil. She holds a PhD in socioenvironmental governance and her previous experience includes positions at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute and the Brazilian mission to the UN Human Rights Council.
Hendrine Stelwagen
specialises in Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) and Strategic Communications within the garment sector. She previously founded her own clothing brand Be Kind, centred on social entrepreneurship, longevity and local production, as well as holding several roles at Fair Wear. She is currently a Katalyst Initiative Board Member.
Stieneke van der Graaf
is a former member of the Dutch Parliament, and lead proponent of the Responsible and Sustainable International Business Conduct Act. She currently serves as an advisor on business and human rights issues.
Ineke Zeldenrust
is one of the founders of the global Clean Clothes Campaign network. Under her leadership, over the past 30 years, the CCC has constantly refined its working methods and has grown into an expert non-hierarchical network of 237 trade unions, civil society, feminist and activist organizations in 44 countries. Ineke is presently acting as Coordinator it the International Office of the CCC in Amsterdam.
