Speakers

Bart Slob | KIT | Moderator

Bart Slob is our moderator of the day. In his daily work he focuses on sustainable and inclusive business. He works actively with governments, public authorities, civil society organisations and companies to promote and ensure responsible business behaviour. He has developed and implemented environmental, social and governance risk management systems for businesses in both developed and developing countries. He is also a certified and experienced social auditor. Bart is a regular guest lecturer at universities, business schools and research institutes and has expertise in facilitation, participation and innovative dialogue design within change processes.

Daniel Vaughan Whitehead | ILO

Daniel Vaughan Whitehead is a Senior economist, Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch (INWORK) at the  ILO, Geneva.

Jos Huber | Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Jos Huber works as senior policy advisor on CSR for the government of the Netherlands. Her focus is on improving labour conditions in global supply chains. She worked in Bangladesh and Pakistan on improvements in the textile sector and cooperates with ILO and development partners.  Her home base is at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment: she has been posted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2012. She initiated the Berlin conference on living wages in 2013 and the follow-up conference in Pakistan in 2016.  She is co-negotiator on behalf of Dutch Government for the CSR-covenant for the textile sector. Jos started her career at the public service trade union.  She was a member of the Equal Treatment Commission in the Netherlands. She has a degree in social science.

Lucia van Westerlaak | FNV

Lucia van Westerlaak started her career as a professional guitar teacher but she now works as a policy advisor for the FNV Confederation of unions in the field of International CSR issues. She was an active participant of the OECD gatherings during the renewal of the OECD Guidelines for Multinationals in 2011. Van Westerlaak supports her trade union colleagues with the aim to understand and work with these guidelines. At the moment the FNV is involved in the process of the making of international collective CSR accords in several sectors, following the political ambition of the Dutch Ministry of Trade and Foreign Affairs. Lucia van Westerlaak is also the representative of the FNV in the Dutch Fair Finance Guide.

Kristina Ullrich | Hivos

Kristina Ullrich is CSR-advisor for Hivos within the the Women@work programme since 2013. This programme aims at improving the working conditions of women workers employed on flower farms in East-Africa. Kristina engages with business and certification bodies to make the flower sector more sustainable. She is familiar with stakeholder management, public affairs and global supply chains. This is due to her long work experience for the trade association for beer, soft drinks, fruit juices and mineral waters (especially health and sustainability aspects in the fruit juice supply chain) and for EVO, the Dutch Shippers' Council where she was responsible for air freight and European affairs.

Dr. Olga Martin-Ortega | ElectronicsWatch

Dr Olga Martin-Ortega is Reader in Public International Law at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, where she leads the Business Human Rights and the Environment Research Group (BHRE), Dr Martin-Ortega is a member of the Board of Trustees of Electronics Watch as well as a member of its Advisory Group. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium. She is founding member of the European Society of International Law Interest Group on Business and Human Rights and acted as the Chair of its Board from 2011 to 2015. 

Anniek Mauser | Unilever

Anniek Mauser started 14 years ago to work for Unilever in the sustainability field after writing her PhD thesis on the ‘greening of business’, with a special focus on change processes. She worked in various sustainability roles, for Unilever’s global Sustainable Agriculture Programme, the brand Ben & Jerry’s, the global Ice Cream Category and currently holds the position of  Sustainability Director for Unilever Benelux.

Wendy Schutte | Fairfood International

Wendy Schutte has a background in human rights. At Fairfood, she coordinates the living wage program. This program focuses on putting living wages on the agenda of the food industry, and on designing innovative solutions together with food and beverage companies to ensure living wages in their supply chains.

Hansje van der Zwaan-Plagman | ASN Bank

Hansje van der Zwaan-Plagman is senior advisor on human rights at ASN Bank. Following the publication of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, she revised the Bank’s human rights policy through crowd sourcing. She also analyses companies and institutions based on the sustainability criteria of ASN Bank. Previously, Hansje worked for the NGO Aim for human rights.

Michelle Bhattacharyya | Global Living Wage Coalition

Michelle Bhattacharyya serves as the Coordinator of the Global Living Wage Coalition. The Coalition brings together Fairtrade International, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Goodweave, Sustainable Agriculture Network/ Rainforest Alliance, Social Accountability International (SAI) and UTZ Certified, and with the ISEAL Alliance aims to develop living wage benchmarks globally based on a single definition of living wage and as a critical step to enable industries to move towards paying a living wage.  The Coalition is working together with Richard and Martha Anker, international specialists on living wages, to benchmark living wage levels in all areas covered by the standards. Before her time working directly for the Coalition through ISEAL, Michelle represented SAI’s interests in the Coalition and served as the Director of Operations for Social Accountability International (SAI).

Pauline Overeem | GoodElectronics

Pauline Overeem is the coordinator of the GoodElectronics Network. She also work as researcher with SOMO, focusing on the electronics and textiles and garments sectors. Pauline Overeem studied Contemporary Asian History and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam. She has a track record in development cooperation, human rights and corporate accountability, having previously worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Oxfam Novib and the India Committee of the Netherlands.

Jordy van Honk | IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative

Jordy works as Senior Program Manager for IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative. He runs the tea program - a global, pre-competitive, public private initiative - which involves industry and trade partners, (local) governments, NGOs and standard setting organizations in the tea sector. Jordy was involved in the foundation of two leading sustainability initiatives in the global tea industry:  the India Sustainable Tea Program (trustea) and the Malawi 2020 Tea Revitalization Program. Prior to joining IDH in 2010 Jordy worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in the Netherlands with a focus on bilateral trade and CSR policy. Jordy is a trained economist and holds a MSc degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Marcel Jacobs | Philips

In his current role as director supplier sustainability Marcel Jacobs works within the Philips’ Group Procurement. Next to development of a Responsible Sourcing strategy 2020 aiming to create a positive impact in Philips’ supply chain, he manages specific programs Circular Economy, Due Diligence and stakeholder engagement. In January 2014 he joined Philips again (after having left Philips in 2007 to work as Senior Manager Sustainability at Office Depot Europe). The main reason for that is the fact that he can drive and contribute to the next level of Philips’s supplier sustainability strategy and implementation in close collaboration with key stakeholders and partners. Marcel studied Telecommunications, Environmental Management and Environmental Technologies and is an accredited SA8000 Lead Auditor and ISO14001 auditor.

René Kouwenhoven | FNV

René Kouwenhoven works for FNV as trade union official in the agricultural and green sectors. On a daily bases he is active for members in the sector to support them on topics concerning the collective bargaining process and areas of working conditions and occupational health and safety. He also represents FNV in the global union federation IUF. As a board member for Fair Flowers Fair Plants he is active in the field of flowers with extra attention on living wage. Through FNV he promotes living wage, with a special focus on achieving this for supply chains in all sectors.

Ioan Nemes | Oxfam Novib

Ioan Nemes is Policy Advisor at Oxfam Novib and an expert in CSR, sustainable agriculture and living wage/income. He works primarily on Oxfam's Behind the Brands Campaign, which targets the largest food companies in the world, amongst which companies like Unilever and Nestlé.

Alastair Usher | Ergon Associates

Alastair Usher is a co-founder Director of Ergon Associates Ltd. Alastair leads Ergon projects across the fields of labour rights, industrial relations, gender and development economics. In recent years, he has worked on wage issues with multi-stakeholder groups in a number of sectors, including the tea and banana value chains. Alastair is the lead author of the 2015 report ‘Living Wages in Global Supply Chains: A New Agenda For Business’ for the UK, Norway and Denmark ETIs. Prior to starting Ergon in 2005, Alastair was Senior Researcher in the international department of Incomes Data Services (IDS).

Floor Uitterhoeve | FNLI

Floor Uitterhoeve is Sustainability Manager at the FNLI, and deals with various sustainability topics FNLI’s member companies are dealing with, from food waste to labour conditions, from green claims to sustainable diets. The FNLI advises and informs companies on sustainability and works with trade partners, government, societal stakeholders and academics to create the right conditions for a sustainable agri-foodchain.

Mariëtte Hamer | SER

Mariëtte Hamer is the president of the Social and Economic Council (SER) of the Netherlands and became the Council’s first female president in September 2014.  Mariëtte Hamer was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 1998 until September 2014. From January 2008 to May 2011, she was the Labour Party’s parliamentary group leader. She chaired the Standing Committee for Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. She was also the party spokesperson for social affairs, labour market, employment relations, and labour and care.

Lodewijk de Waal | Netherlandse National Contact Point OECD Guidelines

Lodewijk de Waal is the chair of the NCP. He joined the NCP in 2007 after a long career in the Dutch trade union federation. From 1997 to 2005 he was chairman of the FNV. In this capacity he also held positions such as vice-chair of the Social-economic Council and chair of FNV Mondiaal. From 2006 to 2010 he was general manager of Humanitas. He currently holds positions at various organisations.

Herman Mulder | Netherlands National Contact Point OECD Guidelines

Herman Mulder has been a member of the Netherlands NCP from 2007. Until 2006 he worked at ABN Amro bank in various management positions and was the initiator of the bank's initiatives in the field of sustainable development. Since 2006, he is active as an independent advisor in sustainable development and holds various positions at organizations such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and True Price. He is currently also involved in various business initiatives focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Melanie Peters | Netherlands National Contact Point OECD Guidelines

Melanie Peters joined the NCP in August 2014. She is currently (since January 2015) the Head of the Rathenau Institute. Previously, Melanie was CEO of the Studium Generale and lecturer of Liberal Art and Sciences at Utrecht University. She has held several positions in the fields of Science, Public Policy, Politics and Society.

Herman Bavinck | Netherlands NCP OECD Guidelines | Moderator

Herman Bavinck is a program director at the Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. He is also a professional facilitator and mediator. His primary focus is on sustainable development goals (SDGs) and international CSR. Herman is advising member of the Netherlands NCP and member of the Worldconnectors

Philip den Ouden | FNLI

Philip den Ouden is Director General of FNLI, the representative platform of the Netherlands Food and Grocery Industry, since 2005. Previously, he was VP Public Affairs and Communication Europe for Royal Ahold, and held positions at Smit Harbour Towages Services and Smit International in the maritime industry.

Caroline Wildeman | HIVOS

Caroline Wildeman is campaign manager for the horticulture programme at HIVOS.

Wilbert Flinterman | Fair Trade International

Eylem Köseoglu | PIANOo