Stakeholder Advisory Board

Additional to the Executive Board, APSCA is serviced by a dedicated, multi-stakeholder Advisory Board with independent, brand, retail and collaborative program representation.

The Stakeholder Advisory Board shares three members with the Executive Board and represents the interests of all stakeholders. In addition, the Stakeholder Advisory Board:

Develop recommendations that support APSCA’s mission and objectives
Review and consult on disciplinary matters
Nominate the Independent Chair and Stakeholder Advisory Board representatives for the Executive Board

Stakeholder Advisory Board Representatives

Brands / Retailers

Collaborative Programs

Independent Members

Craig Moss (Ethisphere)

Ines Keper (The Centre for Child Rights and Business)

Kapil Kirpalani (Seqouia Capital)

Robert Shepard (former DOL and OIRER)

Brands/Retailers

Laura Chapman Rubbo

Laura Chapman Rubbo is Vice President, Policy Strategy in the Global Public Policy department at The Walt Disney Company. In this role, Laura leads policy analysis, risk assessment, industry collaboration and external stakeholder engagement for a variety of CSR issues, including human and labor rights issues in the consumer products supply chain. She also led a number of audit and training functions in Disney’s International Labor Standards department and helped develop Disney’s Human Rights Policy.

With more than 25 years of experience in the field of business and human rights, Laura was previously Chair of the Corporate Responsibility and Labor Policy Committee of the United States Council for International Business, a current member of the Advisory Board of Social Accountability International and a two-time member of the United States delegation to the International Labor Organization’s International Labor Conference. She has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and German from the University of Connecticut.

Todd A. Nash

Todd Nash is the Director of Responsible Sourcing at The Home Depot in Atlanta, GA. Todd has over 20 years of Retail experience in the areas of regulatory compliance and responsible sourcing. He joined The Home Depot in January 2011 and is responsible for working with teams throughout The Home Depot, their affiliates, divisions, subsidiaries, and supply chain partners to conduct business in a responsible and ethical manner. Todd also leads the effort for The Home Depot to comply with the SEC Conflict Minerals rules.

Prior to joining The Home Depot, Todd led the Global Product Compliance teams at Amazon.com, was responsible for regulatory compliance at West Marine, and partnered with multiple U.S. government agencies as a consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton.

A native of Rhode Island, Todd holds a B.A. degree from the University of Rhode Island in Political Science and English. Todd also received his Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Secretary

Genevieve Taft-Vazquez

Genevieve Taft-Vazquez is a Global Director in the Human Rights Dept. at The Coca-Cola Company. The Global Human Rights department oversees the implementation of the Company’s human and workplace rights expectations throughout the value chain. Genevieve’s role is focused on providing strategy, governance and policy oversight and support to the global team and global operations. She works with external stakeholders and peer companies to develop partnerships.

Genevieve has spent much of her career working in the area of corporate sustainability, responsible sourcing and the intersection between business and human rights from a range of perspectives. Before joining Coca-Cola, she worked at the Fair Labor Association and also in Bolivia with a fair-trade artisan organization to improve operational capacity and to develop market opportunities. Prior to that, she worked for Gap Inc in the company’s Social and Environmental Responsibility department.

Genevieve holds a MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania as well as a MA from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Barbara Gregory

Barbara Gregory is Senior Manager of Human Rights & Environment for Walmart Inc., in Bentonville, Arkansas. Barbara has spent the majority of her 20 years with the company working in the areas of Sustainability and Responsible Sourcing where she has focused on supply chain compliance, stakeholder engagement and investigations. During her tenure, Barbara has developed significant expertise in social standards analysis and development, responsible recruitment, and indicators of forced labor. Additionally, she has gained a great deal of experience creating and delivering training on social compliance topics and has spent a number of years implementing fire safety and building safety guidelines at the factory level.

In her current role, Barbara is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with the third-party social audit programs that Walmart accepts. She engages collaboratively with them to influence enhancements in their processes and protocols with the aim of positively impacting the global supply chain as a whole. Barbara currently serves as a Member Director on the Sedex Board of Directors. Barbara is an 8-year member of Toastmasters International and has won a number of awards and speech contests. Originally from Joplin, Missouri, she holds a Bachelor of Education Degree and Minor in Psychology from Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Matthias Thorns

Matthias Thorns is Global Labor Relations and Human Rights Director at Samsung Electronics. He joined the company in February 2023. Matthias has more than 20 years of experience with regard to human rights and responsible business conduct. At Samsung, Matthias’s role involves promoting labor and human rights throughout the company through strategy, policy analysis, and training. He is also tasked with strengthening engagement with global trade unions, stakeholders, and international and intergovernmental institutions.

Before joining Samsung, Matthias worked as IOE Deputy Secretary-General. In this position, Matthias led the IOE’s human rights work and had a part in the overall responsibility for the management of the IOE Secretariat.

His career began as Adviser for Social Affairs in the European Business Federation UNICE (now BUSINESS EUROPE), before moving to the Confederation of German Employers as Adviser and later Deputy Director of the International and European Affairs Department.

After leaving the Confederation of German Employers in 2012, Matthias joined the IOE as Senior Adviser, leading the work on Human Rights, G20 and G7, Global Supply Chains as well as SMEs. In 2017 Matthias joined the Workplace Rights team of The Coca-Cola Company as Human Rights and Workplace Rights Manager.

Victoria Gilchrist

Victoria Gilchrist is the Senior Supply Chain Human Right Manager at Advanced Semiconductor Materials (ASM). Her day job allows her the opportunity to influence positive transformation in the semiconductor industry’s supply chain in the areas of labor, environment, health & safety, ethics, and management systems. An experienced social Auditor, Victoria honed her supplier engagement capabilities while working for Intel and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In her free time, she focuses on combatting the various forms of social injustice and human trafficking that exist around the world. She has lived in/travelled to six continents, the experiences of which have contributed to her desire to not only love the world but to help shape it for the better. Her work with Hope for Children, Ethiopia centers around extracting children from forced labor and sex trafficking into rehabilitation programs that not only strive to heal their emotional scars, but train them for jobs so that they can independently re-enter society. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Victoria partnered with the local chapter of Not for Sale, which works to interrupt the cycle of sex trafficking and abuse in the Red Light District by providing restaurant trade internships to women seeking to escape the sex trade. She was able to tie the idea of using artificial intelligence to tackle sex trafficking at large sporting events in her TEDx Talk, Giving AI a Sporting Chance.

Victoria holds a BA in Spanish Sociolinguistics from the University of Virginia, an MBA from the University of Southern California, and an Executive Masters in Sustainability Leadership from Arizona State University.

Bozena Gerits

Bozena Gerits joined Amazon in 2019 and works in the Social Responsibility organization as a Senior Risk Manager. In this role, Bozena leads the supplier and vendor qualification program, which strives to embed fundamental dignity and respect for the people connected to our entire value chain, in line with Amazon’s supply chain standards. She focuses on methods of qualification, a wide variety of risk assessments, industry collaborations, and technological opportunities for innovation. She also manages the operations behind Amazon’s qualification process across the globe.

Prior to Amazon, Bozena worked in the Corporate Social Responsibility department at Brooks Running. Bozena has lived in Seattle, Washington, for 7+ years but was born and raised in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She obtained her Bachelors in History and a Masters in Business Administration at the University of Amsterdam.

Collaborative Programs

Avedis H Seferian

Avedis Seferian is the President & CEO of WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production). A recognized expert in the area of social compliance and responsible sourcing, he was named by Assent Compliance as one of the Top 100 Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Leaders in 2020.

Mr. Seferian has extensive knowledge of social responsibility issues within the highly complex worldwide supply chains of the apparel, textile and footwear sectors, often speaking on topics in this field at different forums around the world and contributing to many leading trade publications and news outlets.

He is the Chair of the Executive Board of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA), sits on the Impartiality Committees of several audit organizations and served on the Board of Advisors of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.

Mr. Seferian speaks five languages, holds degrees from three continents (a BA from St. Stephen’s College in India, an MBA from the American University of Armenia, and a JD from Georgetown University in Washington, DC) and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar.

Chair

Linda Kromjong

Linda Kromjong became president of amfori per 1 January 2022. In this role she continues driving positive impact by enabling organizations to enhance human prosperity, use natural resources responsibly and advocating for open and responsible trade globally.

From October 2018 through December 2021 she served as Global Labor & Human Rights Director at Samsung Electronics. In this role she focused on strengthening the company’s relationships with key international policymakers and opinion formers, and supporting Human Resources and other relevant business departments in driving corporate and supply chain improvements.

She represented Samsung in among others the Responsible Labor Initiative (RLI), the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Working Group on Diversity & Gender and connected on a regular basis with international institutions and civil society.

Prior to her role at Samsung, Linda Kromjong was Secretary-General of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) in Geneva from 1 May 2015 to 1 October 2018. Before the IOE, she was the Vice-President, Labor Relations International & Human Rights for Deutsche Post DHL. Linda started her career in the Hospitality Industry with Sodexo in the Netherlands and has many years’ experience in senior positions in general management, HR, Labor Relations and Business & Human Rights.

Linda Kromjong is a Dutch national and completed Hotel Management School and Business Management studies in the Netherlands.

Allison Hudson

Allison Hudson is the Director of Customer and Member Relations at Sedex. In this role Allison leads the management of relationships with the global customer base, driving improvements in service delivery, understanding customer needs and identifying opportunities to improve our products and services.

Allison is a key member of the executive team, setting the overall direction and strategy of Sedex. She leads the Sedex community programme, bringing members, customers and stakeholders together to raise awareness, convene discussions on customer and industry challenges and drive best practice. Throughout her time at Sedex, Allison has worked on multi-stakeholder projects to develop tools and programmes to support the Sedex vision. She now leads the Sedex Audit Quality programme, working closely with APSCA, Audit partners and members to drive improvements in audit quality.

Janet Mensink

Janet Mensink holds 25+ years of experience in sustainability and textile supply chains. With an academic background in environmental science, she started her career in consultancy before working in numerous roles with global NGO Solidaridad. As the International Program Manager, Sustainable Cotton & Textiles at Solidaridad Network, Janet was responsible for high-level projects in the supply chain, as well as developing initiatives promoting sustainable market development and direct partnerships with brands and retailers. The role included strategy setting, stakeholder engagement and grant management.

In 2015, Janet took the challenge to set up and lead The Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP). SLCP is a multi-stakeholder initiative, which aims to implement a Converged Assessment Framework (CAF) that supports stakeholders’ efforts to improve working conditions in global supply chains. Since early 2019, she has been appointed as Executive Director and is leading SLCP’s scaled operation and is responsible for setting the strategic direction. Under her leadership the Program has grown to an organization supported by 250+ signatories including the top 10 of the global apparel industry and the CAF is implemented in 50+ countries. The organization was financially self-sustaining after three years of implementation and is now one of the leading and most innovative programs in this space.

Janet has served and is serving on several boards and councils. This includes Council member of the Better Cotton Initiative and co-founder of Chetna Organic and Copenhagen Fashion Weeks Advisory Board.

Jane Hwang

Jane Hwang serves as President and CEO of Social Accountability International (SAI). SAI works with business, government, civil society, unions and workers to improve global labor conditions and social performance.

Jane has two decades of experience at the intersection of business, human rights and international development. In various roles at SAI, Jane has led significant growth and innovation of SAI’s programs, especially in corporate advisory services, training and capacity building, and public-private partnerships. Jane co-created Social Fingerprint® and TenSquared—both highly effective and popular programs to measure and improve management systems, worker engagement, and social performance. She has co-authored guidance and served on working groups for international agencies such as the UN, IFC, SASB, GRI, etc, and is on the founding Steering Committee of the Global Living Wage Coalition and the Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Committee of the Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030.

Prior to joining SAI, Jane worked in corporate marketing and legal research and has previous experience in behavioral sciences and medical research, as well as owning a small business. She earned her BA and MBA from Columbia University.

Independent Members

Vice Chair

Craig Moss

Craig Moss is Executive Vice President- Measurement of Ethisphere and a leading expert on using management systems to improve compliance and risk management performance within companies and across supply chains. He is responsible for developing and delivering programs designed to help companies and their supply chains measure and improve their programs on a wide range of ESG and compliance topics, including social performance, data protection, anti-corruption, DEI, and employee mental health. He has designed and led numerous programs helping Fortune 500 companies and private equity firms around the world to implement management systems to reduce supply chain risk and improve performance.

Craig is the Chair of the Licensing Executives Society committee that developed an ANSI global standard for Intellectual Property Protection in the Supply Chain. He is Director – Content & Certification at the Cyber Readiness Institute, an organization focused on improving cybersecurity in small and mid-sized businesses by focusing on human behavior. Craig is Director at the Digital Supply Chain Institute, where he developed programs to accelerate digital transformation with a unique new data trading framework and a new change management approach for the digital era.

Prior to joining Ethisphere, Craig was COO at the Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade. While a director at Social Accountability International he co-developed the Social Fingerprint labor management maturity assessment and the TenSquared change management programs. He has published guides on implementing management systems to improve ESG and compliance for organizations including the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation and the United Nations. Previously, Craig founded Global Access Corporation, where he led more than 3,000 business development projects in 50 countries.

Ines Kaempfer

Ines Kaempfer is CEO of The Center for Child Rights &Business (formerly CCR CSR). She brings over 15 years of experience in supply chain sustainability where she has been deeply engaged in issues related to child rights and business in the manufacturing and agriculture industries in Asia.

Since 2014, Ines has been serving as the Executive Director and since 2021, the CEO of The Centre for Child Rights and Business (which was known as CCR CSR up to 2020) in Asia, a social enterprise that helps businesses improve their direct and indirect impact on children, particularly in supply chains. In her role as CEO, Ines leads strategic design and implementation of overall operations and stakeholder engagement, working closely with major multinational clients and partners around the world.

Under Ines’s leadership, The Centre has significantly expanded its geographic reach to cover over a dozen key East, South and Southeast Asian sourcing countries where Ines has spearheaded the development and scaling of innovative factory and workplace improvement programmes.

Prior to joining The Centre, Ines was the Director of Learning and Impact at ELEVATE Limited, a leading CSR learning and capacity-building consultancy. She has also worked as a Director of Assessment, Capacity Building and Training at the Fair Labor Association (FLA).

Ines holds a PhD from the University of Fribourg’s Faculty of Arts in Sociology of Religion and a Master’s degree in Social Work, Law & Sociology of Religion from the University of Fribourg.

Kapil Kirpalani

Kapil Kirpalani is Head of Compliance at Sequoia Capital. Kapil Kirpalani has spent over a decade managing teams across the Asia Pacific region. He advises on the regulatory aspects of M&A and corporate finance transactions, and leads on matters related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-corruption, supply chain due diligence, anti-money laundering, trade and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions compliance. He also has experience in risk assessments and due diligence related to investments and acquisitions.

He provides guidance on domestic and international financial regulation, including licensing, product analysis, conduct of business issues, governance and enforcement. He supervises government and corporate internal investigations across the Asia-Pacific region and his experience extends to the World Bank and other international financial institutions in debarment proceedings.

Mr Kirpalani is increasingly focused on the regulatory implications of the current geopolitical environment, especially with matters involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and similar global national security clearance regimes, as well as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations.

Robert B. Shepard

Robert B. Shepard began his career at the U.S. Department of Labor in 1991 and served as the Director of the Office of International Relations and Economic Research from 2003 until his retirement in December 2021. In that capacity, he coordinated the U.S. delegation to meetings of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Governing Body and its annual International Labor Conference. He served as the lead U.S. Government delegate to the negotiations for a Convention for decent work for domestic workers, the ILO’s Centenary Declaration, and numerous other ILO negotiations. He chaired over 50 tripartite meetings at which ILO delegates representing the U.S. Government, workers, and employers exchanged information and perspectives ahead of meetings of various ILO bodies. In addition to his ILO duties, he represented the United States at the labor components of the G20, G8, Inter-American Conference of Labor Ministers, and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, and oversaw U.S. participation in the OECD’s Employment, Labor, and Social Affairs Committee. He also took part in numerous bilateral negotiations; oversaw technical assistance programs; and regularly wrote statements, prepared background information, and briefed senior Labor Department officials, including nearly every Secretary of Labor during his tenure. From 1992-2003 he served as the Department’s advisor on African Affairs, and then as the Senior Advisor on East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Following his retirement, he has worked as a consultant to the International Labor Organization on projects designed to make labor issues, and the work of the ILO, more accessible to college students.

Prior to working at the Department of Labor Shepard was an assistant professor of political science at Colgate University, where he taught courses on international relations and American foreign policy and served as the Director of the University’s Washington Study Program. He is the author of Nigeria, Africa, and the United States: From Kennedy to Reagan (Indiana University Press, 1991) and articles in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and other publications. He received his B.A. from Queens College, C.U.N.Y., and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science/International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University.

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Stakeholder Advisory Board

Additional to the Executive Board, APSCA is serviced by a dedicated, multi-stakeholder Advisory Board with independent, brand, retail and collaborative program representation.