Gerbrand Haverkamp
Executive Director
Gerbrand is responsible for the direction and daily operations of the World Benchmarking Alliance. He believes that society won’t progress without companies that align their business with societal interest. All of us should therefore have something to say on how we want companies to shape our lives and the world around us. Based on these societal expectations we can rightly credit companies that lead while holding others accountable, encouraging both to do better. He originally founded and led Index Initiative, one of WBA’s founding partners, in that capacity he led the global consultation on the WBA. Before founding Index Initiative he worked for the Dutch Government in the areas of inclusive business, sustainable agricultural supply chains and food security.
Lisanne Urlings
Lead Research
Lisanne leads all research-related processes and activities and works on the development of various benchmarks. She is actively involved in stakeholder consultation and engagement activities. Lisanne has always had a keen interest in the role of business in social and economic development challenges. She strongly believes that business can be a force for good and is motivated to contribute to research-based efforts that promote and drive long-term change. Prior to joining WBA, Lisanne worked at the Access to Medicine Index where she focused on methodology development and analysis, and coordinated the development of company scorecards.
Gonnie Been
Operations Director
Gonnie leads the WBA operation, including Communication, HR, Finance and IT. Gonnie is fascinated by the exponential technological possibilities and what it means for sustainable and organizational development. Therefore, Gonnie will also keep a close eye on the digital inclusion benchmark(s). Gonnie gained experience in communication, social innovation, CSR and HR with a focus on organizational- and leadership development. As last at Microsoft The Netherlands, where Gonnie was the driving force behind the new world of work transition of the organization. Before joining WBA, Gonnie started her own social enterprise – RabbleInc. – enabling organizations to infuse digital transformation into human development. Furthermore, she keeps different board functions.
Hendrik Steringa
Senior Researcher
Hendrik develops the climate action pillar as an integral part of the WBA strategy and operations. He conducts research, develops the climate action strategy, builds and maintains a network of relevant stakeholders and applies for funding. Hendrik believes climate action is not only a big threat (which it is) but also about business opportunities and creating welfare for everyone around the globe at the same time. In his work Hendrik aims to bring these elements together. For 10 years Hendrik was active in the field of humanitarian assistance, mainly in Latin America. In 2010, he went through a professional transition and entered the field of corporate strategies of energy companies related to the sustainable energy transition and climate action.
Bas Geerts
Lead Seafood Stewardship Index
Bas leads the Seafood Stewardship Index. Making this world even more beautiful and preserving its beauty into the future has been his drive for decades. To Bas, working with a wide array of international stakeholders is inspiring in achieving sustainable progress. Bas worked at WWF Netherlands, first as fundraiser, later developing and implementing sustainability standards like RSPO (Palm Oil) and RTRS (Soy). After WWF, Bas joined UTZ, expanding their portfolio from coffee to multiple other commodities. Before joining WBA, Bas held the position of Standards Director at the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. Under his leadership 8 global standards for responsible aquaculture were launched.
Katrina Nakamura
Engagement and Research Associate
Katrina Nakamura, PhD is an interdisciplinary expert in market measures for sustainable seafood, specializing in fishery improvements and product screening for risk-based due diligence. Her company, the Sustainability Incubator, developed an approach to screening called the Labour Safe Screen which is available as an insert to everyday procurement and traceability programs in the food sector. It won the Partnership for Freedom Grand Prize for rethinking technological innovation to combat human trafficking in supply chains in 2016. Katrina completed an impact evaluation of industry-led measures for sustainable seafood (PhD thesis) and has co-owned and operated seafood restaurants. She has a long career in seafood that includes founding the Quality Fishing Expo in 1998 and support to trawl, longline, and gill net fishermen to improve fisheries, from 1994.
Marjolein Koornstra
Project Manager
Marjolein is the driver behind the World Benchmarking Alliance consultation and engagement process. She organizes events around the globe to consult lots of different stakeholders on the impact of business on sustainable development. Marjolein is convinced that the private sector has a critical role to play in acting on the sustainable development agenda and accelerating the transformation towards a sustainable future. Prior to joining WBA, Marjolein worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and BoP Innovation Center, where she was involved in sustainable business issues, food & nutrition, and events management.
Rik Beukers
Research Analyst
Rik works as research analyst on the development of the Seafood Stewardship Index, focusing on research methodology and data analysis. He has a keen interest in global economic development topics such as food production and international trade, and its effects on the natural environment. Prior to his work for WBA, Rik worked for almost 10 years at Wageningen Economic Research as economist. His main specializations were market and value chain research in the seafood sector and other agricultural sectors.
Mwansa Phiri
Research Analyst
Mwansa conducts in-depth research to drive the development of various benchmarks, and is actively involved in all research processes related to stakeholder consultation and engagement activities. She is passionate about promoting an inclusive approach to sustainable development that incorporates the voices of all stakeholders, especially youth and marginalised groups.
Prior to joining WBA, Mwansa gained extensive research experience through working on different projects spanning education policy, multidimensional poverty and inequality, social justice movements, and youth empowerment.
She is an ambassador for Teach First, working to address educational disadvantage in the UK, and was previously granted a Global Fellowship Award by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mwansa holds masters’ degrees in Public Policy, Human Development, and Education.
Elie Chachoua
Senior Strategist & Finance Expert
Elie is a senior strategist and sustainable finance expert. He leads on stakeholder consultation and engagement activities. Elie is a firm believer in the private sector’s potential to deliver the sustainable development goals and ofthe need to align financial markets with sustainability objectives. Prior to joining WBA, Elie was a senior advisor on sustainable finance for the Climate Action Network and a managing editor for an award-winning series of The Economist Group on the industrial economy. His work has been published by renowned organisations, including the World Economic Forum, The Economist Intelligence Unit, KPMG, the OECD, and UNDP.
Kirsty Collins
Lead Engagement
Kirsty is advising and leading on stakeholder engagement and strategy during the WBA global consultation. She most recently worked with the Aviva Investors Global Responsible Investment team after a successful 10 years at GSK, leading investor relations engagement and strategy on sustainability. She is the only investor relations professional to have worked across 3 strategic areas of responsible investment: ESG in asset management at Aviva Investors; in Investor Relations at GSK including leadership on governance, risk and ESG; and in corporate responsibility at GSK leading on sustainability performance, benchmarking and investor engagement on ESG.
Lisa Kos
Communications and Project Manager
For Lisa it’s all about communication. Lisa loves to think about positioning and communication strategies. How do you show your relevance? What makes a communication activity a success?
Communication can be a puzzle, but it’s one she likes to solve. She mainly focusses on the positioning of the World Benchmarking Alliance. WBA is relevant to Lisa. She believes the SDGs can help everyone to find something that you can do to make the world a better place, but mainly hopes that companies will see this more and more as their responsibility. For her, communication is the art of bringing these insights to all the stakeholders of the WBA.
Nilson Rodrigues Lopes
Financial Controller
If it has anything to do with numbers there is a 99,9% chance that Nilson is involved. After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and working as an Accounting Consultant in Barcelona he returned to the Netherlands. As of August ’17 he joined the WBA team as their Financial Controller. Nilson is responsible for the delivery of finance services. Services such as financial reporting, budgets, forecasting or any other aspect of financial management. Always with a can-do mentality.
Gabriella Knighton
External Relations
Gabriella works closely with all relevant stakeholder groups, from donors to tentative new allies, to ensure knowledge sharing within and outside the community, and a strong sense of connection to the WBA mission. She is convinced that all sectors have a crucial role to play in achieving Agenda 2030 and the significance is in figuring out how, and how to make the process as inclusive as possible – sometimes the greatest ideas come from where you least expect it. Gabriella joins fresh off a treadmill of previous commitments at the Business and Sustainable Development Commission; Pensions and Investment Research Consultants; and the New Climate Economy, where she has also engaged key actors on the SDGs and ESG.
Jérôme Tagger
Senior Advisor
Jerome builds organizations that help the economy make proactive choices on long term social and environmental trends. He is a senior advisor to UNEP FI and the World Benchmarking Alliance. Previously he was a Director at the Global Impact Investing Network and the founding COO of the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment.
Charlotte Reeves
Executive Assistant
Charlotte is Executive Assistant to Gerbrand, keeping a close eye on anything logistical and providing a helping-hand to all team members. Charlotte is enjoying being ‘a fly on the wall’ across different aspects of the organisation, also using her position as a learning opportunity, specifically in regard to stakeholder engagement and organisational behaviour and culture. Previously Charlotte completed a Masters in Anthropology at Utrecht University and taught the discipline at the Design Academy Eindhoven. She has held various social research internship positions.
Matt Gwyn
Project Manager
Matt joined the World Benchmarking Alliance half way through their consultation phase. Working in a combined role of project, communications and content strategy, he is interested in developing new ways of evaluating and articulating the social impacts of benchmarks. After working for the UK’s International Citizen Service in Nicaragua and Zimbabwe, Matt moved to the Netherlands to study a MSc in Cultural Anthropology. His research involved a qualitative study of environmental migrants in Bangladesh, examining the displacement experiences of those who had been forced to migrate from rural to urban areas due to flooding and river erosion.
Amal El Basrhiri
Manager Finance and Operations
Amal joined the WBA in 2018. She is experienced in finance and risk management with a strong finance background and holds a Master’s degree in Accounting and Control from VU University Amsterdam. She is responsible for Finance, Contract Management and will support the Operations Director on Governance Risk and Compliance. Before joining the WBA, Amal built up more than 9 years of audit and business experience. She started her career as a financial auditor with Deloitte in 2008, where she audited large (international) companies. Since 2012 she has worked as a financial controller at Pathé Theatres, Access to Medicine/Seeds Foundation and Index Initiative Foundation and as a senior consultant at Protiviti.
Danielle Burt
Lead Gender Equality and Empowerment Benchmark
Danielle leads the Gender Equality and Empowerment Benchmark. She drives everything from research into its initial scoping and framing, to the development of its methodology, to identifying and engaging a global community of gender experts and stakeholders. Prior to joining WBA, Danielle spent the first nearly 15 years of her career in the private sector. She worked with and for large, multi-national companies, including strategy consulting at McKinsey & Company and marketing at Nike. She has since shifted her focus to social impact, including working at Women Win, a non-profit focused on driving girls’ and women’s empowerment through sport. She believes business can play a critical role in driving social progress, and in particular in driving gender equality and empowerment.
Ido Verhagen
Lead Food & Agriculture Benchmarks
Ido is responsible for the development of WBA’s food & agriculture benchmarks that aim to support the transition towards a sustainable global food system. As executive director of the Access to Seeds Foundation, one of WBA’s allies, Ido has been responsible for setting up the Access to Seeds Index, ranking seed companies on their efforts to support smallholder farmer productivity. During his studies at the University of Amsterdam he became enthralled by the role of the private sector in development issues. The theme has been a common thread in his professional live ever since: as reporter for Dutch Radio 1, as programmer at the Amsterdam thinktank De Balie and as boardroom consultant working for companies like Philips, Heineken and KLM.