Aarti is involved in providing research support for Seafood Stewardship Index and Gender Equality and Empowerment Benchmark. Prior to her work for WBA, she was involved in research and analysis for the Access to Seeds Index. Her work experience includes providing market intelligence data for companies involved in Foods and Beverages, Seeds, Agricultural Commodities, and Agrochemical sector. She has also worked with several Seed companies based in India.

Aarti has comprehensive knowledge of Intellectual Property and Plant Variety Protection, Biosafety and Regulatory affairs and Agribusiness Consultancy. She believes that the private sector has a crucial role to play in achieving sustainable development. Aarti holds a master’s degree in Microbiology and has completed diploma courses in Patent Law and Business Management.

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.

Angus joined the WBA as a Research Analyst in 2019, and is focused on the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB). He is responsible for conducting research and supporting internal system maintenance and outreach for CHRB. Angus is particularly interested in how the creation of benchmarks can help drive transparency within the corporate sector and improve sustainability practices within business. Prior to this role, Angus worked as a journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Western Australia, reporting on topics including politics, Indigenous affairs and the extractives industry. Angus holds a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Western Australia and a Masters in International and European Law specialising in human rights from Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

Aparna joined WBA in March 2020. Playing in between the Engagement and Communications team, she works towards strengthening communication efforts towards our diverse Alliance that includes multilateral, financial, business and civil society institutions. As a part of this, she leverages tools like social media, press and special events to advocate about not just WBA's work, but to listen and provide for what our Allies need. She strongly believes that the UN Sustainable Development Goals can only be achieved when every stakeholder plays their part and works together, echoing the true sense of SDG 17 – Partnership for the Goals.

Prior to WBA, Aparna spent 3 years working for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by leading Communications & Public Affairs at the Netherlands Consulate in Mumbai. She has experience in external and internal communications, managing high-level governmental delegations including state visits plus dealing with public diplomacy projects. A native of India, she holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science.

Asher joined the WBA in April 2020 as a Finance Assistant. In this role she supports the Finance Department in their day-to-day activities. Along with this, she also provides additional administrative and operational support to the HR Department.
Before joining the WBA, Asher completed a Bachelors degree in Finance and Control at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in The Hague. During this program she was able to obtain financial experience interning within the Finance Department of a government organization. After graduating, she followed a Tourism degree program briefly but quickly decided to end this program and pursue her career in finance, leading her to this position at the WBA.
What is most important to Asher in this role is that she can contribute to WBA’s financial health and the improvement of processes within the Finance Department while also making an impactful contribution within the HR Department.

Bruno joined the WBA in order to further strengthen the methodological and analytical approach towards developing benchmarks, analysing, and engaging companies, focusing particularly on digital and financial systems transformation.
Prior to joining the WBA, Bruno worked as an impact investment consultant advising institutional investors on the adoption and implementation of sustainable and impact investment practices. He specifically focused on the analysis of positive and negative impact that investment funds have on society and environment.
Bruno is particularly interested in sustainability and impact incentive structures that can be applied in incumbent business system; he graduated in Development Economics from the University of Amsterdam, comes from Croatia and is a big supporter of the ‘football for good’ industry.

Camille leads the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) at WBA. She joined the CHRB in October 2016, and has overall responsibility for producing methodologies and benchmark reports of key companies in high human-rights risk sectors & engagement with stakeholders to further the use of the data and methodologies. Camille believes the great power and influence of business creates exciting opportunities for the protection of people and the planet – as long as they are channelled in the right direction.

Prior to this she spent time working with the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre in London, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and for an Overseas Member of French Parliament in London. Camille holds a BA in International Politics from King’s College London and a Masters in International Affairs with a focus on business and human rights from the IHEID, Geneva and Fudan University, Shanghai.

Carla is a Senior Researcher at WBA focusing on the Food and Agriculture Transition Benchmark. Her responsibilities cut across research for scoping, methodology development and analysis to stakeholder engagement. Carla is passionate to turn knowledge into action to unlock the huge potential of a healthy, sustainable and inclusive food system. Before joining WBA, Carla worked with FReSH, a joint program between EAT and WBCSD designed to accelerate transformational change in global food systems. Carla has nine years’ experience as an economic and policy analyst and sustainability consultant with her latest focus being on advising forward thinking companies to assess and disclose their climate-related risks and opportunities in line with the TCFD recommendations. Carla is convinced that a sustainable strategy and innovation is not only vital to secure the future of any business but that of our lives on this planet.

Carl-Hein joined WBA in April 2020 as a Finance Assistant. He will be involved in providing support to finance in the daily operations and assist with finance analysis.

Prior to joining WBA, Carl-Hein explored various fields ranging from investment analysis, logistics management and trading. He worked as an investment analyst where his primary focus was on accounting, project management and research support relating to agriculture. He then explored logistics where he was assigned a project to design the new logistics department in the automotive industry. He was the head of this department where his main focus was on planning, organizing, leading and controlling daily operations. Trading was the next big step where Carl-Hein gained experience in various arbitrage opportunities.

He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
His family comes from Germany and he grew up in South Africa.

Charlotte develops the Climate and Energy Benchmark from a research perspective, working closely with WBA’s partner CDP. She is passionate about bringing meaningful, comparable, and decision-useful information into the public domain to drive change in the private sector to achieve sustainable development.

Before joining WBA, Charlotte was a corporate lawyer primarily advising clients in the energy sector. She then studied for an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, exploring systems thinking and the interlinkages of natural and social science-based solutions to sustainability challenges. Most recently, Charlotte worked for GRI on further developing its sustainability reporting standards. She also mapped the GRI Standards against the TCFD recommendations and other reporting frameworks' climate-related content for the Corporate Reporting Dialogue's Better Alignment Project.

As Project Lead for the Food & Agriculture team, Charlotte is overseeing the planning and delivery of the benchmark and supporting with stakeholder engagement. Charlotte began her journey with the WBA as the Executive Assitant, using her position to perfect her organisational skills, obtain a high-level overview and develop an interest in organisational behavior and culture. She looks forward to applying the factors in a project-based capacity with the food team. 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.

Ciska works as an HR advisor for WBA since October 2018. She has a background in organizational psychology and she is all about making sure people are happy in their jobs. She is passionate about building HR for various growing compagnies together with its team. At WBA she will structure HR and it’s processes, from being involved in recruitment, contractual documentation, employee development to setting up everything for employees all around the world. For Ciska, what is most important in human resources is having attention for each other, being open, trusting each other and keeping it simple.

Claire is a strong believer in sustainable finance and the role companies can play in building a sustainable future for all. Claire believes communication can play a vital role in building momentum and collaboration to support the SDGs for a more long term sustainable future.

Claire is an experienced global Communications Director specialising in corporate communications, strategy, messaging and sustainability. Claire was previously Communications Director, Europe at American Express, Head of Communications for the Church of Commissioners for England managing the divestment from fossil fuel companies and the engagement with Exxon for the Church of England. Claire was also a European communications adviser for Towers Watson Willis.

Claire set up her own communications consultancy business in 2015 and has since carried out corporate communications work for Kimberly Clark and sustainability work for Aviva.

Claire is fluent in French and German. She enjoys sports including skiing and tennis, travelling and European cinema.

Dan leads the social transformation within the WBA, responsible for establishing the framework to assess the 2,000 keystone actors on core social aspects. Previously, Dan led the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), doubling the number of companies assessed and setting up UNGP Snapshot assessments, supporting the movement for mandatory human rights due diligence. Before CHRB, he spent five years working with extractives and renewable companies on social risk and impact management in the UK, Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Dan spent his twenties with the British military, with several years spent working in stabilisation, influence, community engagement and training roles.

Danielle leads the Gender 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.

Elli Siapkidou joined the WBA as the Gender Research Lead. She works on developing the gender methodology and benchmark and is responsible for the research and evaluation and ranking of companies. She is passionate about robust research methodologies, thorough analysis, writing, editing and people management. She has 17 years of experience in research, project management and evaluation. Her recent experience includes Director of Research at Equileap (leading gender data provider), the Head of Intelligence at inspitatia (ranking global markets on investment in infrastructure) and teaching in academia. She holds an MA in Economics and Management (University of Oxford), an MPhil in European Politics and Economics (University of Oxford) and a PhD in European Politics (University of Athens).

Elsbeth works with our existing and potential new government donors to keep everyone informed and confident about the WBA’s work. She enjoys working with many different people, making sure they all feel heard and trying to get everybody on the same path.

Elsbeth joined WBA because she is committed to its aim to achieve truly socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economies and societies through systems change. She believes the WBA benchmarks can be a leading voice on how to achieve this, both for business and its stakeholders.

Prior to working for the WBA she worked for the Dutch government for over a decade in different roles concerning CSR, food security and sustainable development. She has a masters in political science, with a specialisation in global poverty and bachelors in communication science, in which she mainly focused on political communication.

Emilie joined WBA in 2020 to lead the Financial System Benchmark. She is a strong believer in finance as a force for positive impact, and has advocated for change within the financial system in various roles - by turns investor, policy maker, researcher and advisor. Prior to joining WBA she led the development impact and sustainability team at FMO, the Dutch development bank, and worked with multiple global investors on responsible and impact investing policy, strategy and implementation whilst Director of Impact+ at Bridges. There she also led impact strategy across Bridges' funds, helping select, engage with and monitor companies' performance. Previously, as Head of Implementation Support at the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), she led the cross-asset class team that supported PRI’s global network of investors to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors into investment decisions. Earlier in her career she managed debt and equity-like investments in non-profits at the pioneering social investor CAF Venturesome, and has authored research into the impact investing market.

Emilie holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Modern Languages from Oxford University, with post-graduate qualifications in sustainable investment, development management and financial management.

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.

Gem recently joined WBA as Research Analyst and currently works on the development of the Digital Inclusion Benchmark. She will also explore other areas of research within the organization.

She has an economic and policy research background and has earlier worked at the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Labour Organization (ILO), and Asian Development Bank (ADB). Gem has conducted data processing, visualization and analysis as well as technical writing for reports and papers on topics including trade, gender, labor, and social protection.

Gem studied Master of Social Sciences in Applied Economics at the National University of Singapore under the ADB-Japan Scholarship Program. Prior to this, she worked at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), where she contributed to several research studies that has guided the Philippine government’s policy decision-making.

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.

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.

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 life 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.

Jennifer supports the research team in collecting data and developing the transformation benchmarks. Besides, she studies MSc International Development Studies (Research) at the University of Amsterdam. Previously she finished the MSc Global Business & Sustainability at Erasmus University. During her first master she became aware of the private sector’s role in overcoming sustainability challenges and committed to developing herself in this field. She started her second master to expand her knowledge beyond the private sector and to become more skilled in conducting scientific research. Due to their complex nature, she believes addressing sustainability issues requires thorough and reliable assessments to deliver the most impactful approaches. Moreover, she believes a sustainable future can only be achieved through transformative and systemic change ignited by cross-sector collaborations.

Kaibin joined WBA in May 2020 to work as a research analyst on the Climate and Energy, Food and Agriculture Benchmark. He conducts research on benchmarking through partnership with CDP and companies engagement.

Kaibin is especially interested in the research related to SDGs’ impacts on public and private sector and the actions from them on realizing SDGs.

Prior to joining WBA, Kaibin worked in UN Environment and (International Labour Organization) ILO for sustainable UN programme, where he assisted in annual sustainability reporting across 67 UN agencies and various field missions. He also worked in chemical industries on regulatory and product stewardship in the context of EU laws and regulations on chemicals.

Kaibin holds a Master's degree in Environmental Science with a focus on environmental system policy from ETH Zurich.

Leesa leads the development and engagement with Foundations and Philanthropists at WBA. Leesa is passionate about orchestrating change, using systems thinking to design and deliver solution-oriented approaches. Previous to WBA, Leesa has 20+ years experience working with purpose driven organisations, individuals and leadership to develop, implement and communicate sustainability, business ethics, social responsibility efforts and culture change. A visionary, gentle disruptor and pragmatic thinker, Leesa developed and piloted Pioneers for Change and published a Huff Post blog for 3 years. Committed to inspiring and challenging others to achieve their potential, Leesa sits on the Advisory Board for OneSqin, is a Mentor with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and an accredited Coach.

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.

Lisanne leads WBA's organisation-wide research projects including WBA's systems transformations framework and Theory of Change. She is involved in the development of various WBA benchmarks, particularly focusing on methodology development and translating research and input from stakeholders into clear metrics and actions for companies. Lisanne strongly believes business can and should drive and accelerate the positive change needed to put the world on a more sustainable and inclusive path and achieve the SDGs. She is passionate about research-based efforts that promote and drive this long-term change and impact. Prior to joining WBA and Index Initiative, one of WBA's founding partners, Lisanne worked at the Access to Medicine Index where she was responsible for methodology development and analysis and coordinated the development of company scorecards. She holds a MSc in Global Business and Stakeholder Management from the RSM Erasmus University.

Lourdes leads the development of the Digital Inclusion Benchmark, handling both research and engagement with a global community of experts and stakeholders. Before joining WBA, she worked at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she coordinated a global expert group on ICT statistics, organized international meetings, trained developing country regulators, and contributed to ITU’s statistical publications. Lourdes is an economist with more than a decade of experience delivering data-driven and policy-oriented projects for industry clients like Microsoft as well as UN agencies and governments. She is currently completing a PhD at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, on regulation of network industries, with a focus on telecommunications competition, Internet interconnection and quality of service.

Luiza is part of the research team, with a focus on food and agriculture supply chains. She has particular interest in multi-stakeholder action, and how both public- and private-sector actors can contribute to realising the SDGs. Prior to joining the WBA, Luiza was part of the food and water team at Ceres. There, she researched the deforestation impact of companies involved in the palm, soy and beef supply chains, and supported institutional investor engagements with food and beverage companies. She also helped develop a monitoring and evaluation system for the team and has a strong interest in impact assessment. Luiza is passionate about data-driven change to help achieve the SDGs, she holds an MSc in Development from the London School of Economics.

Marc joined the WBA in January 2020 as a project manager in the engagement team. His role consists of making the benchmarks as impactful as possible through the management of the Alliance and diverse engagement projects. Marc is a committed sustainability advocate with previous experience in the business and SDGs space, having worked at the United Nations Global Compact headquarters and UK network. He has for instance developed the Global Compact’s UK SDG Roadshow, aimed at raising awareness of the Goals and stimulating business action on this agenda. Marc holds an MSc in Business Sustainability from the University of Nottingham and a Master’s degree in International Management & Global Sustainability Strategy from ESC Pau Business School.

Marjolein is a passionate communications expert, strong in the development and implementation of communication strategies, plans and campaigns. She has broad experience in both internal and external communications and in both the public and private sector. Marjolein is a team player who is very involved with sustainability. Through engaging communications, she likes to give people a perspective to act on, in order to make the world a better place. Working with the communications team at WBA, this all comes together.
In her spare time she likes to take cultural trips, walk her Labradors, cook, garden and spend time with family in the French countryside. As a volunteer she guides newcomers to the acquisition of the Dutch language.
Apart from Dutch and English, Marjolein speaks fluent French and Spanish.

Mathias joined WBA as a Research Analyst in February 2020. Mathias comes from the finance industry, specialising in sustainability measures and ESG data. He previously worked as an Analyst in Social and Environmental Governance at NBIM. Further to that, he worked in the research industry at Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) and EIRIS in London. He brings his expertise in measuring corporate behaviour and performance across social and environmental issues to his work at WBA in measuring companies to incentivise business impact towards a sustainable future. Mathias holds a Master's Degree in Corporate, Sustainable Responsibility (CSR) from the University of Nottingham, England and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Aarhus University in Denmark.

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.

Melinda joined WBA in April 2020 to support the Gender Benchmark and assist in developing WBA’s broader research agenda, namely the Social Transformation and the SDG2000 workstreams. She believes that the private sector is instrumental in pursuing sustainable development, particularly with regard to improving people’s quality of life, and that benchmarking companies can help drive positive change.

With a background in development policy, Melinda began her career at the OECD working with the Development Assistance Committee, the Better Life Index team and the Secretary-General’s cabinet, where she was also involved in social impact investing and blended finance initiatives. To further engage private sector in advancing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, Melinda joined the Business & Sustainable Development Commission as Research Manager and subsequently consulted for SystemiQ and WBA. Melinda holds a Masters in European Affairs from Sciences Po, Paris and a BA in Comparative Politics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Michael joined the WBA in 2020 as a Research Analyst to develop the Digital Inclusion benchmark. Prior to joining the WBA, he worked at the LeidenAsiaCentre on a research project involving North Korean workers in the global textile supply chain. His research interest revolves around East Asia in historical and contemporary contexts, and he has recently completed his Masters in Transcultural Studies, from the University of Heidelberg.

Michael is the Digital Inclusion Research Lead, guiding the methodology, evaluation and ranking of digital companies. His experience includes consultancy assignments with international intergovernmental organizations, benchmarking countries in areas such as digital development, e-government and e-commerce. He previously worked at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) heading the market research unit. He also worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a computer analyst. He has authored numerous reports on digital development and has an MBA in Information Systems Technology from George Washington University in Washington DC.

Mishma recently joined the WBA team in 2020 as a Research Analyst. Prior to joining WBA, Mishma worked with the WWF Sustainable Finance team in Singapore to support their work on benchmarking regional and international financial institutions on their ESG integration and performance. She also worked on the team's engagement with investors in Asian palm oil-based FMCG companies by evaluating and benchmarking their sustainable sourcing and supply chain policies. Her previous work experiences involve working with sustainability consultancies in London to produce ESG research and support client projects in their reporting for global indices such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Mishma holds a Master's degree in Environmental Technology with a focus on resource management from Imperial College London.

Namit joined WBA in March 2020. He leads WBA's engagement with the external policy environment in Asia, focusing on issues which advocate long-term sustainable development, finance and corporate reporting. Namit brings over a decade's experience of influencing public policy, companies and investors on issues of transparency, accountability, human rights and gender. Prior to WBA, Namit has worked with Oxfam India, CARE India and Samhita Social Ventures in the areas of advocacy, campaigning, program design and communication. He strongly believes in evidence based advocacy and multi-stakeholder dialogue. He's helped design and implement India Responsible Business Index, led supply chain researches and convened civil society, companies, investors and government for advocacy and action. Namit has written extensively on the intersection of business, SDGs, human rights and finance. He is a member of the India's National Human Rights Commission core group on Business, Environment and Human Rights. He is an MBA from ICFAI University and Commerce graduate from Calcutta University.

Nathan works in research, with a particular interest in sustainability along the food and agricultural value chain and a strong belief in the potential of benchmarking to positively influence the private sector worldwide. Prior to joining the WBA Nathan worked for the Access to Seeds Index, primarily focusing on the Eastern and Southern Africa region, and for his masters carried out first-hand research on the impact of land grabbing on the livelihoods and wellbeing of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. He also has previous research experience in GIS and remote sensing, and supported conflict resolution programs in South Sudan, Mauritania and Côte d’Ivoire while working for Concordis International

Nathan conducts research to develop the Digital Inclusion Benchmark. He is passionate about how technology can be used as a tool for social change and a driver of sustainable development. 

Before joining WBA, Nathan worked freelance in the tech startup scene on projects related to data analysis, product management, and data warehouse project management. He also spent a year running randomized control trials of health, microfinance, and education projects in India and interned at The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action lab while a graduate student. Nathan holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University SIPA. Before graduate school, Nathan was US Peace Corps Volunteer in Rural Ethiopia where he worked on small-scale agricultural projects.  

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.

Patricia is Executive Assistant to the four Directors – Gerbrand, Gonnie, Richard and Pauliina. She co-ordinates travel and calendars and provides administrative support to all the team, as required.

Patricia has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Napier University in Edinburgh. She has many years’ experience as a Personal Assistant working for International companies in Amsterdam and prior to that in Scotland.

The move from corporate to non-profit is a big change for Patricia and she is enjoying learning more about sustainability. She believes that everyone can make small changes which can have a big impact on the environment and we should all do our bit to save the planet.

Pauliina leads the WBA’s advocacy and outreach strategy for the WBA and its benchmarks, building and strengthening relationships with diverse stakeholders, including investors, civil society and governments, working to ensure that the Alliance is inclusive and relevant globally. Pauliina joined the WBA from Aviva, a global insurance company and asset manager, where she was Head of International Government Engagement. At Aviva, Pauliina drove forward international policy development and advocacy campaigns on sustainable finance and trade and investment, working closely with multi-lateral institutions such as the UN, G7 and G20. Pauliina ran the company’s global stakeholder and political engagement strategy, to change the rules at the highest level so that capital is deployed to drive sustainable growth. 

Pratik leads strategic engagement efforts for the WBA, working to grow and strengthen a diverse, balanced, and inclusive community of global allies and partners who believe in and understand the potential of benchmarks to drive transformative change. Previously, he managed private sector engagement and policy efforts for the United Nations Foundation and held positions in program development, operations, and communications and outreach with TechnoServe, The White House, and the Council on Foreign Relations. A native of Gweru, Zimbabwe, Pratik is a graduate of Boston University, where he earned a B.A. in international relations and political science. He is passionate about the power of cross-sector partnerships and strongly believes that business has a critical role to play in advancing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Richard is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the development of the WBA’s benchmarks. He believes that high-quality, targeted benchmarks can drive innovation, shed light on best practice and accelerate progress on the SDGs. From designing methodologies to ensuring rigorous data collection, Richard works across the WBA’s teams and Allies to share innovations, build capabilities and ensure continuous improvement. Prior to joining the WBA, he worked as an adviser to companies on responsible and sustainable business strategies. He is a published author and has an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Imperial College, London.

Richard is responsible for developing the WBA policy strategy in the context of the EU Institutions; working collaboratively with other regional policy leads, ensuring active engagement with civil society, financial institutions, business networks and policy institutions. This will support a future policy and regulatory environment to help business make progress on the SDGs.

Richard has taken a central position in devising and executing large scale advocacy and government relations strategies throughout his career. Most recently he provided a major advisory role on the design of the next European budget 2021-2027 worth €1 trillion and the fundamental Programmes for delivering European and funding priorities to key sectors of the global economy and particularly crucial to delivering the SDGs.

In a career, spanning positions within UK government, global nonprofits and the private sector, Richard has project led a number of high profile European projects and policy initiatives building close relationships with EU institutions, NGOs, academic and industry partners. He is also an independent expert for the European Commission to assist with research and innovation assignments including the evaluation of proposals, monitoring of projects, and evaluation of programmes, and design of policy.

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.

Roselyn joined the WBA in 2019 as a research analyst and is currently working on the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment benchmark. Her prior work experience encompasses ​research in ESG and gender equality as well as capacity building for minority women in pastoralist communities in Kenya. Roselyn has a great interest in human rights and is particularly passionate about gender issues and the empowerment of women in both the formal and informal sectors; she has been pivotal in lending her voice to conversations about harmful cultural practices in Kenya and Namibia.​ Roselyn is a Chevening alumna with an MSc from the University of Edinburgh. Away from work, she is a travel and skydiving enthusiast who also enjoys literature.

Ryan Kaminski is the Global Public Policy Lead at WBA. He is responsible for the WBA’s engagement and advocacy at the United Nations and other international fora including the G7, G20, World Bank and IMF.

Previously, Ryan was the Human Rights Policy Advisor at the United Nations Foundation. There he led SDGs campaigns on gender-lens investing; the business case for Goal 16; as well as the sustainable development-human rights nexus. He also supported global corporate partnerships with the UN Free & Equal Campaign.

He has served as a consultant for the Council on Foreign Relations as well as Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB, and Malaria. He has also held positions with the Permanent Mission of Papua New Guinea to the UN, Amnesty International, and was a U.S. Fulbright Fellow in Hong Kong.

Ryan is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member as well as Truman National Security Project Security Fellow. He is a recipient of the Columbia University Jal Pavry Award for Research in International Understanding and the Leo Nevas Human Rights Award.

Based in New York but truly a Chicagoan at heart, Ryan received his BA from the University of Chicago and MIA from Columbia University.

Samantha conducts in-depth research and data analysis to support the development of the WBA’s benchmarks. She is passionate about innovative approaches to inclusive sustainable development and believes that companies cannot be excluded from the development agenda. Prior to joining the World Benchmarking Alliance, Samantha worked for the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab as a Senior Research Associate focused on youth unemployment. She also worked with the Building Bridges Foundation as a Project Manager and Researcher for the Road to Nairobi 2016 project from South Africa to Rwanda. Samantha holds a master’s degree in Quantitative Economics with a focus on Public Policy and Development from the Paris School of Economics.

Sanne is involved in the research for the Food and Agriculture Benchmark. Prior to this, she has been leading the research for the Access to Seeds Index. After her graduation in International Law, she started her career at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she gained experience at the Netherlands Embassy in Khartoum, the Netherlands Permanent Representation to the UN in Rome and the multilateral (UN/IFI) department. She continued her career at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome, notably as Legal Counsel. Sanne believes that food solves almost everything. And that sustainable production and equal distribution of healthy food is the key step toward the future she wants.

Sara joined WBA in February 2020 as a Research Analyst. Sara is supporting the WBA team with the Food and Agriculture benchmark and she is interested in researching the incentives for the private sector to align with the SDGs. Prior to joining WBA, Sara worked with the ClimateSouth team at the German Development Institute in Bonn. She collected and analyzed data on international and multi-stakeholder climate action initiatives in different sectors, which were used in several international publications, including the 2019 UNFCCC Yearbook of Global Climate Action. She developed an interest in food and agriculture sustainable supply chains while she was interning at Solidaridad where she worked with the Corporate Engagement team. Sara holds a MSc in Sustainable Development with a specialization in Governance from Utrecht University.

Semia joined the WBA in 2020 as a project manager in the communications team. She believes in the power of communications to flag important issues, start necessary conversations and connect people around the globe to drive positive change.
Her focus will be on increasing the general awareness of the WBA’s activities, reaching existing and new audiences and optimising the organisations’ social media presence. Prior to joining the WBA, Semia worked in a range of communications and project management related roles spanning private, public and third sector. Most recently she spent time working at the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, where she managed digital marketing channels, organised conferences and events and lead a committee of financial analysts to drive debate on emerging environmental, social and governance issues. She holds a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Zurich and a Masters in International Communications from the University of Leeds.

Shamistha is an Australian coffee lover with a background in corporate law, specifically engaging with policy, law and practice to promote respect for human rights by businesses. Her adventurous spirit brought her to the Netherlands where she recently completed her Masters in European and International Human Rights Law.

As a Human Rights Research Analyst at WBA, Shamistha is involved in the development of the human rights layer of various WBA benchmarks, as well as the cross-cutting social transformation component. She strongly believes that businesses can be used as a force for good in society and that transformative change within businesses is needed in order to mainstream human rights on the corporate agenda so that the SDGs can be achieved.

Shelby is responsible for maximizing the value of the technology and tools used and developed for the World Benchmarking Alliance. Effective and efficient data collection and analysis are an important part of benchmarking and it’s Shelby’s job to ensure this is possible. Shelby was previously project manager at the Access to Seeds Foundation and so has been working in the framework of industry benchmarking since 2016. She holds a MSc in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from Central European University (CEU) and prior to that pursued environmental studies at both the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and the School for Field Studies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Talya is the research project manager for the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) at WBA. She joined in March 2020 and has the overall responsibility to manage the CHRB research process in a smooth way & engage with stakeholders to further the use of the data and methodologies produced. Talya believes that identifying and mitigating human rights risks and impacts in the private sector is the new frontier of human rights work, specifically in developing business strategies and solutions which include both sustainability and human rights targets as a means to promote systemic change.

Prior to this Talya spent time working with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris, where she managed a project on integrating human rights into investment strategies. Her previous experience includes assisting in research for Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Paris and New York and the completion of a civil service program with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Israel. She holds a BA in human rights from Columbia University in the city of New York, and a Masters from the Sciences Po School of International Affairs in Paris, with a focus on international law.

Timothée is a Data Analyst at the World Benchmarking Alliance and studied environmental sciences and policy in an interdisciplinary fashion. He graduated in 2015 with a Master of Science coordinated by the Central European University, University of Manchester, and University of the Aegean. Thanks to an internship at the World Food Programme in Panama and work on his master thesis on sustainable water management, he gained insight on modern agricultural issues. Timothée began his career as an innovation consultant for LGI Consulting in Paris, where he worked on various EU research projects. 

Vicky is responsible for leading the Climate and Energy Benchmark to support the decarbonisation of the economy and the Energy transition. She believes in private sector contribution and responsibility by demonstrating how companies in high carbon-emitting industries are contributing to the Paris Agreement and SDG 13, with the aim to enable the required transformation to a low carbon economy. Vicky joined on May 1st 2019 after spending the past 14.5 years working for ABN AMRO Bank and the last 7 years with ABN AMRO Clearing Bank in charge of Energy & Commodity clients. Besides this she was heading up the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy for ABN AMRO Clearing forcing industry dialogue to increase transparency to support safe and orderly capital markets. She was part of the Investor Working Group of the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative and instrumental in setting up partnerships between ABN AMRO Clearing and Frontclear (a developing country capital market infrastructure builder). She has a Master degree in Financial Management and is an alumni to the Prince of Wales’ Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership.