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.

Carla is Senior Researcher focusing on the Food and Agriculture Transition Benchmark at WBA. 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 and inclusive global 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, to reach healthy, enjoyable diets for all, that are produced responsibly within planetary boundaries. Carla has nine years’ experience as an economic and policy analyst and sustainability consultant with her latest focus being on advising forward thinking companies on assessing and disclosing 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 will join the WBA in May.