Speakers

Linda Kromjong became President of amfori per 1 January 2022. In this role she continues creating positive impact by supporting business to enhance responsible conduct in their supply chain. amfori’s view is that trade should deliver social, environmental, and economic benefits for everyone.
From October 2018 through December 2021, she served as Global Labour & Human Rights Directorate Samsung Electronics. In this role she focused on establishing the company’s labour & human rights framework to drive corporate and supply chain improvements and on strengthening the company’s relationships with key international policymakers and opinion formers.
Prior to her role at Samsung, Linda Kromjong was Secretary-General of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) in Geneva from 1 May 2015to 1 October 2018. Before the IOE, she was the Vice-President, Labour 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 of experience in senior positions in general management, HR, Labour Relations and Business & Human Rights. She currently serves as a Member of the Stakeholder Board of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors Inc.
(APSCA). She was a member of the UN Global Compact Advisory Board from 2015 to 2018.
Linda Kromjong is a Dutch national and completed Hotel Management School and
Business Management studies in the Netherlands.

Dr. Bärbel Kofler is currently a Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. Before this appointment she was serving as Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance at the Federal Foreign Office and worked as SPD Spokesperson on Development Policy. Since September 2004 she was a member of the German Bundestag, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

In her early career she used to teach German as foreign language as well as Russian.

Mrs. Kofler studied computer science at Rosenheim University of Applied Science later linguistics, Russian and Spanish language and literature at Salzburg University.

Full biography: https://www.bmz.de/en/ministry/leadership-ministry/kofler-100036

Matt Friedman is an international human trafficking expert with more than 30 years’ experience. He is CEO of The Mekong Club, an organization of Hong Kong’s leading businesses which have joined forces to help end all forms of modern slavery. Mr. Friedman previously worked for USAID and the United Nations in over 40 countries. Mr. Friedman offers technical advice to numerous governments, banks and corporations working to eliminate all forms of modern slavery and is the author of twelve books. In 2017, Mr. Friedman won Asia’s prestigious “Communicator of the Year”
Gold Award.

Bernardo Cruza is the Head of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility at EL CORTE INGLES, a company he joined in 1986, and he reports to the Sustainability Committee of the Board.
Having developed most of his career in the buying department, this experience led him to address human and labour rights, social compliance and sustainability in global value chains. As a result, he chaired for 4 years (2014-2017) the former Steering Committee of BSCI – Business Social Compliance Initiative- and served as an Amfori Board member until 2021.
In June 2016, he was part of the Spanish employers’ delegation at the 105th International Labour Conference, on Decent Work in Global Supply Chains.
He has represented El Corte Inglés as a Board or Steering Committee member in a number of both international and national initiatives, including:
– The Bangladesh Transition Accord
– The Ready-made-garment Sustainability Council in Bangladesh
– IFS (International Featured Standards)
– APSCA (Association of Social Compliance Auditors)
– ACI (Association Commerciale Internationale)
– Worldwide Retail Exchange, later AGENTRICS (B2B platform)
– AITEX (textile research institute)
– SERES Trust in Spain
– the Sustainability Committee of AECOC (GS1 Spain)
– the CSR Committee of CEOE (Spanish Employers’ Confederation)
– the CSR Committee of ANGED (Spanish Retail Federation)
– the Social Sustainability Committee of the Consumer Goods Forum.
A graduate in Linguistics, Bernardo holds other degrees in sales and marketing, international trade, food safety, quality management systems and corporate social responsibility.
EL CORTE INGLES Group of companies, is the leading department store and retail chain in Spain and Portugal. Its retail formats include supermarkets, hypermarkets,
convenience stores and fashion stores under the Sfera banner. The Group also includes the leading travel agency Viajes El Corte Inglés, as well as other subsidiaries.

Andrea is the ESG specialist for consumer at Aviva Investors. She is responsible for the research and analysis of consumer names’ ESG performance, covering a wide range of topics such as deforestation, plastics, human rights in supply chains, water risks, and the decarbonization of the auto sector. She leads individual and collective engagements with consumer companies to explore ESG risks and opportunities and ensure alignment with Aviva’s key thematic issues.
Andrea is also the ESG partner for the high yield credit desk, where she assists with developing and implementing ESG integration and monitoring outcomes.
Andrea previously worked at the sustainability consulting firms KKS Advisors, ICF Consulting, and at Ceres, the non-profit leading corporate and investor cooperation on climate and nature. She has also worked at the Council of the European Union, and the European Savings and Retail Banking Group.
She holds a Master’s in International Business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Phoebe Ewen is a member of the amfori Board of Directors and Human Rights Manager for
Woolworths Group, Australia’s largest retailer by revenue. Based in Hong Kong, Phoebe works closely with supply chain partners spanning multiple food and non-food categories. Her priorities at Woolworths Group in Asia include driving responsible recruitment practices for migrant worker populations, increasing access to worker voice across supply chains, enhancing human rights due diligence in high-risk commodities, and building sustainable strategies targeting the root cause of human rights non-conformances. Prior to joining Woolworths, she worked in the non-profit sector in Asia focusing on business engagement to address modern slavery. She holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Nottingham in the UK.

Ines Kaempfer has been deeply engaged in child rights, labour rights issues and business and human rights in the manufacturing and agriculture industries in China and Asia for over 15 years.
As the CEO of The Centre for Child Rights and Business (formerly CCR CSR), a social enterprise that helps businesses improve their direct and indirect impact on children, Ines leads strategic design and implementation of overall operations and stakeholder engagement, working closely with major multi-national clients and partners around the world.

Elif graduated from Istanbul University Chemical Engineering and completed her master’s degree at Istanbul University Faculty of Education. 

After working as a Chemistry teacher for 2 years in the private education sector, she took over the responsibility of the quality and product safety of textile products and supplier development processes in the Quality Assurance department at H&M. Since 2010, she started to work in the Quality Assurance department of Metro Turkey. She was appointed as the Quality Assurance Manager in 2016. Her current responsibility are product quality, safety and sustainability of all product groups. She is experinced in product and food safety, legality and sustainability of food, nearfood and non-food goods in retail sector, supplier qualification in terms of social compliance, product and food safety, and also in ESG practices.

Ayşegül Yalçın Eriş is Deputy General Coordinator of the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD -ASAM) which was established in 1995 in Ankara as an independent, impartial and non-profit association to assist refugees and asylum seekers living in Turkey. She is also a member of the Executive Board of Refugee Rights Center of Istanbul Bar Association.

She graduated from the Ankara University School of Law. Before starting work with SGDD- ASAM, Ayşegül spent 15 years as a freelance lawyer on intellectual property rights and as well as for the individuals on human rights. She started to work as a lawyer in the Protection Department at SGDD-ASAM and was then appointed as a project coordinator for the projects named “Education Campus and Integrated Protection for The Syrian Refugees” and “Improve the Protection Mechanisms for Non-Syrian Asylum Seekers and Refugees Through Continuation of Protection”.
As of 2018, she took the role of Deputy General Coordinator for the Association for
Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM). Along with this duty, she has led to the establishment and operation of the ASAM Academy on Migration and she is leading migration-related research, a digital library on migration, the “Talks on Migration” program for the video-based library, and a peer-reviewed journal within the Academy.

Kelli Hoggle is the Network Representative for the USA & Canada working with over 150 companies in the region, including some of the world’s largest retailers. In her role, she supports member companies, seeks to grow the network, and engages with stakeholders in the region. Early on, Kelli become engaged and passionate about the topic of business and human rights, first in the global apparel industry paying special focus to forced labor and human trafficking. Kelli started her career at Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) as a Sr. Compliance Manager, managing the certification program, internal auditors, and 3rd party audit companies and has interned for anti-human trafficking organizations in San Francisco and Atlanta. Kelli is based in Seattle, WA.

Tristan Edmondson is the UK & Ireland Network Representative for amfori, and is based in London. He spent 10 years as a sustainable supply chain consultant, including six years in China, working directly with suppliers. He has also worked in-house for three fashion retailers developing and managing their due diligence processes, and most recently was Head of Responsible Sourcing at Sedex where he redeveloped the SMETA audit methodology.

Ms. Müge TUNA KURT is an international consultant and trainer in social compliance with 20 years experience. With having worked in textile and apparel factories for 8 years, then in 2012, she started to work for an NGO as a consultant and lead auditor for EMEA region and conducted numerous audits in Türkiye, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Hungary and India. She had also assisted various projects on cotton supply chain risks, excessive overtime in textile industry and piloting USDA Guidelines in hazelnut supply chain.  
In 2014, she started to work as a consultant and also provided supplier trainings on labor conditions and workplace rules for amfori in Turkey as an accredited trainer for amfori. During her work experience, Ms. Tuna Kurt has conducted extensive research on Turkey legal context for labor rights. She has also assisted various mediation sessions between companies and workers representatives on workplace disputes. 
Since July 2016, Ms. Müge Tuna Kurt is working as a Network Representative for amfori based in Türkiye.  She owns Aleph CSR Consultancy, Training Services Co. Ltd. supporting to companies in implementing social compliance.

After graduating from business school and attending the IBM Academy in Mainz/Germany, I have been working for the Wortmann Group for more than 40 years. During this long time, I started in the IT department as a project manager and was specifically responsible for the areas of sales and supply chain.  2001 – 2013 there was a change to the Supply Chain department, which was managed by me. In 2013, the product safety and sustainability area of responsibility was spun off from Supply Chain and installed as an independent department, reporting directly to the CEO. From the very beginning, I was pleased to be entrusted with the management of this area at Group level.

I have been working in the RMG sector for more than 22 years. I’m passionate about sustainability and strongly believe in transparency, commitment, and teamwork.
I’m playing the role of a strategic sustainability leader with proven track record of building and leading effective cross-functional, and multi-site teams, driving change initiatives, and implementing Sustainability.
My areas of expertise are social & environmental sustainability, projects implementation, safety management, capacity building training, managing 3 rd party audits, organizational development, and management system implementation.
I have enriched myself as a certified Lead Auditor for ISO 14001 (EMS) & ISO 45001 (OH&S) and also a certified auditor for SA8000.
I have been actively involved in implementing various projects related to Social & Environmental Sustainability, such as amfori BEPI, ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals) and ZDHC Supplier to Zero Program, BVE3 Chemical Management Program, HIGG FEM, FSLM & SLCP program, CP (Cleaner Production) & PaCT program with IFC & BGMEA, Social Dialogue, Women Empowerment, Wage & working hour Management System, WCP (Workplace cooperation program), HER Project with Abercrombie & Fitch, TCP & Fast Retailing, P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement) program, EIPS (Employee Injury Protection Scheme) program with GIZ.

I am an Environmental scientist with training on climate change, humanitarian response, international development, project management and an MBA. I am passionate about human rights and sustainable development, having worked for over 16 years in different NGOs, International Organizations and private sector. I have a worked and lived in all continents (except Antarctica) and truly believe in international cooperation, intercultural respect and understanding, equality, and integration.
My work experience is mainly on international project management with a sustainable development and gender transformative lens; I have also participated in research on issues like climate change, land management and water use; I’ve done communication and education, fundraising and influencing (policy, advocacy, public mobilization and strategic communications).
Little secret, I have also worked as host on radio and TV, as a dancer, musician, diver and on
theatre and showbusiness.
In my career I have liaised with all types of stakeholders from native communities, farmers and local governments to transnational organizations and corporations.

To be updated…

Tanya Todd, P.Log  is the Manager for Responsible Sourcing at Canadian Tire group of companies.   With over 34 years of international logistics experience, combined with 19 years of Ethical Sourcing, she has actively supported a responsible supply chain that protects worker rights, worker safety and the environment by educating Canadian Tire merchants and vendors, providing audit support and facilitating solutions to enable continuous improvements at supplier factories.  Tanya is an active member of the amfori Members Advisory Council, participated in various amfori project groups, and is a former member of the Sanctions Council. As an advocate for human rights beyond the supply chain,  Tanya has also led many diversity and inclusion initiatives at Canadian Tire including chairing The Indigenous Peoples Employee Network. 

For over two decades, Daniel Hopp has dedicated his service to MNEs and SMEs as a trade intermediary and consultant. He spearheaded the development of meticulous quality management protocols, streamlined reporting systems through automation, and developed sustainable procurement strategies. Mr. Hopp exhibited his expertise by implementation of intricate prerequisites on the factory floor, personally. His profound understanding enabled him to adeptly bridge the demands of Western clientele with the production capacities of manufacturers in emerging economies. He successfully attained esteemed benchmarks such as the GREEN BUTTON Certification for both internal and third-party operations. As an autonomous consultant, he holds the role the amfori Network Representative for Germany and Austria.

Elif Kalan is an experienced social expert with a background in project development and implementation. With 15 years of experience, she has focused on various areas such as women’s rights, social cohesion, conflict resolution, and capacity building on social topics. Elif has been involved in designing, developing, and working on numerous social projects in Türkiye and Europe, collaborating with different UN and EU organizations. Currently, at amfori, she holds the responsibility for amfori BSCI, ensuring the system’s maintenance and improvement to address business needs and protect workers’ rights. Elif’s passion for social entrepreneurship extends to her involvement in various volunteer projects.

Max heads the Labour Mobility and Social Inclusion Unit of the IOM office in Thailand. In his role, he works closely with governments, civil society and businesses to forge partnerships and create solutions that promote the protection of migrants’ rights through safe labour migration. From the management of regional IOM programmes and the development of IOM’s technical resources through the tracing of migrant-worker journeys in supply chains, his work is grounded in over 12 years of technical experience in multiple locations at the regional and global level.

Ruben Korevaar is currently working as policy advisor with the Dutch Trade Union Federation (Mondiaal FNV). He advises trade unions, NGOs, businesses, governments and other industrial players in the textile, garment and leather sector to support decent work conditions. He is strategic lead in the STITCH partnership and involved with IRBCs in the Netherlands. In his work he focuses a lot on human rights due diligence, living wage and supporting social dialogue process in production countries fostering meaningful stakeholder dialogue. This year he joined Amfori’s SAC. Earlier he worked as business developer and was engaged with several UN agencies and INGOs.

Thirty plus years of work experience – 29 years in Tata Steel where she has worked across various functions including working as Executive Officer to Managing Director and Chief Corporate Sustainability. Decided to move on and joined ITC as Chief Sustainability Officer in Dec’ 21. Passionate about Sustainability and is committed to integration of Sustainability into all functions of Business. Areas of specific interest are Climate Change and mitigation actions for transition and adaptation, adoption of diversity and inclusion at workplace, embedding sustainability in supply chain, product sustainability, adoption of digital for rendering sustainable solutions.

Was recognized as one of the top 25 Sustainability Superwoman in Asia by CSR Works, Singapore in 2019.

Member of CII’s National Committee on Climate Change and FICCI’s national Committee on Environment & Climate Change.

Saiful Millat has been working in amfori for about 6 years. Prior to that, he has worked at various organization for more than 15 years in CSR & Sustainability compliance in Bangladesh. He has extensively travelled across many Asian countries in pursuit of monitoring and developing suppliers from world reputed brands & retailers. He has worked in different projects like Minimum Wage, Living Wage, Child Labor remediation, Force labor, Discrimination & harassment, Building & Fire Safety etc. He has spoken at numerous events in home & abroad on the aforesaid topics.          

Ms Joyce Chau joined amfori as the Country Representative of the organization in Greater China in June 2011.  Her role is to promote responsible trade through sustainability services including business social compliance (amfori BSCI), environmental performance (amfori BEPI), quality management capability (amfori QMI) and responsible trade policy along the global supply chains.

Since Jan 2019, Ms Chau has been promoted to Director Asia Pacific and leads the APAC team to drive open and sustainable trade in the region with direct presence in Australia, Greater China, Bangladesh, India and Turkey.

In around 30 years, Ms Chau’s major expertise is in public affairs, stakeholder and media relations crisis and issues management related to sustainability, CSR, and supply chain management.  Prior to amfori, she was the Senior Vice President of the HSBC Corporate Sustainability APAC Office, Dell China’s Corporate Communications Director and she also worked for HKSAR Government’ Innovation and Technology Commission, HK Airport Authority and GS1.  She possesses a BSoSc in Communications and a Master of Arts in Translation.

Jonathan joined amfori in November of 2021 as membership officer and became a Zero Tolerance case handler in March of 2022.
As a Zero Tolerance case handler has worked on many cases relating to recruitment fees paid by
migrant workers, particularly in Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.
Jonathan has a master’s degree in international relations and association management.

In 2021 Eftelya embarked on my journey of studying mechanical engineering at Bogazici University. To bolster her personal development and gain valuable work experience, in the sam year she took on the role of a Human Resources Assistant at Tuzluca Textile. Working there exposed her to a range of responsibilities, including strategic planning, management systems, and internal control audits.

Since 2022, she has been managing both her in-person university education and her role at Tuzluca Textile. In her capacity, she schedules weekly activities for the company’s social branches, oversees quality management systems, and ensures their implementation and sustainability by following the C-TPAT procedure processes.

Ms. Leong is a dedicated advocate for human rights, sustainability, and responsible sourcing, bringing nearly three decades of experience in manufacturing, retailing, testing, inspection, and certification. Her expertise spans diverse areas, including social compliance, CSR, stakeholder relations, strategic planning, business development, and supply chain management. Before assuming her role as Chief of Social Compliance at Hartalega, she held positions at prominent companies such as Walmart, GAP Inc., Jebsen & Jessen, and SGS. Throughout her illustrious career, she managed operations across the Asia Pacific region and India subcontinent. Notably, she has played pivotal roles in global projects, further enhancing her reputation as a leader committed to ethical and sustainable business practices on a global scale.

Valentina is Senior Social Policy Advisor at amfori where she is responsible for contributing to amfori’s advocacy work in the field of social sustainability and supply chain policies with a special focus on human rights due diligence. 

Prior to joining amfori, Valentina worked on sustainability issues related to the tech sector including responsible sourcing, substance restrictions, energy, material efficiency, waste, repair and refurbishment.

 Valentina holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in international relations.

Ms. Yolanda Kwok joined amfori as the Network Representative for Greater China in April 2019.  She leads the Greater China team based in Hong Kong and supports amfori members, their business partners, internal and external stakeholders to manage the risk in the value chains and improve their ESG performance via amfori BSCI, amfori BEPI, advocacy and capacity building programs.

She has 20 years of experience in MNC, not for profit organizations in education, ESG and ICT sectors.

Prior to joining amfori, she was the Regional Director of The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) in Greater China. Before that, she accumulated management, business development and marketing experience in ICT and educational sectors – City & Guilds, Microsoft, and Sina in the role of Head of Business Development and Marketing.

She possesses a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA from the University of Birmingham.

Helen Kaestner joined amfori in December 2019. She became Head of Operations per January 2023. In this role she focuses together with the amfori team to improve amfori’s products and services, to develop innovative new products fit for purpose and to enhance the quality and efficiency of amfori’s service delivery.
Before joining amfori, Helen worked 20 years in several positions for consulting companies.

Nicolas is a Digital Product Strategist and UX Designer at digital product agency, icapps, with over 5 years of experience in digital design and innovation. He has consistently delivered digital strategies that drive digital innovation within both public services and private companies, regardless of their size.

Nicolas has spearheaded the development of an interactive workshop methodology aimed at forging a collective digital product vision and strategy. This innovative approach ensures that all decision-makers are actively engaged and fully supportive, while also incorporating invaluable input from customers and stakeholders. The result? A comprehensive and foolproof strategy that maximizes success.

Nicolas and his team at icapps helped amfori build their digital strategy for the new digital portal, alligning with business and user needs. The technical teams at icapps are currently developing this portal as we speak.

Norma is both ​Network Representative and trainer for ​amfori in The Netherlands. She is currently supporting approx. 400 Dutch and 100 Flemish amfori members in putting ESG into practice both in their own companies as well as throughout their supply chains, using ​amfori’s various services and products. 

Norma has been working on ESG for ​15 years now, as a CSR-manager in retail, trainer and as the owner of her own consultancy company.  

Norma is both ​Network Representative and trainer for ​amfori in The Netherlands. She is currently supporting approx. 400 Dutch and 100 Flemish amfori members in putting ESG into practice both in their own companies as well as throughout their supply chains, using ​amfori’s various services and products. 

Norma has been working on ESG for ​15 years now, as a CSR-manager in retail, trainer and as the owner of her own consultancy company.

Natasha is the India Network Representative for amfori since 2016. Over her years at amfori she has built and executed Capacity Building initiatives, social and governance programmes and actively advocated for ESG related policy including contributions to B20 2023. She manages amfori’s work in India including amfori BSCI, amfori BEPI and amfori QMI with a niche team. 

She is an economist engaged in Sustainability, ESG, Human Rights, Environment Protection, SDGs, UNGPs, HREDD, Advocacy, Responsible Business, Transparency and Gender Empowerment.

She initiated her career at Bloomberg in 2005, resulting in accelerated growth to leadership, management, business and strategy development as South Asia Sales Manager. In 2010 she began her journey in ESG with the creation, development and delivery of the Bloomberg ESG Platform in India.

Looking beyond man-made barriers she works with philosophy and learnings from ancient civilisations with the belief that fraternity, unity, development and evolution drive humanity.

FRA

Avec une formation en développement durable, transition écologique et gestion de projet, Erika à plus de 10 ans d’expérience dans la conception et le déploiement d’initiative liées aux conditions de travail dans les chaines d’approvisionnement. Ayant commencé sa carrière en Asie du sud-est, elle a accompagné ses clients dans des projets d’évaluation et d’amélioration continue des conditions de travail dans les usines. Après avoir développé et implémenté le programme d’intégrité des audits chez amfori, elle pilote aujourd’hui le programme de devoir de diligence social et environnemental notamment dans l’adaptation et la création d’outils de gestion des risques.

ENG

With a double master degree in Sustainable agricultural practices and International Project management, Erika has been working in programme design and roll out in supply chain for more than 10 years. Responsible for auditing operation, then Services and Programmes at amfori, she is now overseeing the internal HREDD alignment of current tools as well as developing additional solutions to support member in their due diligence journey.

Stuart started his career at the UK government’s trade department, before being seconded to DHG Trade at the European Commission to work on issues concerning intellectual property and market access.  This gave him a national, EU and international perspective on trade issues.  At amfori he is responsible for trade and customs issues with a particular emphasis on the role sustainable development plays in those fields. He frequently lends his expertise to panels at the various Brussels institutions and is the author of several papers concerning anti-dumping.

Laura is a Sustainability Expert at the Governance team at amfori, responsible for setting up supply chain due diligence tools for amfori’s members. She is currently leading amfori’s work on access to remedy and the global operational implementation of its Supply Chain Grievance Mechanism Programme, Speak for Change. Before she joined amfori she was working with UNICEF, in specific on
corporate partnerships to support their programs in the field.

Information to be updated…