Media Center

Our Experts

BSR’s staff have experience across a wide range of focus areas and industries, and are available to provide expert insights and commentary on today's most pressing sustainability issues.

Media Contact

Sustainable Business, ESG

Aron Cramer

President and CEO, BSR

San Francisco

President and CEO, BSR

San Francisco

Aron is recognized globally as a preeminent authority on just and sustainable business. In addition to leading BSR, which has grown substantially throughout his tenure as President and CEO, Aron advises senior executives at BSR’s 300+ member companies and other global businesses and partners on the full spectrum of environmental, social, and governance issues.

Aron joined BSR in 1995 as the founding director of its Business and Human Rights program. He later opened BSR's Paris office in 2002, where he worked until becoming President and CEO in 2004. Aron has served on advisory boards to CEOs at AXA, Barrick Gold, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Recruit Holdings, SAP, Shell, and he serves as a director of the We Mean Business Coalition and RISE.

Aron speaks frequently at leading business and public fora and is widely quoted in top-tier media, such as the Financial Times, Le Figaro (France), The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Axios, and Politico. He is co-author of the book Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World, which spotlights innovative sustainability strategies that enable business success.

Prior to joining BSR, Aron practiced law in San Francisco and worked as a journalist at ABC News in New York. He holds a BA from Tufts University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Recent Insights From Aron Cramer

Full Bio

Sustainable Business, ESG

Laura Gitman

Chief Impact Officer, BSR

New York

Chief Impact Officer, BSR

New York

Laura is a global expert on corporate sustainability, with two decades of experience in strategy consulting and has advised senior executives at global companies across a range of industry sectors and sustainability issues.

As Chief Impact Officer (CIO), the first in the organization’s 30-year history, Laura focuses on maximizing the impact of BSR’s work with its network of over 300 members, both through direct engagement on project work and as a mentor for teams throughout the organization. She also oversees BSR’s Collaborative Initiatives and Membership, and is a recognized thought leader and innovator in strategic business.

She has been an instrumental leader in BSR’s organizational growth and impact. She launched BSR’s financial services practice and New York office, and she served as Chief Operating Officer for five years, leveraging her strengths in strategy, organizational change, and people management. Laura works with leading global companies to develop and enhance their sustainability strategies to maximize value for business and society, and she is sought after to facilitate senior-level strategy workshops and multi-stakeholder collaborations.

She previously worked for Deloitte Consulting, where she acquired extensive strategy experience advising multinational financial services companies. She also worked on several community and economic development projects in Latin America.

Laura holds a MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She is an adjunct professor in the Bard MBA in Sustainability program, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a member of the UN Global Compact Expert Network.

Recent Insights From Laura Gitman

Full Bio

Business and Social Justice

Jen Stark

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

New York

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

New York

Jen serves as a director for BSR's Inclusive Business practice.

She is a strategy development and implementation expert at complex health and humanitarian organizations with 20+ years of experience. At BSR, she relaunched the Inclusive Business practice to meet the needs of companies navigating shifting regulation, policy, and litigation, alongside evolving business needs in the U.S. and around the globe.

Prior to joining BSR, Jen directed investments at the Tara Health Foundation to advance gender and racial equity through the private sector, including historic progress on paid family and medical leave, reproductive health, and other workplace protections. Before working in philanthropy, she founded the corporate relations program at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She also managed the disaster fundraising team at the American Red Cross, coordinating large scale efforts to responsibly raise and deploy hundreds of millions of dollars. She is frequently cited in business press on flashpoint topics and is an advisor to Gauge.ai, the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute, and GoFundMe’s Compassion Leadership Network. 

Jen holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is based in the greater Boston area with her family, where she also plays cello in a community orchestra.

Recent Insights From Jen Stark

Full Bio

Consumer Sectors, Luxury

Elisa Niemtzow

Vice President, Europe, BSR

Paris

Vice President, Europe, BSR

Paris

Elisa is a member of BSR’s global leadership team and leads the organization's European member portfolio, partnering across BSR’s cross-sector membership with companies in consumer, technology, financial services, and other industries. She drives strategic growth, partnerships, and senior advisory engagement, supporting organizations in navigating complex market and societal shifts while building long-term value.

She advises executive leaders on strategies at the intersection of growth, responsibility, and resilience, embedding sustainability into core business strategy, governance, and value chains. Elisa brings deep expertise in the luxury sector—including watch and jewelry, fashion, beauty, and hospitality—where brand value, desirability, and trust are critical to performance. She also designs and leads multi-company, multi-stakeholder initiatives that enable pre-competitive collaboration, including BSR’s Responsible Luxury Initiative (ReLI).

Elisa is a sought-after speaker and trusted voice on sustainable business and responsible luxury, regularly cited in international media, and was named to the Vogue Business 100 Innovators list.

Prior to joining BSR, Elisa was an account manager at CHANEL and a consultant at Accenture and Ernst & Young.

Elisa is French-American. She holds an MBA in Luxury Goods Marketing and Management from Sup de Luxe, an MA in International Relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, and a BA in French from the University of Pennsylvania.

Recent Insights From Elisa Niemtzow

Full Bio

Financial Services

Hugh W. Brown, Jr.

Managing Director, Head of Americas, Global Head of Financial Services, BSR

New York

Managing Director, Head of Americas, Global Head of Financial Services, BSR

New York

Hugh Brown is the Global Head of BSR’s Financial Services practice and Head of BSR membership for the Americas, leading advisory services with private equity, banks, and multinational corporations on corporate strategy, sustainability, and long-term value creation. A member of BSR’s leadership team, Hugh strengthens executive partnerships and deepens engagement with C-suite leaders and boards through economic value creation while advancing market expansion initiatives across regions.

Hugh has 20 years of investment management experience and has worked with companies on portfolio strategy, corporate governance, operations, consumer experience, product development, and marketing using a core risk mitigation lens to drive business value. Prior to BSR, he was a senior director at Ceres, where he led portfolio value creation strategies with global institutional investors representing over $20 trillion in assets under management, shaping investor strategies on portfolio resilience and natural capital. Earlier in his career, he worked on the buy side at the $250 billion Florida State Board of Administration pension fund and Morgan Stanley, focusing on corporate governance in public companies, investment strategy, risk management, and liquidity.

Hugh is a U.S. Air Force veteran, former technology startup founder, private company and non-profit board member, and holds an MBA from Nova Southeastern University and a BA from Florida State University.

Human Rights

Jenny Vaughan

Managing Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

San Francisco

Managing Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

San Francisco

Jenny leads BSR’s human rights team and portfolio across consulting and collaboration. In addition to directing BSR’s Human Rights Working Group, Jenny leads human rights assessments and partners with companies to develop human rights strategies and stakeholder engagement plans. She works across industries with a focus on energy, technology, and conflict-affected and high-risk contexts.

Prior to joining BSR, Jenny worked at Mercy Corps for over a decade in field management and advisory roles to prevent and mitigate conflict, promote inclusive economic development, and build civil society capacity. As the organization’s first Peace and Governance Director in Myanmar and later as the Director of the Peace and Conflict technical advisory team, she designed and implemented programs to reduce violence, promote peace and development, and address critical and emerging threats like climate change, disruptive technology, and poor governance. She has experience in context analysis, stakeholder engagement, negotiation, project design and implementation, and strategic planning. Jenny has lived and worked in countries including Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Cameroon.

Jenny holds a MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Recent Insights From Jenny Vaughan

Full Bio

Nature

Laura Donnelly

Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

New York

Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

New York

Laura is a Director on BSR's Climate and Nature team, helping global companies develop integrated environmental strategies that strengthen business resilience and create long-term value. She advises companies across industries on assessing and managing climate- and nature-related risks and opportunities, with a focus on translating sustainability commitments into business strategy, governance, and implementation across global value chains.

Over her eight years at BSR, Laura has partnered with multinational companies on a broad range of sustainability topics, including climate and nature strategy, risk assessments, supply chain engagement, biodiversity, and the intersection of environmental sustainability with emerging issues such as artificial intelligence. She also works closely with companies to navigate evolving sustainability frameworks and regulations, helping embed environmental considerations into business decision-making and risk management.

Before joining BSR, Laura worked at the Rainforest Alliance supporting companies in integrating nature-based approaches into agricultural supply chains, and previously held roles in brand management and marketing within the beauty industry.

Laura holds a Master of Communication Management from the University of Southern California and a BS in Business Administration from Boston University.

Recent Insights From Laura Donnelly

Full Bio

Sustainability Management

Christine Diamente

Managing Director, Business Transformation, BSR

London

Managing Director, Business Transformation, BSR

London

Christine leads BSR’s Business Transformation team, helping companies to manage sustainability throughout their business and across their supply chains and to develop resilient business strategies that leverage insights from BSR’s Sustainable Futures Lab.

She works with companies across sectors and geographies to structure a sustainability management approach that mitigates risk and captures emerging opportunities, creating strategic advantage for their businesses, while contributing to a more just, sustainable world. Christine also co-leads engagement with boards of directors to promote effective board governance and leadership ambition on sustainability.

She brings over 20 years of experience in leading brand, sustainability, public affairs, communications, and reputation management with multinational corporations at the executive leadership level. This also includes overseeing corporate relations with external stakeholders, such as the World Economic Forum, the UN, European institutions, and investors.

Previously, Christine was Head of Brand Strategy at Nokia. She has also held major roles at Alcatel-Lucent and Alcatel, leading Brand and Corporate Sustainability and European Affairs. Christine has also served on various boards, including as a chair of the Telecoms Industry Dialogue on human rights, as an advisory board member of Reuters Events Sustainability, as a member of the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation, and on the European Internet Foundation.

Christine holds a MA in History and a BA in History and International Politics from the University of Ottawa. She completed the Management Acceleration Program (MAP) at INSEAD, and she achieved the ESG Competent Boards Certificate and Global Competent Boards Designation (2021). She speaks English, French, Spanish, and Italian.

Recent Insights From Christine Diamente

Full Bio

Technology, Human Rights

Hannah Darnton portrait

Hannah Darnton

Former Director, Responsible Tech, BSR

San Francisco

Director, Responsible Tech, BSR

San Francisco

Hannah works with companies that develop and deploy technology to integrate human rights-based approaches into their policies, products, and strategies. She specializes in conducting human rights due diligence on emerging technologies, such as generative AI, affective tech, facial recognition, and surveillance, and in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to children in digital environments.

She has worked extensively with companies to prepare for and comply with human rights-related regulatory requirements in alignment with the OECD Guidelines and UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This includes conducting and reviewing risk assessments under the EU Digital Services Act and the UK's Online Safety Act, as well as preparing for forthcoming obligations under the EU AI Act, CSDDD, and CSRD.

Prior to joining BSR, Hannah worked at the Skoll Foundation and spent several years working in anti-human trafficking.

Hannah holds a Master’s in NGOs and Development with a specialization in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan.

Recent Insights From Hannah Darnton

In the News

July 22, 2026

Sustainable Views

Our Experts

Aron Cramer

President and CEO, BSR

Laura Gitman

Chief Impact Officer, BSR

Jen Stark

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Elisa Niemtzow

Vice President, Europe, BSR

Hugh W. Brown, Jr.

Managing Director, Head of Americas, Global Head of Financial Services, BSR

Jenny Vaughan

Managing Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Laura Donnelly

Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

Christine Diamente

Managing Director, Business Transformation, BSR

Hannah Darnton

Former Director, Responsible Tech, BSR

In the News

Japanese Companies Push for Tougher Nature Rules as Government Looks to UK BNG

BSR Names Diederik Timmer as President and CEO, Succeeding Aron Cramer

What It Takes for Companies to Stay Stable in an Era of Constant Disruption

Fashion’s Key Takeaways From Climate Conference ChangeNow