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Christine Svarer

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Christine leads RISE (Reimagining Industry to Support Equality), a collaborative initiative focused on accelerating and expanding gender equality and women’s empowerment across global supply chains through the delivery of proven interventions and greater cross-sector collaboration. Its mission is to empower women workers, embed gender equality in business practice, and catalyze systems change with an initial focus on the apparel, footwear, and home sectors.  RISE is founded by BSR, CARE, Better Work and Gap, Inc. 

Prior to RISE, Christine led BSR’s HERproject and was previously the global director of women’s economic empowerment at CARE International and before that led CARE’s work on private-sector development, focusing on inclusive business models and social enterprise development. Christine also previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme. Christine lives in London and speaks English, Spanish and Danish. 

Christine is also the Vice Chair of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women supporting women entrepreneurs globally.  

Christine holds an MSc in International Development and Business and a BSc in International Business and Modern Languages, both from Copenhagen Business School. She also holds an Advanced Business Management degree from IESE Business School. 

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Salah Husseini

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Salah leads BSR’s global human rights and inclusive business practice, supporting companies in implementing human rights due diligence programs across industries and sectors. His work includes developing human rights strategies and governance models; aligning company due diligence programs with regulatory, investor, and other stakeholder expectations; and executing field-level Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs).

Salah brings significant experience in supply chain engagement across a range of sectors, including consumer goods, mining and minerals, information and communications technologies (ICT), artificial intelligence (AI), and data center-related supply chains. Salah is a regular contributor to the Human Rights Working Group, the Labor Rights in the AI Data Supply Chain collaboration, and Action for Sustainable Derivatives (ASD), among others.

Prior to joining BSR, Salah worked at a major media conglomerate where he oversaw alignment with international human and labor rights standards across the company’s manufacturing supply chain. He also worked with a standard-setting organization that developed the first auditable program for labor standards enforcement in manufacturing. Additionally, he practiced as an attorney in New York City, focusing on civil rights issues.

Salah holds a JD from the American University Washington College of Law, and a BA in Political Science, Spanish, and Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan.

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Johanna Poschwatta

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Johanna leads the global Operations team, overseeing cross-functional collaboration, team strategy and planning, and systems and processes. She is responsible for metrics and reporting and for internal processes related to BSR’s single-company consulting work. She also leads BSR’s project staffing function.

Prior to joining BSR, Johanna worked in both legal and grant administration.

Johanna holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Mike Zeitouny

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Mike provides leadership and oversight to the finance and information technology functions of BSR. His work is crucial in helping the organization achieve its mission, grow its activities, and operate efficiently. He also serves on the organization’s Executive Committee. 

Mike has more than 25 years of financial management experience in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. He served in similar roles at Pathfinder International, Jhpiego, and American Refugee Committee. Mike was the director of finance and administration for Habitat for Humanity International in Pretoria, South Africa, and before that, he was director of finance and administration for the U.S. Peace Corps in Guinea. He speaks three languages and has broad international experience, having lived in eight countries and worked in more than two dozen. In 2010, Mike was named Chief Financial Officer of the Year by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.

Mike holds an M.B.A from Aspen University and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Northwestern Ohio.

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Katrina Fracisco

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As part of BSR’s Finance team, Katrina is responsible for streamlining processes, enhancing reports, and analyzing key performance metrics on a monthly basis. She focuses on general project accounting and systems tools.

Katrina previously worked at a private transportation company managing the accounting department. There, she led all daily and monthly general ledger processes, converted the department to paperless billing and filing, and implemented an accounting systems conversion. Prior to that, she managed accounts payable and expense processing in advertising.

Katrina has a B.A. in Economics, with an emphasis in Accounting, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She speaks fluent MS Excel.

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Kelly Gallo

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Kelly is a Relationship Lead and sustainability advisor who partners with many of BSR's largest U.S.-based technology companies to help them maximize the value of their BSR membership and navigate the evolving sustainability landscape. She works with global technology leaders—from cloud, software, hardware, semiconductors, consumer technology, and digital infrastructure companies to high-growth innovators—to advance ambitious, resilient, and practical sustainability strategies.

Through BSR's Business Transformation advisory services, Kelly helps companies identify and prioritize their most material sustainability issues, conduct materiality and double materiality assessments, develop sustainability strategies, establish governance and targets, strengthen sustainability reporting, and engage stakeholders. She supports companies in embedding sustainability into business strategy while responding to evolving regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations.

Kelly brings deep expertise at the intersection of technology, energy, and sustainability. Since joining BSR in 2015, she has worked closely with the data center industry on renewable energy procurement, sustainability strategy, and collaborative approaches to addressing the environmental and social impacts of digital infrastructure. Kelly managed BSR's Future of Internet Power initiative to help accelerate renewable energy adoption across the technology sector, which subsequently led to co-founding the Renewable Energy Buyers' Alliance (now the Corporate Energy Buyers Association). She has contributed to numerous BSR publications on technology, renewable energy, corporate sustainability, and responsible business.

Prior to BSR, Kelly spent more than six years consulting on energy efficiency, sustainability, and renewable energy for California’s utilities and public-sector clients. She has also served as a Board Member for the US National Committee for UN Women, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and Spark, a non-profit that seeks to advance gender equality by engaging the next generation in accessible forms of philanthropy.

Kelly holds an MA in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a BA in Global Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

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Matthew Charlesworth

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Matthew is responsible for creating and overseeing internal processes related to BSR member services.

In addition, he provides support to BSR’s Executive Committee and Operations Committee. Prior to moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, Matthew was the office manager of BSR’s New York office. In this position, he was the primary liason between the finance, human resources, and IT teams, and he supported the Healthcare Working Group and the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative. During his time in New York, Matthew also oversaw two office moves.

Before joining BSR, Matthew lived and worked in France as a translator and English teacher. He moved from Europe to San Diego in 2005 and worked there as an office manager.

Matthew holds an M.A. in French and Translation Studies from the University of Manchester.

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Cherry Lin

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With more than 10 years' experience in sustainability, Cherry manages RISE, a global factory-based initiative focused on gender equality and well-being of women workers in supply chain factories, in China and other Asian countries. She handles overall implementation and works with the RISE global team to expand presence and amplify program impact around the world. She also leads the quality assurance workstream in RISE.

Cherry has worked with more than 40 international companies across industries. Prior to joining BSR, Cherry worked at the Guangdong Overseas Construction Co. Group, where she coordinated activities focused on improving the well-being of migrant workers based abroad between Chinese headquarters and overseas offices.

Cherry holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Chongqing University and a Master’s of Business Administration from Sun Yat-Sen University. Cherry speaks Chinese, English, and Cantonese.

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Ryan Zhang

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Ryan works on RISE programming in China, specifically the successful delivery and coordination of capacity-strengthening efforts in workplaces. These include increased agency, confidence, and communication as well as increased access to and control over financial products, services, and resources, enhancement of the capabilities of unions and industry organizations to serve as gender champions, and implementation of policies at the workplace level, but also regional and national levels, that promote gender equality. 

Prior to joining BSR, Ryan worked at GN ReSound, where he focused on public relations, project management, training, and marketing, especially for Hearing the Future, a national hearing care prevention and treatment program and public-private partnership between the Chinese Ministry of Health, China Disabled Persons Federation, and GN ReSound. 

Ryan holds a Master’s in Strategy and Marketing from the Ecole Supérieure de Gestion et Commerce International (ESGCI) and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Tongji University. 

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Katrina Zhou

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Katrina is an Associate at RISE, where she provides training and manages projects aimed at supporting women workers in garment factories, as well as other women’s empowerment projects.

Prior to joining BSR, Katrina worked as a product manager and as a sales manager in multiple audiometric equipment and hearing aid companies, including Siemens and Otometrics. In these roles, she managed customer relationships, formulated sales plans, designed product training sessions, and provided these sessions to customers.

Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in Interpretation between English and Mandarin from Shanghai Jiaotong University as well as an associate’s degree focusing on audiology technology from Fudan University. She is currently pursuing an MBA from Canberra University. Katrina speaks English and Mandarin.