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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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Alison Taylor

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Alison is Executive Director at Ethical Systems, a research collaboration on ethical culture, housed in New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business. Previously, Alison led BSR’s sustainability management practice and oversaw the supply chain practice and the Sustainable Futures Lab. She focuses on approaches to sustainability through risk management, strategy, stakeholder engagement, transparency, ethics and governance, and organizational change.

Alison has also worked as a senior managing director at Control Risks, where she helped companies operate with integrity, particularly in high-risk environments, and for Transparency International, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IHS Global Insight. She has experience in strategic intelligence, market entry assistance, risk consulting, due diligence, internal investigations, enterprise risk management, and ethics and compliance. She speaks and writes regularly on risk and organizational culture. She is a board member of the ethics organization Center for Business Ethics and Corporate Governance and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption. She is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business.

Alison holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Modern History from Balliol College, Oxford University.

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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.

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Laura Gitman

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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.

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Jonathan Morris

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Jonathan leads BSR’s work in the EMEA region with companies in the industrials and technology industries. Jonathan also leads BSR’s global sustainability reporting team as part of the Business Transformation practice.

His experience in sustainability includes strategy development, reporting execution, and stakeholder engagement for these industries, as well as a focus on transparency and traceability in the supply chain via advanced technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Prior to joining BSR, Jonathan was a packaging developer with Coty US LLC, the world’s largest fragrance manufacturer. Jonathan designed and executed technical packaging specifications for perfume and cosmetics launches, coordinating the needs of internal marketing and sales teams with external material suppliers and manufacturers. This positions Jonathan as BSR’s sustainable packaging contact.

Jonathan holds an M.S. in Sustainable Development from HEC Paris School of Management and a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Syracuse University. He speaks English and French.

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Indiana Vieljeux

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Indiana supports BSR’s consumer sectors practice globally and is involved in supply chain sustainability projects, focusing on the development and implementation of sustainable sourcing strategies for companies. Indiana is managing the Responsible Luxury Initiative and used to manage the Southeast Asia Reptile Conservation Alliance (SARCA).

Indiana started with BSR as a Communications Associate to provide event, content, marketing, and digital support to BSR staff and projects. She also served as the Communications Coordinator for several BSR collaborative initiatives. Prior to BSR, Indiana created and co-launched FoodCloud, an organization focusing on food waste reduction by connecting supermarkets and restaurants with surplus food to organizations and charities that distribute food. Indiana is French and has lived in four countries. She is a French native speaker and speaks English and Spanish fluently.

Indiana holds a B.A. in Business and Spanish from Trinity College Dublin and a Master in International Business from Grenoble Ecole de Management.

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Elisa Niemtzow

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Elisa leads BSR’s consumer sectors practice globally and oversees the BSR global membership network. She works with companies in the luxury, beauty, fashion, hospitality, retail, and food industries to better integrate sustainability into core business strategy, products, and operations.

She helps companies understand the world’s big disruptions, create resilient and inclusive business models and practices, and evolve brand strategy to integrate changing consumer expectations. Elisa also leads BSR’s Responsible Luxury Initiative and the Southeast Asia Reptile Conservation Alliance (SARCA).

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 M.B.A. in Luxury Goods Marketing and Management from Sup de Luxe, an M.A. in International Relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, and a B.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Michael Kleeman

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Michael Kleeman is a senior fellow at the University of California San Diego, focusing on critical infrastructure resilience, and senior advisor for the Boston Consulting Group. He has been active in corporate sustainability for more than 20 years, working with Fortune 50 firms, nonprofits, and entrepreneurial startups on strategy, positioning, and maximizing competitive advantage through sustainability.

He works in close collaboration and as a executive advisor with several firms in the sustainability and supporting engineering fields, such as Natural Logic, as well as the clean technology investor community. He is also a Natural Step instructor and is on the advisory board for the American Geophysical Union Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX), which brings earth scientists together with communities to address issues around climate change. He has led efforts that have resulted in significant improvements in greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and water usage, and has worked with numerous firms on projects related to natural capital and markets.

Previously, Kleeman was a global services partner with The Boston Consulting Group, serving retail, financial services, media, and technology sectors worldwide. He was also one of the initial partner groups providing sustainability consulting services. Kleeman was a senior fellow at USC Annenberg Center and the IMD business school in Switzerland, and before that, his work focused on the communications industry, helping to start several telecommunications firms in the United States and overseas. He is still active as the Board Chair for SEACOM in Africa.  

Kleeman has served as an advisor to Kent Ridge Digital Labs in Singapore and the California Policy Research Center, and was a founding board member of Science Foundation Ireland. He currently serves on the boards of the Marine Mammal Center and the Institute for the Future and Equal Access in California, is affiliated with the American Red Cross as national chair for the president, and is a member of the Bay Area Board of Directors. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), IEEE and AGU.

Kleeman holds a B.S. from Syracuse University and an M.A. from Claremont Graduate School, where he is currently affiliated with the Drucker School of Management.