Faculty Members

The CAS in Responsible Business Conduct brings together renowned international experts from diverse fields and disciplines, representing the main RBC stakeholders (business, international organisations, government, civil society, and academia). These experts share their knowledge and practical expertise with the participants as lecturers of the modules, working with the participants to develop ideas and solutions.

The CAS RBC 2024 faculty members are listed below:

Professor for Public Law, Public International Law and European Law at UZH; Chair of the OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct

Christine Kaufmann is a professor of public law, public international and European law and Co-Chair of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Zurich. Since 2019, she has served as the Chair of the OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct, the intergovernmental committee overseeing the implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the comprehensive international framework for Responsible Business Conduct. Before joining the law faculty in Zurich, Ms Kaufmann worked in the legal department and then as the Director of Human Resources at the Swiss National Bank, Switzerland’s central bank. During that time, she was a member of the EFTA expert groups on financial services and the free movement of capital and services.In 2009, she initiated the foundation of the Centre for Human Rights Studies at the University of Zurich. The Centre was responsible for the Cluster on Human Rights and Business within the Swiss Centre of Competence for Human Rights, launched by the Swiss Government as a pilot model for the National Human Rights Institution, eventually established in 2023. Throughout her career, Christine Kaufmann has been engaged in projects to facilitate a dialogue between different stakeholder groups. From 2013-2019, she was co-president of the multistakeholder Advisory Board for the Swiss National Contact Point. She has provided legal advice to businesses, government agencies, and civil society organisations. She has also been invited as an expert in hearings by parliamentary commissions, the UN, and the OECD. On several occasions, she acted as a mediator in cases concerning implementing the OECD Guidelines by business. In 2019, she was appointed as a member of the Standing Tribunal for the Bank for International Settlements.

Senior Advisor, Compliance, Basel Institute on Governance

Gemma Aiolfi, LLM, is an independent compliance and governance consultant working with government agencies and state-owned enterprises in Ukraine. She served as Head of Compliance, Corporate Governance Collective Action at the Basel Institute on Governance from 2013 to Jan 2023 and is now a Senior Advisor to the Institute. Among other roles, Ms Aiolfi has worked as Legal Counsel to the Integrity Department at ABB AG, Switzerland, as Global Head of Anti-Corruption at UBS AG and as an Administrative Director at the Stockholm Institute for Transition Economics. Ms. Aiolfi qualified as a barrister after studying Law at the London School of Economics. Postgraduate law studies were undertaken at Basel and Stockholm Universities.

Managing Director, Head of Sustainability and Climate Risk at UBS

Liselotte heads the firm's Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) function since 2003. She acts as the SCR Underwriter of UBS, is a member of UBS Sustainability and Climate Implementation Group, and is a sponsor of UBS's Sustainability and Climate Risk Initiative, established in 2020. She develops and implements principles and independent risk control frameworks for sustainability and climate risks within UBS Group. She developed UBS's Climate Change Strategy and Human Rights Statement, adopted in 2006, and UBS's Position on Controversial Activities in 2011. She established a best-in-class, industry-leading SCR function at UBS. Liselotte holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics (lic. rer. pol) and a certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Deputy Head of Due Diligence with the OECD Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) Centre

Barbara Bijelic is the Deputy Head of Due Diligence with the OECD Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) Centre. Barbara oversees the OECD’s work on RBC in the financial and technology sectors, working with banks, investors, and tech companies to promote the implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. She also oversees the Centre’s work on regulatory engagement, providing technical advice to policymakers on how to align mandatory expectations on due diligence with international standards. She has a JD from Columbia University and a BA in International Development from McGill University.

Director at Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business

Vicky Bowman has been the Director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) since July 2013, based in Yangon until November 2022, and is currently based in London. She is on the International Advisory Council of the Institute of Human Rights and Business (IHRB), the Board of the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA), and is an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL). From 2011 to 2013, she led the global mining company Rio Tinto's policy approach to transparency, human rights, and nationalism/resource curse issues. She was Director of Global & Economic Issues and G8 sous-Sherpa for the United Kingdom from 2008-2011 and Head of the Southern Africa Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK Government from 2006-2007. Vicky served as ambassador of the UK to Myanmar from 2002-2006 and as second secretary in the Embassy from 1990-1993. She has also worked in Brussels as a Member of the Cabinet of European Commissioner Chris Patten (1999-2002) and as a press spokeswoman for the UK representation to the EU (1996-1999). Vicky has an MA in Natural Sciences (Pathology) from the University of Cambridge, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford, and is an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College.

Assistant Professor of International and European Law at UniDistance Suisse

Nicolas Bueno is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of UniDistance Suisse. He completed his doctorate in international public law at the University of Lausanne after a research stay at Columbia Law School in New York (2012-2013, Fulbright). He then conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Louvain (2016), at The London School of Economics (2017) and the University of Zurich (2018-2021). He publishes on labour rights in supply chains and human rights due diligence. He gained practical experience conducting litigation at the Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin (2014-2015), and he worked in the division of international investments and multinational business at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Senior Manager for Climate Change and Sustainability Services at EY (Ernst & Young) Norway

Cathrine Halsaa is the senior manager of the EY Norway CCaSS team and the Nordic Solution leader on social impact and human rights. She has assisted enterprises in carrying out human rights due diligence and complying with the Norwegian Transparency Act. She was previously Head of the Secretariat of the Norwegian OECD National Contact Point, where she was also responsible for training businesses on the OECD Guidelines and Due Diligence for RBC and was involved in handling complaints regarding enterprises' non-compliance with the OECD Guidelines. Ms Halsaa has more than twenty years of experience promoting human rights and international development cooperation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN.

Former Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP Greens/EFA

Heidi Hautala is Vice-President of the European Parliament and a member of the European Parliament in the Greens/EFA group. She was elected Vice-President of the European Parliament in October 2017 and serves on the Committee on International Trade and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. 2017, she established a Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct in the European Parliament. In Finland, Ms Hautala served as a Member of Parliament from 1991 to 1995 and 2003 to 2009. From 2011 to 2013, she was the Minister for International Development and State Ownership Steering. She holds a Master's degree in Agriculture and Forestry.

Executive Director, Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein

Antonio Hautle is since 2015 the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein. Before this position, he was the director of Fastenopfer (Development NGO) from 2001 until 2013 and the director of the Social Department of the State of Lucerne from 2013 until 2015. Hautle has a background in Philosophy, Business Ethics and Catholic Theology (Elève titulaire, École Biblique et Archéologique Française Jérusalem, Master Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Rome) and holds a Master in Business Administration from the HEC University of Geneva.

Co-Executive Director of PODER Latam; Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Fernanda Hopenhaym is a business and human rights specialist. She is an expert member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, representing Latin America and the Caribbean. Fernanda has worked on human rights, social and gender justice issues for 25 years, focusing on corporate accountability and financial institutions in the past 15 years. She has been PODER’s Co-Executive Director since 2018. Before joining PODER, Fernanda worked with several national and international organisations. She also serves on three Boards of Directors and is an advisor to different international organisations. Fernanda is a sociologist who is specialised in Latin American studies.

Senior CSR Advisor/National Contact Point OECD Guidelines/State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO

Alex Kunze is an environmental engineer who graduated from EPFL. He also has an MBA and an SDM in mediation.  Alex Kunze has been working in the field of responsible business conduct for over twenty years. As a former member of the management board of an SME, his professional journey has taken him to over 15 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa, where he has implemented programs and projects in the field of responsible business conduct along the entire value chain of international companies. Since 2013, he has coordinated the work of the Swiss National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct, where he has been involved in over 15 NCP mediations. He also coordinates the work of the State Secretariat for Economic (SECO) affairs in the area of Responsible Business Conduct, including the harmonisation of legal provisions on sustainability reporting with EU legislation, represents SECO in the Swiss network of the UN Global Compact and the OECD's NCP-network in Paris.

Head of Social Standards at Federation of Migros Cooperatives

Marius Lang has a BA in International Relations (University of Geneva) and an MA in Social Science with a major in Political Science and a minor in Public Law (UZH). He has eleven years of experience in the consumer goods sector (food and non-food products) and nine years of leadership experience with teams in Zurich, Delhi and Hong Kong, focusing on human rights due diligence in the value chains. He is currently Head of Social Standards at Migros. Marius has sound operational social compliance experience, especially in the textile and non-food sectors: factory audits, remediation plans, and continuous improvement activities. He has a long-standing participation and engagement in sector business initiatives such as amfori BSCI.

Professor and UNESCO Chair at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University; Member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Dr. Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN, is a professor and UNESCO chair of environmental law and sustainable development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is also the director of the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development at the Afe Babalola University, Nigeria. He researches and teaches about natural resources, energy, the environment, and business and human rights law, focusing on Africa and the Middle East. He has published and practised extensively in these areas. He has advised the World Bank, UN agencies, governments, multinational corporations, and civil society organisations on business and human rights issues. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr. Olawuyi is an independent expert of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

CEO of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights

Ron Popper has been working on the business and human rights agenda as a practitioner and advisor to multinational corporations for nearly 20 years. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights and a trustee at the Institute for Human Rights and Business. Ron spent ten years as Head of Corporate Responsibility for the Switzerland-based multinational ABB where he focused on developing human rights policies and processes, due diligence on high-risk projects and countries, stakeholder engagement and training. He currently teaches business and human rights at universities in Switzerland, Norway, Italy, and the UK.

Global Labour Relations & Human Rights Director at Samsung Electronics
 

Matthias Thorns is the Global Labor Relations and Human Rights Director at Samsung Electronics. He joined the company in February 2023. Matthias has more than 20 years of experience in human rights and responsible business conduct. Before joining Samsung, Matthias worked as IOE Deputy Secretary-General. In this position, Matthias led the IOE’s human rights work and had a part in the overall responsibility for the management of the IOE Secretariat. His career began as an adviser for social affairs at the European Business Federation UNICE (now BUSINESSEUROPE) before moving to the Confederation of German Employers as an adviser and later deputy director of the International and European Affairs Department. After leaving the Confederation of German Employers in 2012, Matthias joined the IOE as Senior Adviser, leading the work on human rights, G20 and G7, global supply chains, and SMEs. In 2017, Matthias joined the Workplace Rights team of The Coca-Cola Company as Human Rights and Workplace Rights Manager.

Professor of International Business Law Faculty of Law, University of Zurich

Prof. Dr. Rolf H. Weber is a professor of international business law at Zurich University, acting there as co-director of the Center for Information Technology, Society, and Law (ITSL) and as co-director of the Blockchain Center. In parallel, Prof. Weber is a practising attorney-at-law in Zurich. Frequently, Prof. Weber publishes and speaks on legal issues related to sustainability as well as on topics of international finance and trade law. His main fields of research and practice are IT- and Internet, Blockchain, finance, international business, and competition law. He is fluent in German, English and French.

Global Head, Social Impact & Human Rights at Nestlé

Yann Wyss is Nestlé’s Global Head for Social Impact and Human Rights. He drives the just transition agenda of the company, with a specific focus on the implementation of Nestlé’s Human Rights Framework and Roadmap and related salient issue action plans. He started his career at the Swiss Foreign Ministry before joining the team of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Business & Human Rights, Pr. John Ruggie. He joined Nestlé in 2011 from the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group) where he participated in the development of IFC’s Performance Standards and advised IFC clients on social and human rights issues across various sectors and geographies. Yann holds three Master’s degrees in International Human Rights Law, Economics & Social Sciences, and Political Science.

Director, Responsible Business Lab, Deakin University; Member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Pichamon Yeophantong is an Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security, Deakin University, Canberra, at the Australian War College. She is also an Australian Research Council Fellow. A political scientist and China specialist, Pichamon has conducted extensive field-based research in the region and is leading a multi-year project exploring the security and development implications of Chinese investment and ‘economic influence’ in the developing world, focusing on Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Pichamon also serves as the Member of Asia-Pacific States on the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights.