Who We Are: Regional Advisors
The Board and Staff are supported by a developing group of regional advisors, which includes:
Sumi Dhanarajan
Sumi is an experienced advocate and practitioner in the field of corporate responsibility with particular expertise on the impacts of the private sector on poverty reduction and human rights. She is currently a consultant on the Public Roles of the Private Sector programme at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Sumi is a founding Trustee of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, and Steering Committee member for BASESwiki, an initiative of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights.
Viraf Mehta
Since the early 1980s, Viraf has been at the forefront of advocating among Indian business for what is referred to today as corporate responsibility. Viraf was also among the earliest proponents in India of corporate-NGO partnerships for development. Following 15 years in the corporate sector, Viraf has been serving as the Chief Executive of the NGO Partners in Change (PiC) since May 2002. PiC is dedicated to issues of corporate responsibility in respect of its impact on India’s poorest and most vulnerable and marginalised communities.
Steve Ouma Akoth
Steve is strategic advisor to the Labour Awareness and Resource Centre (LARC) in Kenya and doctoral fellow at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
From 2002 to 2007, Steve served as Deputy Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). Currently, Steve serves on the Boards of three leading national human rights and social justice organisations in Kenya: the Pamoja Trust, the Centre for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Haki Jamii) and the Centre for Minority Rights (CEMIRIDE).
Rev. David M. Schilling
David Schilling has worked at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in New York City since 1994 and is Program Director of Human Rights. David is a member of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras; the International Advisory Network of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre; the Responsible Cotton Network and the Public Reporting Working Group with the Gap. David was a member of the Independent Monitoring Working Group for six years which supported independent monitors at Gap supplier factories in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala; a member of President Clinton's Anti-Sweatshop Task Force and the Global Reporting Initiative's Working Group on the Apparel, Footwear Industry.
Jorge Daniel Taillant
Jorge Daniel Taillant has over 15 years of experience in issues related to International Development Finance, Human Rights Public Sector Governance and Corporate Accountability. He has worked for the World Bank, the United Nations, the EU and the Organization of American States.
In 1999 he founded the Center for Human Rights and Environment, a non-profit organisation based in Argentina to promote greater environmental and human rights protection, corporate responsibility and compliance of social and environmental norms. In 2006-2008 he served as the Chief Strategic Advisor to the Secretary of Environment of Argentina.
Sune Skadegaard Thorsen
Sune founded and heads the consultancy Global CSR in Copenhagen, and is a partner in Corporate Responsibility Ltd. in London. With a background in international corporate law, Sune has specialised in Corporate Responsibility (CR) since 1996.
Sune was an expert advisor to the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights and is currently an advisor to the Global business Initiative on human Rights.
Sune is also Chair of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Danish section of the International Commission of Jurists and the Danish Peace Foundation. Sune also serves as a Director of the Danish Centre for International Studies and Human Rights and as a member of a range of CR initiatives and advisory boards.
