Who We Are: Research Fellows

Kathryn Dovey (Research Fellow – Gender)
Kathryn is a Director of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights and has been involved in the business and human rights field for several years. As an independent consultant she has provided expert advice to multinational companies and organisations including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and the Hague Process on Refugees and Migration. Kathryn leads on gender issues within her field on behalf of the Institute for Human Rights and Business and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

Mary Dowell Jones (Research Fellow - Financial Crisis)
Mary Dowell-Jones is an independent consultant, author and private investor who has spent 15 years exploring the links between the world economic and financial system and the realisation of socio-economic rights. She has specialised in building expertise around the global financial system and how it affects enjoyment of these rights. She has a Ph.D. on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and has worked in investment banking.

Nick Killick (Research Fellow – Conflict)
Nick Killick is an independent consultant specialising in conflict and peacebuilding. For over a decade, Nick has been working strategically with companies, governments, donors and multi-lateral institutions on political and conflict analysis. He has direct field experience in parts of Africa, South Asia and the former Soviet Union. A former manager of International Alert’s thematic programs, Nick served on the governance committee of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and was recently part of the Independent Panel reviewing the social impacts of the world's largest open-pit coal mine.

David Vermijs (Due Diligence)
David Vermijs is currently leading a state of play review of human rights due diligence for the Institute with twenty leading international mutli-national corporations (MNCs). He is also completing the Business & Human Rights Initiative for the Dutch Global Compact Network, which he has led for the past eighteen months. David has conducted individual company assessments for ten Dutch MNCs and is currently preparing a publication with practical suggestions for human rights due diligence. Previously, David was research fellow at Harvard University's CSR Initiative, conducting research that fed into the Mandate of SRSG John Ruggie.

Neill Wilkins (Project Co-ordinator – The Business and Migration Initiative)
Neill previously worked as part of the Global Campaign’s Team at The Body Shop International. He was involved with a number of major projects including the International Choose Positive Energy Campaign. A partnership between The Body Shop and Greenpeace this campaign sought to encourage the use of renewable energy as a way of combating Global Warming and alleviating poverty. Neill also played a key role in organizing and co-ordinating The Body Shop Human Rights Awards. Neill is Project Co-ordinator for The Business and Migration Initiative a partnership project between The Institute and The International Business Leaders Forum