Biography of Guest Speakers
In Alphabetical Order by First Name
Andy Green
Andy Green is the managing director of Economic Policy at American Progress. He writes and speaks about financial markets and regulation; corporate governance and competition; international trade; and the economy and middle class. Green was editor of “Raising Wages and Rebuilding Wealth: A Roadmap for Middle-Class Economic Security,” a wide-ranging CAP report on causes and solutions to the wages and wealth squeeze on middle-class America. He writes regularly on financial regulation, including the Volcker rule, and has co-authored prominent CAP reports on the relationship between corporate long-termism and workforce training and on how to revitalize competition policy. He has appeared on CNN, Fox Business News, Bloomberg TV, C-SPAN, and a range of radio talk shows, and he has testified before Congress. Prior to joining American Progress, he served as counsel to Kara Stein, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Prior to joining the SEC in 2014, Green served as counsel to U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and staff director of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy. He participated in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and was the lead staff member for the Merkley-Levin amendment, which added the Volcker rule into the law. He also participated in the passage of the JOBS Act as the lead staff member of the Merkley-Brown-Bennet amendment, which authored the law’s crowdfunding provisions. Prior to joining Sen. Merkley’s office in early 2009, Green practiced corporate law at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Green holds a B.A. in government and an M.A. in East Asian regional studies from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Green also serves as a member of the board of directors of the Junior State of America Foundation, which supports nonpartisan year-round and summer leadership programs for high school students who are interested in politics and government.
Bryan McGannon
Director of Policy and Programs, Bryan serves as US SIF's lead representative advancing the interests and perspective of the sustainable, responsible and impact investing (SRI) community with policymakers and stakeholders.
Bryan comes to US SIF with over 20 years of policy and advocacy experience, most recently as Policy and Engagement Director for the American Sustainable Business Council, where he directed the policy team for a wide range of issues related to sustainability in business and the economy and served on the executive team. Prior to joining the American Sustainable Business Council in 2011, Bryan served as State Director in Ohio for the Alliance for Climate Protection's Repower America campaign, and was instrumental in former Vice President Al Gore's initiative to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation. Bryan's political campaign experience spans presidential campaigns, congressional races, and local ballot initiatives.Bryan received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
Carolyn Dallmann
Since 2013, Carolyn Dallmann has served as a portfolio Team Lead managing emergency assistance and rapid response programs for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor’s Office of Global Programs (DRL/GP), focusing on Europe, South Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. DRL/GP manages 400 ongoing programs, designed to aid transitions to democracy, promote openness in repressive states, and preserve space for civil society as a means to enhance security. Programs address conditions contributing to conflict, instability and terrorism such as poor governance, corruption and human rights abuses. Carolyn’s specific portfolio is comprised of flexible funding mechanisms that are designed to respond to unanticipated events or opportunities and to support civil society in responding to changing environments in real-time. Prior to joining DRL, she worked in the Executive Office of Human Rights First and in the Office of the Governor of the State of Wisconsin. Carolyn holds a master’s degree from University College London in Global Governance and Ethics and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Conniel Malek
As the Executive Director of True Costs Initiative (TCI), Conniel drives and implements the organization's mission to increase corporate accountability and to strengthen legal systems in the Global South. TCI does this through community, grantee partner and funder collaboration, prioritizing systemic change and highlighting the externalized costs of environmental and human costs of corporate behavior. Conniel is a trained lawyer from the Caribbean island of Jamaica and her professional and personal experience give her a unique perspective and guide her execution of the TCI strategies to protect the most vulnerable. She is a Board Member of EDGE Funders Alliance, which organizes within philanthropy to raise awareness and deepen understanding of the interconnected nature of the social, economic and ecological crises threatening our common future. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the SAGE Fund, a collaborative fund that cultivates breakthroughs in human rights accountability of economic actors by spurring innovation in approaches and building greater field capacity in the human rights movement.
Deborah Klepp
Deborah Klepp has been Senior Advisor for Environment in the Front Office of the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) since August 2016. In this role, she chairs the State Department-led interagency working group to reduce violence against environmental defenders. Deborah retired from the Foreign Service in September 2018 as a Senior Foreign Service Officer and was serving as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment. She entered the Foreign Service in 1989 and has been deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassies in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. She was also director of the Office of Environmental Quality and Transboundary Issues (OES/EQT), counselor for environment, science, technology, and health at Embassy Moscow, political officer in Embassy Moscow and consular and political officer in Embassy Tallinn, Estonia and Embassy Warsaw. Her domestic assignments include two tours with the Office of Inspector General, division director for U.S. assistance to Eurasia, Russia desk officer, Kazakhstan desk officer, and special assistant for Central Asian conflict prevention.
Duncan Jepson
Managing director and founder of Liberty Shared. He is a director of Fair Rubber Association and CINTOC (an organisation focused on fighting trafficking and transnational organised crime) and a lecturer at Princeton University. Jepson has previously worked in finance as a corporate lawyer, serving as Asia Pacific Regional General Counsel and Head of Compliance for over a decade and was responsible for regional M&A, governance, compliance, product development, litigation and white-collar crime investigation.
Gigi Alford
Gigi Alford leads the sport and human rights work of the World Players Association, the exclusive global voice of organised players and athletes across professional sport, and she coordinates the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA), a coalition of global NGOs and trade unions working to embed human rights and anti-corruption in the world of sport. She also represents the SRA on the interim governance committee of the new Centre for Sport and Human Rights. Previously, Ms. Alford served in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, where she was responsible for Internet Freedom and Business and Human Rights policy and programs, including hosting the first Sporting Chance Forum.
Greg Regaignon
Greg joined Wellspring as Program Officer for International Human Rights in 2017. He previously spent nearly 14 years at Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, which he joined in 2003, shortly after its founding, and helped establish in the United States. As Research Director, Greg built and managed the Resource Centre's Africa team; developed and oversaw its Corporate Legal Accountability work; and led its work on natural resources, climate change, the UN Guiding Principles, and other UN processes. At the Resource Centre, he participated in or led research missions to DR Congo, Guinea, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and the US Gulf Coast. He was previously an Associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, a global law firm, where he specialized in restructuring distressed debt in Latin America and Southeast Asia. His pro bono work included obtaining asylum for Tibetan refugees, and immigration status for domestic violence survivors from Haiti and Pakistan; and researching security steps targeting immigrant communities after 9/11 in a report written with Migration Policy Institute. He holds an MA in African Studies and International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC; a law degree from Columbia University in New York; and a BA in Political Science from Amherst College in Massachusetts. He speaks English and French fluently.
Josh Kellermann
Josh Kellermann joined the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) in 2017 as the Director of Public Policy. Josh first connected with the labor movement in 2001 as an organizer at PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union. Josh then went back to school and earned a Law degree and a Masters in International Studies from the University of Oregon. He worked in 2009 as a fellow at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. in the Equity and Poverty Department. From 2010-2017, Josh worked as a Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst at ALIGN, an affiliate of Jobs with Justice and the Partnership for Working Families, based in NYC. Josh is excited to be at the RWDSU where he can combine his legal, research, and organizing skills to advance pro-worker policies.
Kenneth Kennedy
Kenneth Kennedy started his federal career almost thirty years ago when he began working at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, processing refugee applicants from the Soviet Union under the Lautenberg Amendment. After that, he spent over twenty years as a Federal Agent working on national security investigations, and later as his agency's representative to the Law Enforcement Policy SubGroup and the Migration Experts SubGroup of the G-8. He also managed the Law Enforcement Significant Public Benefit Parole Branch. Following that, he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations for several years. He now manages the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Forced Labor Program--a position that he has held for more than five years. During that time, he has developed and expanded the program into new enforcement areas, while conducting outreach and opening discussions to build a comprehensive and just enforcement model that recognizes the concerns of the business community, civil society groups, foreign governments, and other U.S. government agencies, while still balancing both human rights and trade concerns.
Kevin J. Willcutts
Kevin Willcutts is the Deputy Director of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking in the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs. He has over 20 years of experience working on international labor and development issues, engaging with senior U.S. and foreign government officials, private sector actors, international and nongovernmental organizations, worker and employer organizations, and representatives of civil society. He is a senior manager in an office responsible for a portfolio of over $250 million in active technical cooperation programming, including more than 50 projects with activities in over 50 countries. Mr. Willcutts received his Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University and a Master's Degree in African Studies from Yale University.
Kilian Moote
Kilian is an expert in supply chain transparency and legal disclosure. He is the Project Director for KnowTheChain, a Humanity United project dedicated to helping businesses and investors understand and address labor abuses within their supply chains. In this role he oversees all aspects of KnowTheChain’s strategy, publications, and business engagement. Prior to joining HU, Kilian conceptualized and led Free2Work, a risk assessment and evaluation tool designed to inform brands on how they can reduce human trafficking risks in their supply chains. Previously, he was the Vice President of Programs for Not For Sale, where he oversaw programs in six countries that enhanced the livelihoods of those vulnerable to human trafficking. Kilian has lectured on sustainable supply chain management and corporate social responsibility at the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of San Francisco, where he developed and taught a new MBA course on Sustainable Supply Chain Management.
Kilian holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of San Francisco. He holds a minor in European studies and catholic social thought.
Mary Harvey
As Chief Executive, Mary is spearheading the development of the newly established Geneva-based Centre for Sport and Human Rights, with the aim of building a world of sport that respects human rights and ensuring the Centre's successful transition from an interim structure to a fully independent entity by 2020. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Green Sports Alliance. Previously, she worked as a former senior executive at FIFA and served as a sport envoy for the US State Department’s Sports Diplomacy Division. She enjoyed an 8-year career with the US Women’s National Soccer Team, winning the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 and Olympic Gold in 1996. Mary holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA and a BS from UC Berkeley.
Martha Mendoza
A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and one-time finalist, Martha Mendoza’s reports have prompted Congressional hearings and new legislation, Pentagon investigations and White House responses. She was part of a team whose investigations into slavery in the Thai seafood sector have led to the freedom of more than 2,000 men. And she helped uncover a Korean War massacre by U.S. troops that killed hundreds of civilians. Most recently, her 2018 immigration coverage has focused on the most vulnerable: children in detention. During her Associated Press career, she’s been based in Mexico City, Bangkok, Silicon Valley, New York and New Mexico. She’s an advocate for accurate journalism, government transparency and the public’s right to know
Rachel Curley
Democracy Associate for Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division, Rachel Curley graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy. She went on to serve as an executive intern for the Center for American Progress before becoming the program coordinator for Doctors for America. Curley has led the charge on several of DFA’s major campaigns, including Medicaid expansion in the states, helping Supreme Court justices understand the impact of King v. Burwell, and lifting the N.R.A.-advocated Congressional ban on CDC gun violence research. As someone who was eager to take part in the implementation of Obamacare when it was first rolled out yet was too squeamish to become a doctor, Curley is passionate about getting big money out of politics and minimizing the influence that the health care industry has over the government's health care policy decisions.
Shawn MacDonald
Shawn MacDonald is CEO of Verité, a civil society organization that promotes workers’ rights in global supply chains through research, consulting, training, assessments, and policy advocacy. Shawn has broad experience in labor rights, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, workplace health, and multi-sector partnerships. Before joining Verité, he was Director of Accreditation at the Fair Labor Association, Vice President of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Senior Advisor at Meridian Group International, and co-founder of the Development and Employment Policy Project. Additionally, he worked for a variety of civil society organizations in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. He holds a Ph.D. from George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and an AB in History from Harvard University.
