Biography

Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997) and more recently United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate. Born Mary Bourke in Ballina, County Mayo (1944), the daughter of two physicians, she was educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College), King's Inns Dublin and Harvard Law School to which she won a fellowship in 1967.

As an academic (Trinity College Law Faculty 1968-90), legislator (Senator 1969-89) and barrister (1967-90; Senior Counsel 1980, English Bar 1973) she has always sought to use law as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxemburg. A committed European, she also served on the International Commission of Jurists, the Advisory Committee of Interights, and on expert European Community and Irish parliamentary committees.

She married in 1970 Nicholas Robinson, lawyer, conservationist, and an authority on eighteenth-century caricature. They have a daughter and two sons.

In 1988 Mary Robinson and her husband founded the Irish Centre for European Law at the Trinity College. Ten years later she was elected Chancellor of the University.

The recipient of numerous honours and awards throughout the world, Mary Robinson is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society and, since 2002, has been Honorary President of Oxfam International. A founding member and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, she serves on many boards including the Vaccine Fund, and chairs the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Now based in New York, Mary Robinson is currently leading a new project, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI). Its goal is to bring the norms and standards of human rights into the globalisation process and to support capacity building in good governance in developing countries, with an initial focus on Africa.

Biography & Downloadable Speech

Responsibility for: Afghanistan; Russia, South Caucasus and Central Asia; United Nations; Conflict Prevention; East Asia (China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Mongolia); Drugs and International Crime; Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and South Pacific; Latin America and Caribbean; Overseas Territories; Sustainable Development; Human Rights; Energy security; Environment and climate change; FCO administration (except human resources); London 2012 Olympic bid; Commons Cover: Middle East.

Bill Rammell was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 28 October 2002. Before entering Parliament, Bill Rammell was a senior manager at the University of London Union, Head of Youth Services for Basildon Council and worked for NUS and British Rail. He was elected MP for Harlow in 1997 and has been Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell MP since June 2001. He was a member of a Select Committee on European Scrutiny until 2001. Bill Rammell is Honorary President of South East Economic Development Strategy. He is a former member of Harlow District Council (1985 - 1997) and Chair of the Labour Group.

Bill Rammell is married with two children.

Biography

Since January 1, 1999, Peter Woicke has been executive vice president of the International Finance Corporation, the largest multilateral provider of loans and equity to the private sector in the emerging markets.

Peter Woicke has focused on expanding IFC's role as a capital provider, particularly in frontier countries and high-impact sectors, such as domestic financial markets, infrastructure, information technology, health and education, and small and medium enterprises.

Under Peter Woicke's leadership, IFC has expanded the provision of environmental and social know-how to its clients through its Sustainability Initiative.

In addition to serving as executive vice president of IFC, Peter Woicke is a managing director of the World Bank. In this capacity, he recently led the effort to forge a comprehensive private sector development strategy to better integrate the public and private investment roles of the World Bank Group.

Before joining IFC, Peter Woicke held numerous positions over nearly 30 years with J.P. Morgan. These included heading the banking division of an affiliate in Beirut and leading the global oil and gas group. For two years, he was responsible for J.P. Morgan's information technology staff of some 6,000. His career in international finance includes experience in Latin America and the Middle East. He was also chairman of J.P. Morgan Securities Asia and a member of J.P. Morgan's executive management group.

As part of the World Bank Group, IFC fosters economic growth in the developing world by financing private sector investments, mobilising capital in the international financial markets, and providing technical assistance and advice to governments and businesses.

Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen is a lawyer by training. He has worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programmes in Africa and Latin America. Under Ford Foundation sponsorship, he provided legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia, and taught law at the universities of Frankfurt and Georgetown. From 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa of the World Bank. He is founder and chairman of Transparency International (TI)

From 1999 to 2001 Peter Eigen was Adjunct Lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for International Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a Trustee of Crown Agents Foundation as well as a member of the Advisory Commission on the UN, the Global Compact and the Commission on Globalization of the State of the World Forum.

In 2000, he received the award of Honorary Doctor of the Open University. In September 2001, he joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as Visiting Scholar while teaching at Johns Hopkins University/SAIS.

In 2004, Peter Eigen received the Reader's Digest Award 'European of the Year 2004' and became an Honorary Professor of Political Science of the Freie Universität, Berlin.

Robert Davies is the founder CEO of The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, and has lead its activities since 1990 with global corporations promoting responsible business practices and partnerships for development in over 50 countries.

As an entrepreneur in the not-for-profit sector he was previously the deputy chief executive of Business in the Community in the UK, a national health service chairman and his career has encompassed urban and economic development, health, energy and social policy, the arts, TV production, journalism and communications.

He has set up several non-profit organisations in the UK and other countries - in 1981 he created a non-profit organisation with a colleague, NEA (National Energy Action), which to this day has retrofitted energy conservation measures in four million homes (16% of the UK housing stock) and created job and training opportunities for over 400,000 people. In 1983 he founded 'Rainbow Educational TV Productions' which produced an eight part TV series and linked educational programmes for the new Channel 4 Television. In 1992 he founded the Urban Villages Forum (now part of The Prince's Foundation) which has been instrumental in defining mixed use development as a means to promote sustainable urban regeneration. He is founder director of the Digital Partnership and the Healthy Eating and Active Living (HE+AL) Partnership.

He has extensive experience in working with inter-governmental organisations including the World Bank, OECD, European Union, World Health Organization, UNDP, ILO and other UN organisations. Member of various public and private advisory boards and arts organisations including the UK Department for International Development Spending Review (1998), New Academy of Business, Crown Agents Foundation, Pushkin Cultural Trust, UK Know How Fund for Central & Eastern Europe and the FSU, UK Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit Trade Advisory Group, US Center for International Strategic Studies St Petersburg Commission, Abu Dhabi Higher Colleges of Technology, Digital Partnership South Africa, Russia Partnership and Patron of Youth Business China. He has a particular interest in social enterprise, health, development sport, the application of ICT (information and communications technologies) to development and public/private partnership.

A British citizen, he is a social sciences graduate having studied at Universities of Durham and post-graduate at the London School of Economics. He was awarded a 'CMG' (Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael & St George) for services to foreign affairs and the IBLF in the UK Millennium Honours list.

Klaus M. Leisinger, born 1947 in Lörrach, Germany, studied economics and social sciences at the University of Basel, Switzerland. His post-doc studies include field and desk research on 'Health Policy for Least Developed Countries', population policy and international business ethics.

His professional career includes a four year term as CEO of the former Ciba Pharmaceuticals regional office in East-Africa. Since July 1, 1990, Klaus M. Leisinger has been Executive Director and Delegate of the Board of Trustees of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (www.novartisfoundation.com), since July 2002 he serves also as President of the foundation.

In addition to his position at Novartis, he teaches and conducts research as Professor of Sociology at the University of Basel. Focus themes include Business Ethics and Globalisation, Corporate Social Responsibility of Pharmaceutical Corporations as well as Human Rights and Business. He has contributed to the debates with a significant number of publications in several languages. Dr. Leisinger served as invited lecturer at the several Swiss and German universities as well as at Georgetown University (Washington D.C.), University of Notre Dame, MIT Sloan School of Management (Cambridge) and Harvard University. He is member of European Academy of Science and Art.

Klaus M. Leisinger serves in several advisory functions in different national and international organisations. Affiliations include: United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Bank (Member of the international review panel for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR), Asian Development Bank as well as Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA). He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Network Business Ethics (Deutsches Netzwerk Wirtschaftsethik), the Arnold Bergstraesser Institut for Research on Politics and Society as well as the Advisory Council of Mary Robinson's Ethical Globalization Initiative.

Biography

Gareth is responsible for National Grid Transco's management of safety, health and environmental issues, together with matters of corporate responsibility including human rights. He is also a non-executive director of SecondSite Property Holdings and the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy.

Before joining National Grid, Gareth was the Head of Risk for the UK's Environment Agency and spent a brief period as Director of the environment and engineering consultancy Entec UK.

He has also been the UK's representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency dealing with the environmental and safety aspects of the long- term disposal of radioactive waste.

National Grid Transco was recently listed first in Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index and in the "premier league" in the environmental index. NGT is also a constituent of Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and FTSE4Good.

Biography

Gary was born and grew up in the west of Scotland before making the 'long' trip east to study at the University of Edinburgh from 1971-1976. In addition to completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree he was a member of the Edinburgh University AFC 1st XI and represented Scottish Universities for 2 seasons and thus being awarded a 'Blue'.

He joined Shell in 1976 in Shell Chemicals at Carrington and subsequently left Shell in 1978 to live in Monte Carlo and work for a privately owned shipping company.

He re-joined Shell in 1981 and has had a variety of assignments in UK and Gabon before moving to the Corporate HQ of Shell International in The Hague in Holland in May 1992. From then till 2002 he held 5 different positions within Shell International in The Hague - Head of EP Operations Staff Planning, Head of Supply Chain Consultancy, Director of Leadership Development, Director of Group Leadership & Performance and HR Director for Global Finance.

Over these years Gary covered the full spectrum of Business Change within the Royal Dutch Shell Group using a combination of new approaches to running the business, new behaviours & attitudes and leadership development at all levels. His LEAP organisation was established as a key unit in Shell's overall business transformation in which Gary had been personally involved since it began in September 1994. He left Shell on 31st December 2002 to join ABB Ltd in Zurich.

On 1st January 2003 Gary was appointed to the position of Executive Vice President and Head of Human Resources for the Swiss based Automation and Power Group, ABB Ltd. In addition he has become a member of ABB`s 5 person Group Executive Committee. He is also Chairman of the steering committee for their recently launched "Step Change" programme which is aimed at driving business led culture change throughout this worldwide organisation. The first milestone that they have committed to deliver on is a cost reduction target of USD 800 million.

Gary is married to Debbie and they have 3 children - Nikki, Rosie & Callum. In addition to work and family he is still an active football player as well as playing tennis and squash. To 'supplement' his income and to raise funds for charity he has been known to sing and play guitar around a variety of European cities.

Biography

Chris Marsden is Chair of the Business Group of Amnesty International UK, a voluntary appointment he took up in April 2001. The Business Group seeks to persuade transnational companies to promote human rights both through their own business activities and through the influence they can bring to bear on host governments in countries where they operate. He is also Chair of Trustees of The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, an NGO which runs the leading business and human rights web site.

Chris Marsden also teaches on Business in Society topics to MBA students and on executive programmes. He is Visiting Professor at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees Graduate School of International Business in Paris, for whom he currently teaches 'Business in Society' MBA courses in Paris and Japan. He also teaches on post graduate programmes for the College of Europe in Bruges and Warsaw. He is an Associate Fellow of the Corporate Citizenship Unit (CCU) at Warwick University Business School, where he also teaches. He was CCU's founding director from 1996 to 1999. He is a Board member of the European Academy for Business in Society.

He had previous careers as head of Community Affairs with BP, as deputy Head of Beaumont School, St Albans and as a teacher of economics. He was awarded the OBE in 1989 for services to education and industry.

Biography & Downloadable Speech

Chris Lendrum was appointed an Executive Director of Barclays Bank PLC in 1998 and, as a member of the Group's Board and Executive Committee, handles a portfolio of responsibilities which includes the Group's approach to corporate social responsibility, and governance and control matters in the Asia Pacific and Africa regions. He is Chairman of Barclays Africa and a Trustee of the Bank's Pension Fund.

He joined Barclays in 1969 with a first-class degree in Economics from Durham University. During the early 1990s he directed two major change programmes in Barclays and over the last ten years has taken on the roles of Regional Director (North London), Deputy Managing Director of Banking Division with responsibility for the branch network, and Chief Executive of Corporate Banking.

In 1994 he chaired the British Bankers' Association committee which produced the Industry-wide Code of Banking Practice. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management and a Freeman of the City of London.

Outside work, he is on the Advisory Board of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, a Governor of Kent College Pembury and Chairman of the 175th Anniversary Appeal at Durham University. He has a keen interest in the restoration and racing of vintage cars. He lives with his wife Margaret in the Tunbridge Wells area. They have two grown up children.

Biography & Downloadable Speech

Howard graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1973 with a BA Economics degree. He went on to obtain his MA Economics from the same establishment a year later.

Howard began his career in 1974, as an Economics Lecturer at Leeds Polytechnic. In 1981 he took up the position of Senior Economist at Montagu Loebl Stanley, a stockbroking firm. Howard moved to take up a similar role at another broking firm, Buckmaster & Moore. In 1984 he joined Prudential Bache, where he was engaged as Chief Economist and Director of the UK government bond department.

Howard joined the FP Group in 1988 as Head of Fixed Interest and Economics. He was later promoted to Chief Investment Officer at Friends Ivory & Sime. Howard became CEO in 2000.

Howard retained his position as CEO in 2002 when Friends Ivory & Sime merged with Royal & SunAlliance Investments to create ISIS Asset Management plc.

In October 2004, ISIS Asset Management merged with F&C Group (Holdings) Limited to create F&C Asset Management plc. As well as being CEO of F&C Asset Management, Howard is an Executive Director of Friends Provident.

Howard has written a book, published by Oxford University Press in 1979, on Applied Economics in Banking and Finance.

Biography & Downloadable Powerpoint Presentation

A British national, became Director of the Environment and Social Development Department at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in January 2004. Prior to this appointment, she was Principal Specialist in the Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman of IFC/MIGA. She managed the Ombudsman function, investigating and offering conflict resolution to complaints filed in relation to the private sector activities of IFC and MIGA.

Prior to joining the CAO, Ms. Kyte was Senior Policy Advisor, Senior Advisor on Gender and Representative to the European Union for IUCN, The World Conservation Union. A graduate of the University of London and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, she has worked extensively within the environment, women's and health movements as a policy analyst and advocate.

Rachel has worked with and for private sector concerns on private/public partnerships in the fields of health and environment and has served as an advisor, and on the boards of a number of NGOs, private philanthropic foundations, the United Nations, and government. She teaches negotiation, advocacy and public policy at a number of institutions, including the Simone de Beauvoir Institution of Leadership in Mexico City.

Biography

Georg Kell is the Executive Head of The Global Compact Office, overseeing a network that includes several hundred companies, international labour, non-governmental organisations and other civil society groups. Mr. Kell was one of the chief architects of The Global Compact initiative, launched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July 2000 to promote good corporate citizenship and responsible globalisation.

Mr. Kell joined the executive office of the Secretary-General in 1997 as a senior officer responsible for fostering cooperation with the private sector to advance broad UN objectives.

Mr. Kell has extensive experience in international trade and development issues. In 1990, he joined the New York office of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) where, from 1993-97, he served as office head, closely interacting with delegations and the UN General Assembly. Mr. Kell began his career at the UN in 1987, spending three years in Geneva with UNCTAD.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Kell worked as a financial analyst in developing countries in Asia and Africa, appraising industrial projects for banks and multilateral institutions.

Mr. Kell holds advanced degrees in economics and engineering from the Technical University in Berlin. Following his postgraduate studies at the Fraunhofer Institute, he spent two years in Tanzania where he helped establish an industrial research institute

Biography & Downloadable Speech by Teresa Fogelberg, Associate Director

Ernst Ligteringen is the Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an international partnership that is developing the standard for sustainability reporting. The GRI Guidelines are the most widely used framework that help companies, public authorities, and not-for-profits report on their economic, environmental and social results in an integrated, internationally comparable, and transparent manner. By design, GRI is a multi-stakeholder partnership involving business, labour, civil society organisations, investment community and the accounting profession. The movement was started in 1997 in the US as a programme of CERES and UNEP.

Mr Ligteringen joined in 2002 when GRI was established as an independent organisation with its international secretariat in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He has the overall responsibility for GRI, including secretariat operations and the coordination of the worldwide GRI network of active stakeholders who participate in the GRI's governance, working groups, reviews, and consultation processes. Mr Ligteringen is a member of GRI's 15 person, multi-stakeholder Board of Directors.

Before joining GRI, Mr Ligteringen had a 23-year career in various non-governmental and international organisations, including postings in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. His posts included: Executive Director of Oxfam International; Director of Programme Coordination of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; and Consultant to the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization at the ILO.

Mr Ligteringen is a Dutch national, is married, and has two daughters.

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Frances became TUC Deputy General Secretary in January 2003, the first woman ever to hold this post. Frances has lead responsibility for a wide range of key areas of policy development across the TUC's work including trade union recruitment and organisation, inter-union relations and TUC services to members.

Prior to this, Frances headed up the TUC's Organisation and Services Department (OSD) that covered a range of policy areas at the heart of union concerns, including: employment rights, learning and skills, health and safety, industrial relations issues and the TUC's New Unionism project. She has also been responsible for the TUC's regional machinery, our education programme for workplace union reps and the TUC national network of Learning Services projects that aims to boost productivity, skills and learning opportunities at work.

Frances was the union nominated member of the Local Government Pay Commission and the Royal Mail's National Partnership Board. She sits on the board of the think tank, IPPR, and is a member of the UK Skills Board and the National Employment Panel. Frances was a member of the government's Modern Apprenticeship Advisory Committee chaired by John Cassells and is now a member of the MA Taskforce. Frances has recently been appointed to the LSC National Council.

Before taking up her post as Head of OSD in 1998, Frances was director of the TUC New Unionism project that launched the Organising Academy and campaigns to rebuild and revitalise trade union membership. Previously, Frances worked as the TUC Campaigns Officer coordinating the TUC-wide campaign for new rights for part-time workers, the No Sweat campaign on homeworking and the drive to end low pay. Before joining the TUC in 1994, Frances worked for the Transport and General Workers Union on social justice and equality issues.

Throughout her working life Frances has been a committed trade unionist and has been active in a range of women's and community campaigns. She has two children and lives in North London.

Biography

Dutch-born Michiel Bakker joined MTV before it began broadcasting in 1987 and moved to the Netherlands to set up MTV Europe's Amsterdam office. Two years later he established MTV Europe's Benelux operations with an office in Brussels.

Appointed Senior Vice President, Network Development, Michiel then became responsible for MTV Networks Europe's pan-European distribution - transmission of MTV Europe via satellite, carriage on cable systems throughout Europe and terrestrial retransmission of the channel. He also oversaw the distribution of VH1 in the UK in the vital period surrounding the channel's launch in 1994.

After promotion to Managing Director of MTV Networks UK and Ireland, Michiel assumed overall responsibility for all aspects of MTV and VH1 in the region, from strategy and finance through to production and programming. In 1999, with the multi-channel world expanding faster than all expectations, he took on the pioneering task of guiding MTV Networks into the digital era, overseeing the launch of five new channels - MTV2, MTV Base, MTV Hits, MTV Dance and VH1 Classic.

In 2000, Michiel was responsible for the establishment of MTV Networks UK's new ad sales arm Viacom Brand Solutions, after the successful bid to win the sales business for both Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy Channel. In October of that year, Michiel spearheaded the launch of TMF (The Music Factory) on the new Freeview platform.

2003 was an exciting time for the company. The doubling of programming investment across MTV / VH1's channels resulted in the launch of two locally-produced hit shows, cult smash Dirty Sanchez and daily live entertainment programme TRL (Total Request Live). Combined with the channels' unrivalled access to music exclusives, this resulted in MTV Networks UK and Ireland achieving the highest ratings in its history and regularly out-rating its nearest competitor by a ratio of 2:1. The 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards were another highlight of the year, taking place in Edinburgh in November. This success was recognised at the prestigious Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV festival in August, with MTV winning non-terrestrial channel of the year. Rounding off the year for the Network, new channel VH2 launched in December.

This year Michiel was promoted to his current role, Executive Vice President, MD MTV Networks UK, Ireland and Nordic, which has led to him assuming responsibility for the Northern European territories alongside his UK & Ireland duties. This, combined with the continued investment in local development and new flagship studios opening in Leicester Square, has so far made 2004 another exciting year for Michiel Bakker and MTV Networks.