Examining the State of Children’s Rights & Business in 2023

Michele Buck is Chairman of the Board, President and CEO for The Hershey Company, an industry-leading snacks company. She brings 30 years of consumer-packaged goods experience and proven success transforming businesses and engaging organisations to accelerate profitable growth. Buck held several senior leadership roles within the company prior to becoming CEO. She served as Hershey’s Chief Operating Officer, leading day-to-day North, Central & South American commercial businesses and the Global Supply Chain. Previously, she was President, North America and SVP, Global Chief Growth Officer. Before joining Hershey in 2005, Buck was an officer at Kraft/Nabisco and during her 17-year tenure held numerous senior marketing and general management positions. She started her career at the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo. Buck serves on the Board of Directors at New York Life, a Fortune 100 company, where she served 2 terms as Lead Independent Director and was chair of the Operations Committee. In addition, Michele was Benefit Co-Chair for the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation. A native of central Pennsylvania, Buck earned a bachelor’s degree at Shippensburg University and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Michele has been regularly recognised on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list, most recently in 2023. She has two important roles – business leader and mom – that fulfil her life.

Hans Vestberg is chairman and chief executive officer of Verizon, the world's largest wireless, fibre-optic and global information networks and services company. In 2017, Hans served as Verizon's chief technology officer and president of Global Networks, responsible for developing the architecture for Verizon's fibre-centric networks. He was appointed CEO in August 2018 and Chairman of Verizon's Board of Directors in March 2019. Before joining Verizon, Hans served for six years as president and CEO of Ericsson, a multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Sweden. Hans is a founding member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Broadband Commission for Digital Development, where he has led climate-change and digital-health initiatives. He is a board member of Black Rock, the UN Foundation, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative, and is Co-Chair of the New Jersey CEO Council, a coalition of leaders from the state’s largest companies. Hans chairs The World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance for digital inclusion, which aims to impact 1 billion lives with affordable and accessible digital solutions by 2025. He is past chairman of the Swedish Olympic Committee and a current member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network, where he helped author the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Having recently moved to Kuala Lumpur, Daphne Hameeteman is the General Manager, Sustainability - External Engagement, for Wilmar International Limited. She leads the external sustainability conversation with our global stakeholders, as well as overseeing the creation of the annual benchmarking and Sustainability reports. In addition, Daphne is also responsible for the group’s sustainability implementation on non-palm commodities, like Sugar. With over 9 years’ experience as Sustainability Lead within Wilmar Europe, Daphne has been connecting the sustainability requirements of customers in food, feed and oleochemicals sectors with the supplies from palm producing countries. This includes the implementation of five sustainability (smallholder) support programmes in Latin America, impacting 4500 smallholders and 25 mills. These programs focused on building technical capacity of best agricultural management practices, leading to improved crop yields and income. During the last 4 years Daphne has been deeply engaged on the different EU regulations like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and Corporate Social Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and what it means for the palm oil sector, in both the origin and destination countries. In this capacity, she regularly met with politicians and other stakeholders involved, both in Brussels and other member states. Daphne is member of the board of governors of the RSPO (Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil), since 2017.

Yoly is Globe Group’s Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer and joined the company in 2009. She is a Corporate Communications and Sustainability executive with over 35 years of solid experience in Sustainability and Integrated Marketing Communications, with specialisation in Strategic Communications for Corporate, Brand, and Crisis Communications. Ms. Crisanto is currently a Board Member of AdSpark, Inc., the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) and Go Learn. She currently serves as Board of Adviser to the Public Relations Society of the Philippines. She is a multi-awarded professional and executive recognised by both local and international institutions in her fields of expertise, specifically, communications, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Ms. Crisanto earned her Master's in Business Administration degree from the Ateneo Graduate School of Business and Bachelor of Arts major in Communication Arts from the University of Santo Tomas.

Sjoerd Rozing has been Fund Manager of Triodos Future Generations Fund since March 2022. He joined Triodos Investment Management in 2017 as an investment analyst. In this role, he covered global equities. Prior to Triodos, Sjoerd worked at Teslin Capital Management where he was responsible for investment analysis of European small caps. Sjoerd holds a Master's degree in Business Studies from the University of Amsterdam (2008) and earned a CFA charter in 2011. He also served on the board of CFA VBA Society Netherlands until December 2017. Sjoerd is registered with the Dutch Securities Institute as an Institutional Investment Advisor.

Sara Nordbrand works as Head of Sustainability at Telia Company, setting the strategy for how sustainability is integrated into the company’s business strategy to achieve ambitious environmental and social goals. Important topics in focus include climate, circularity, digital inclusion and other aspects of human rights. As a provider of essential digital infrastructure and digital services in the Nordics and Baltics, Telia plays a fundamental role in people’s lives and impacts society’s ability to achieve an inclusive net zero economy. Sara has worked with sustainability in various roles the past two decade - as a journalist, researcher, for NGOs and since 2019 for Telia. She has been on various boards to further sustainable development such as The Swedish Forum for Sustainable Investments driving change in the Swedish financial industry, and The Global Network Initiative, a multistakeholder initiative focusing on human rights in the ICT industry.