Our staff facilitate our strategic development and manage RBA activities on behalf of all members.
Rob Lederer
Executive Director
rlederer@responsiblebusiness.org
Rob Lederer is the Executive Director of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), a nonprofit coalition of leading companies dedicated to improving social, environmental and ethical conditions in their global supply chains.
Rob has guided the RBA since 2013, driving industry action in the areas of forced labor, conflict minerals, human rights and sustainability, and expanding partnerships with governments and civil society worldwide. During that time the RBA has grown tremendously in size and reach, doubling its membership.
Rob has more than three decades of experience managing industry associations, helping them to achieve strategic objectives. Additionally, Rob was the mayor of Fairfax, Virginia, USA, for 10 years, providing leadership and vision to the city.
Deborah Albers
Vice President
dalbers@responsiblebusiness.org
Before joining the RBA, Deborah Albers was the principal social strategist in corporate responsibility at Dell Inc., leading the work on social responsibility and stakeholder engagement. She was responsible for the long-term strategy and risk associated with responsible sourcing, global regulation and industry engagement on social issues. Deborah previously led the Dell On-Call organization globally, helping customers solve complex software issues. She was with Dell for 16 years. Prior to joining Dell, Deborah helped launch a technology startup in Silicon Valley, California.
Bob Mitchell
Vice President
bmitchell@responsiblebusiness.org
Bob is a 16-year veteran of Hewlett Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, with over 10 years in sustainability. He was most recently the Director, Global Social & Environmental Responsibility at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, leading a team of professionals in human rights, supply chain responsibility and conflict minerals, among other issue areas. Bob also served on the RBA Board of Directors for nearly four years and was Vice Chair in 2016. He holds an MBA from the University of Arizona, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia.
Christine Briscoe
Vice President, Member Services and Human Resources
cbriscoe@responsiblebusiness.org
Christine has been at the RBA since 2013, the year staff was first hired, and came from the Fair Labor Association (FLA), where she launched a program for hundreds of university licensees to initiate or improve their compliance programs through online tools and in-person and online training. Since joining the RBA, she has worked with members in a variety of areas including RBA Online, member compliance and training, and launched the RBA’s online Learning Academy in Spring 2014. Christine actively works with new member prospects, and onboards new members and staff. She has an MBA from the University of Maryland, with a focus on international business, entrepreneurship and CSR. Christine holds teaching and training credentials and received the Society for Human Resource Management - Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) designation in early 2017.
Leah Butler
Vice President
lbutler@responsiblebusiness.org
Leah has nine years of experience in regulatory compliance, stakeholder engagement, and extractive sector governance. Her work has focused on environmental remediation of industrial and small-scale mining sites and community development. She has worked for government, international development consulting firms, and the mining industry in the U.S. and Africa. Leah holds an MA in International Relations and a Masters of Environmental Management from Yale University.
Carlos Busquets
Director of Public Policy
cbusquets@responsiblebusiness.org
Carlos brings over 15 years of global public policy experience with a focus on sustainability, climate change, international trade and investment. He has worked in both the public and private sectors, including helping lead policy advocacy for the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris and as a former international trade negotiator at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Carlos has an MA from the School of International Service at American University and speaks English, Spanish and French.
Jarrett Bens
Director of Communications
Jarrett has more than 15 years of experience directing strategic communications initiatives for technology companies, trade associations and nonprofits. He has held communications positions in PR agencies and corporations. His areas of expertise include public and media relations, public affairs, message development, digital communications, and research. Jarrett has a master's degree in political science (international relations) from Villanova University and a bachelor's degree in communications (journalism) from Temple University.
Ken Anderson
Director of Information Technology
kanderson@responsiblebusiness.org
Ken brings 16 years of wide-ranging IT experience covering software engineering, database administration, network/telecom deployments, and enterprise systems management. He has worked in the Department of Defense, K-12 education software, and industrial controls engineering fields, providing a breadth of experience across many trades. As a PMI-certified project manager, his experience initiating, planning and supervising large projects assists the RBA in integrating the various tools and data needs required by our members and their suppliers. Ken has a master’s degree in information systems from the University of South Alabama.
Hillary Amster
Director of Audit Operations
hamster@responsiblebusiness.org
Hillary is an attorney with a background in corporate social responsibility. Previously she held positions at a CSR consulting firm and a number of international human rights organizations. Hillary has a JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law and a BA from Tufts University.
Jack Cutts
Director of Data Science and Research
jcutts@responsiblebusiness.org
Jack is a seasoned data scientist with a broad range of experience in data analytics, machine learning and database administration. A 16-year veteran of the electronics and telecommunications industries, he worked in business intelligence, research and membership for the Consumer Technology Association. Earlier, Jack served in government affairs for Alcatel-Lucent. He earned his Bachelor of Science in International Affairs from Georgia Tech and his MBA from George Mason University.
Laura Landrau
Director of Meetings
llandrau@responsiblebusiness.org
Laura came to the RBA with a background in both corporate and social event planning. She has been responsible for a wide variety of events, including conferences, launch events, weddings and galas. Laura has a bachelor's degree in communications and marketing from American University and speaks Spanish and Portuguese, as well as English. Laura also holds a certification in government meeting planning.
David Yeung
Director of Training Services
dyeung@responsiblebusiness.org
David Yeung is a CSR professional with more than 20 years of experience in support of international CSR programs. He was the former CEO of Benchmarks Ltd, an auditing and consulting company based in Hong Kong and China. Earlier David was a senior manager with Hanesbrands Inc, and Li and Fung Ltd. He setup his own training development business in 2011, and has provided critical training services to the CSR industry for major brands and retailers for over 8 years.
Andy Chiu
Director of Audit Assurance
Andy has been working in the corporate social responsibility field for more than 15 years. He has led sustainability programs for various MNCs in a broad spectrum of industries, including retailers and vendors in the electronics, toys, apparel and footwear sectors, as well as for an auditing firm. Before joining the RBA Andy was the supply chain responsibility program manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he led a series of supply chain capability-building programs. Andy has a Master of Social Science (Corporate Environmental Governance) from The University of Hong Kong.
Marianna Smirnova
Director of Standards and Assurance
msmirnova@responsiblebusiness.org
Marianna has more than 12 years of experience in human rights and compliance issues in supply chains, including human trafficking, conflict minerals, and raw materials traceability. Her expertise includes leading global collaborative projects, program management, policy analysis, standards and audit tool development, training, capacity-building, and research. Previously Marianna managed the raw materials and extractives auditing and advisory services program at UL's Responsible Sourcing group, including assessments using Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), and Conflict-Free Smelter Program (CFSP) standards. Marianna has a Master’s in International Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin. She speaks English, Russian, and Mandarin Chinese.
Lawrence Heim
Director of Innovation and Partnerships
Lawrence Heim has 35 years of experience in auditing, environmental/sustainability management and responsible sourcing. Lawrence is a Certified Professional Environmental Auditor. He has provided conflict minerals audit guidance for the past 10 years to a wide range of manufacturers as well as the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Government Accountability Office. His work has centered on developing and executing responsible minerals sourcing and verification programs, tools and audit quality processes. Prior to joining RMI, Lawrence was a Partner at Elm Sustainability Partners where he led their ESG, conflict minerals and sustainability practice, and a Senior Vice President leading the Risk Consulting Services of Marsh USA's Global Environmental Practice. He also worked as in-house corporate environmental staff with Georgia-Pacific Corporation, a project manager with ENSR Consulting & Engineering (now AECOM) and a legal assistant with Vinson & Elkins. Lawrence has a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and is proficient in Spanish. In 2018, he published his book, Killing Sustainability.
Bart Devos
European Director
bdevos@responsiblebusiness.org
Before joining the Responsible Business Alliance, Bart worked for Samsung Electronics as European Manager for Sustainability. Earlier, Bart held roles in public and nonprofit sectors, including as an advisor at the French National Assembly, UN Youth Representative for Sustainable Development, and advisor on strategy development and stakeholder engagement to several international organizations. He holds bachelor and master degrees in Law from Brussels Free University as well as a masters degree in Conflict and Development from Ghent University. Bart speaks English, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish.
Khai Yau Chua
Senior Program Manager
kychua@responsiblebusiness.org
Khai started his career at HP in 2000 before moving on to work in public and international organizations. In the nine years prior to joining the RBA, he has been working on areas related to human, labor, migrant and refugee rights in IOM and UNHCR. Khai is an alumnus of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on Trafficking in Persons and has an MA in International Relations from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a BSc in Computer and Information Sciences from the National University of Singapore.
Ka Ea Lim
Senior Program Manager
Ka Ea is trained in law and has more than 13 years of work experience in the field of civic education and human rights with non-governmental organisations in Malaysia and the United Nations in Timor-Leste and Afghanistan. She has also volunteered for the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and Foundation for International Development/Relief in Cambodia. Prior to joining the RBA, she worked as a Project Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights. She is an alumna of the American Council for Young Political Leaders (ACYPL).
Alexandra Cech
Senior Project Manager
Alex has more than 10 years of experience in responsible sourcing, human rights in supply chains, and economic development. Her experience includes risk assessments, value chain analysis, qualitative research and project management. Previously, she worked as the Human Rights and Supply Chain Responsibility Program Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She has also held positions with UL’s Responsible Sourcing group, the World Bank, and ACDI/VOCA. She holds an MS from Georgetown University and a BA from the College of William and Mary.
Daniel Reid
Environmental Program Manager
Dan has four years of regulatory experience with the EPA in the Dallas regional office, where he oversaw state level monitoring and registration programs for overly polluted waterbodies under the Clean Water Act. Additionally, he coordinated state run programs for monitoring health risks at public beaches. He joined RBA in 2016 after completing a Masters of Environmental Management at Yale, where he concentrated in corporate resource management and risk. At Yale, Dan worked and interned for several multinational corporations to evaluate the performance and environmental impact of their operations. Dan also has a Bachelors in environmental science from the University of Notre Dame.
Sherlin Shi
Senior Account Manager
Sherlin has 12 years of experience, including extensive experience coordinating validation and verification of carbon emission reduction projects on behalf of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UFCCC).
Mann Chyun Sim
Senior Account Manager
Mann Chyun comes to RBA with over seven years of experience in supply chain environmental compliance, providing environmental reporting and consultation services in the electronics, automotive and medical sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science from the National University of Malaysia.
Catherine Tyson
Program Manager
ctyson@responsiblebusiness.org
Catherine comes to the RBA with experience in project management, stakeholder engagement, management consulting and human rights issues in supply chains. Previously, she held positions with the Fair Labor Association, JUST Capital and IBM. She holds an MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from Northwestern University.
Nirmaladevi Krishnamoorthy
Quality Assurance Manager
nirmala@responsiblebusiness.org
Nirmala has more than 12 years of experience in the electronics manufacturing industry. She previously held positions with Dell, Sanmina and Foxconn. Nirmala’s roles have included quality, lead auditor for ISO standards, change analyst, regulatory, manager of internal/external audits, supplier audits, strategy project manager, and RBA compliance. She has a Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics and Communication) from Bharathiar University, India and speaks English, Tamil, Kannada and basic-level Hindi.
Cinlla Huang
Quality Assurance Manager
chuang@responsiblebusiness.org
Cinlla has 12 years of responsible supply chain experience in NPO, brands, retailer and global trading companies, with in-depth knowledge of social and ethical compliance. Before joining the RBA, Cinlla worked at ICTI Toy Ethical Program, responsible for accredited audit firm management, audit quality monitoring, factory capacity building, program support and supplier engagement. She received a Bachelor of Economics from Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, and a Graduate Diploma in Supply Chain Management from Ara Institute of Canterbury (New Zealand).
Whitney Chan
Quality Assurance Manager
Whitney has more than 15 years of experience in the corporate social responsibility field. She has been overseeing the social compliance and sustainability program for various industries (apparel, fabric, printing), including retailers and vendors, as well as an auditing firm. Whitney’s roles covered the development of corporate audit policies, management of internal and external audits in social compliance, environment, quality, and security fields, involvement of business performance and evaluation. She has a Bachelor of Social Science from Hong Kong Baptist University.
Ross Landis
Database Project Manager
rlandis@responsiblebusiness.org
Ross' background includes 20 years of experience in IT support and publishing. Prior to joining the RBA, he was with The Gannett Company, where he honed his skills in software scripting, data management, and process automation. Earlier, he served on the Planning Commission for the City of Fairfax, Virginia.
Surya Herny Mahdzir
VAP Program Manager
shmahdzir@responsiblebusiness.org
Herny has more than 8 years administrating quality and operational audits in the IT sector prior to joing the RBA. She is ITIL v3 Foundation certified and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Technology from the University of Surrey, UK.
Diana Trigo
RMI Program Specialist
dtrigo@responsiblebusiness.org
Diana joined the RBA's Responsible Minerals Initiative as a Program Specialist with more than 10 years of experience conducting supply chain assessments, quality assurance, and capacity-building experience in over 15 countries. She was previously the Verification Manager for the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, where she was instrumental in creating an industry standard for social and environmental programs in apparel and footwear supply chains. Her previous work experience includes Patagonia's Social and Environmental Responsibility Program, where she worked closely with their supply chain to implement Patagonia's social and environmental responsibility initiatives and programs. Diana holds an MBA in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She is fluent in Spanish and English.
Charles Teh
VAP Program Associate
Charles spent most of his early career days in data science and working in different industries. He has a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics with Computing from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia) and speaks mostly English, Chinese, Malay and basic-level Japanese.
Karina Beltran Romero
Membership Coordinator
kromero@responsiblebusiness.org
Karina has many years of membership and customer relations experience in the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining the RBA, she was manager of membership and customer services at the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA). Karina holds an associate degree in digital marketing and a certificate of public relations from Northern Virginia Community College. She is fluent in Spanish and English.
Gavin Wu
Program Coordinator
Gavin has experience in database management, vendor auditing, and Internet-based research. He previously interned at Washington, D.C. nonprofits focused on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Gavin has a bachelor's degree from the University of Miami in Biology and Ecosystem Science/Policy.
Kyle Rand
Software Support Technician
Kyle has a diverse background in customer relations, project management and information technology. Prior to joining the RBA, he was a program manager with the American Gastroenterological Association. Kyle has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and is a CompTIA-certified IT Technician.
Steve Moloney
Chief Financial Officer
smoloney@responsiblebusiness.org
Steve is the former treasurer for the City of Fairfax, Virginia and is a licensed CPA. He has extensive experience managing budgets of over $100M and overseeing IT operations.
Anastasiia Olvera
Accounting Manager
aolvera@responsiblebusiness.org
Anastasiia came to RBA with a background in forensic accounting, audits, financial data analysis, and financial research. She was previously an accountant for The QED Group and holds a master's degree in finance from Taras Shevshenko University of Kyiv, Ukraine. Anastasiia speaks English, Ukrainian, Russian, and entry-level Spanish.
Antionette Adams
Accounting/Database Clerk
aadams@responsiblebusiness.org
Antionette has more than 10 years of Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Financial Accounting experience in the nonprofit, for profit and private sectors. She earned her associates degree in Accounting from the University of Phoenix and received an Accounts Payable Certification from the Institute of Finance & Management. Prior to joining the RBA, Antionette worked as an Accounting Clerk for a security and risk management firm located in Washington, D.C.
