+ About Mark

Mark P. Lagon is Chief Policy Officer for Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where part of his job is corporate partnerships for advocacy to combat the three epidemics. He is Councilor at and Co-Founder of GBCAT. He is also Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and Adjunct Professor in the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program.

Lagon previously held positions at Georgetown University, and was Executive Director and CEO of the leading anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Polaris Project, which operates the U.S. Government’s national anti-trafficking hotline (1-888-3737-888).

From 2007 to 2009, with rank of Ambassador, Lagon directed the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) at the U.S. Department of State. As such, he chaired by statute the Senior Policy Operating Group coordinating all U.S. agencies efforts to combat human trafficking domestically and internationally.

From 2004 to 2007, Lagon served in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State as Deputy Assistant Secretary, where he had lead responsibility for United Nations-related human rights and humanitarian issues, UN reform, and outreach.

Lagon previously served as a member of the Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Policy Planning Staff, where he focused on UN, democracy and human rights (2002-2004).

From 1999 to 2002, he was on the senior staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with responsibility including the United Nations and human rights.

Previously he won a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship, where he specialized on U.S. policymaking toward in China (1998-1999); served at House Republican Policy Committee (1997-1998); worked for former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick as her principal aide at the American Enterprise Institute.

Dr. Lagon serves on the Advisory Boards of Refugees International, the Center for the Victims of Torture, the MSFS Program at Georgetown University, and on ECPAT Select for ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and The Stanley Foundation.

He is author of the book, The Reagan Doctrine: Sources of American Conduct in the Cold War’s Last Chapter, and dozens of published essays on human trafficking, human rights, the UN, and U.S. policy making. He is co-editor with Anthony Arend of the forthcoming book, Human Dignity and the Future of Global Institutions. He has a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College.

+ About Theresa

Theresa Loar has been working at the nexus of business, human rights, and diplomacy for more than 30 years with leadership positions across corporations, NGOs, and the U.S. State Department. She is currently a Senior Advisor for human rights at BSR. She served as Senior Vice President for global corporate affairs at CH2M, a Fortune 500 engineering consulting firm. In this capacity, she initiated and led a global response to modern slavery issues raised in CH2M infrastructure programs in the Middle East. She built a team to embed preventive measures in management systems and engaged with governments, clients, NGOs, and industry peers to forge effective alliances to prevent slavery in supply chains. She is a co-founder of Building Responsibly, (link) a group of leading engineering and construction companies working together to promote the rights and welfare of workers across the industry.

During the Clinton Administration, Loar worked in the White House and the U.S. Department of State to promote women’s rights as human rights under the leadership of First Lady Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She co-led a presidential task force to develop policy to combat human trafficking and introduced the Prevention, Protection, and Prosecution policy framework into testimony before the U.S. Congress. She was also the founding president of the Vital Voices Global Partnership (link) founded by Hillary Clinton to invest in women to improve the world. As a Foreign Service Officer, Loar served in diplomatic assignments overseas and in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the board of directors of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group and RAD-AID International, a trustee of the Social Mobility Foundation in London, a member of the Vital Voices D.C. Council, and a lecturer in International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University.

+ About John

John E. Pepper, Jr. has spent a 40-year career in various positions at Procter & Gamble, including Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 1995 to 1999, Chairman of the Board from 2000 to 2002, Director of Procter & Gamble from 1984 to 2003, and President from 1986 to 1995.

Pepper currently serves as Director Emeritus of the Board of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Pepper served as Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Company from 2007 to 2012. He also served as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Yale University from 2004 to 2005.

+ About Claudio

Claudio leads BSR’s portfolio on addressing modern slavery, human trafficking, and forced labor. He develops guidance for companies seeking to prevent and mitigate human trafficking and forced labor risks and advances policies to scale impact through BSR’s collaborative initiatives like Tech Against Trafficking, the Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and Building Responsibly.

He brings 15 years of experience in managing multidisciplinary programs on criminal justice, human rights, and security in multilateral settings. Prior to joining BSR, he worked at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), establishing and leading the Secretariat of the UN Inter-Agency Coordination Group Against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT). As a senior advisor to the Special Representative for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he oversaw country needs assessments in North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

Claudio holds a MA in Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria and an Executive Certificate from Harvard JFK School of Government in building and leading diverse organizations. He speaks English, French, and Italian.

+ About Alice

Alice advises companies across industries on human rights strategies, assessments and multi-stakeholder collaboration, with a particular focus on anti-trafficking. She manages the Global Business Coalition against Human Trafficking (GBCAT) and Building Responsibly collaborative initiatives.

Prior to joining BSR, Alice managed a campaign at the British Parliament on an initiative to strengthen the supply chain transparency requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015. Previously, she had policy and research roles with a human rights focus at the Argentine Council for International Relations, the European Commission, and the Italian National Research Council. Alice is the co-author of Crime and Global Justice: The Dynamics of International Punishment, published by Polity in 2018.

Alice holds an MA in International Relations: Latin America—Europe from the University of Bologna and an MA in History and Spanish from the University of Edinburgh. She speaks English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

+ About Kelly

Kelly works with BSR member companies to develop sustainability strategies, assess human rights impacts, and engage rightsholders. Her areas of expertise include modern slavery and anti-human trafficking and the rights of workers and communities in the energy transition. Kelly works with companies across industries, including renewable energy and extractives and consumer products.

Prior to joining BSR, Kelly worked as a consultant on various human rights projects, including issues of modern slavery and labor rights in global supply chains. Kelly has also worked extensively on women’s rights, including two years leading a women’s economic empowerment program in Surkhet, Nepal and four years working with the United Nations Foundation on international reproductive health and rights.

Kelly holds an MA in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University.

+ About Jiajia

Jiajia works with BSR member companies across industries on sustainability management, including supply chain sustainability and human rights.

Prior to joining BSR, Jiajia was part of the international labor standards team at The Walt Disney Company. She worked with leaders across the company and external partners to ensure compliance with labor standards requirements, with the aim of improving factory working conditions as part of a responsible supply chain. Her experience spans policy implementation, stakeholder engagement and remediation through social compliance audits. She was involved in projects focusing on forced labor indicators, recruitment fee repayment and fair employment practices. She was also a representative in its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) strategy taskforce. Jiajia started her career in a boutique sustainability reporting consulting firm, and also has corporate work experience in financial crimes compliance at MUFG Bank.

Jiajia holds a BBA (Hons.) in Accountancy and Management & Human Capital from the National University of Singapore. She is fluent in English and Mandarin.

+ About Lale

Lale works with BSR member companies across industries to incorporate human rights into business operations and strategy. She focuses on the intersection of human rights and technology, and she leads the Tech Against Trafficking collaborative initiative.

Prior to BSR, Lale worked with the Partnership on AI to help build its AI for Social Good strategy. Previously, she held several different marketing roles at Microsoft, where she played a key role in establishing the company's cloud business across Turkey, the Middle East, and Africa.

Lale holds a MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where she focused on responsible business and social sector leadership. She received a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

+ About Taylor

Taylor supports BSR member companies across industries with a primary focus on human rights and sustainability management.

Prior to joining BSR, Taylor worked as an associate attorney for a boutique firm in Denver, dealing primarily with international trade issues. He also worked for The Code, an NGO based in Thailand, where he worked with tourism companies around the world to prevent sexual exploitation of children. Additionally, he is a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project.

Taylor holds a J.D. with a certificate in International Law from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, as well as certificates in Public and Private International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law and a B.A. in Political Science from St. Olaf College.