WHO WE ARE

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We're starting a movement we hope other business schools will adopt.

Founded in 2013, the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights is the first center dedicated to human rights at a business school. Led by Founder and Director Michael Posner - who served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor - the Center advances a pro-business, high standards model. Our staff members have backgrounds in public policy, law, scholarship, and journalism. We're united in our belief that companies should be profitable and competitive while benefiting the people who make their success possible. From the heart of the world's financial hub in New York City, we are helping to write a new playbook for business and human rights, renegotiating the responsibilities corporations have to the people and communities they touch. 

At NYU Stern, we develop people and ideas that transform the challenges of the 21st century into opportunities to create value for business and society. Our Center for Business and Human Rights is the embodiment of that mission and demonstrates that profit and principle can co-exist.
— Peter Henry, Dean Emeritus, William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business, Leonard N. Stern School of Business

Team

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Michael Posner

Director
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Michael Posner

Director, Center for Business and Human Rights
Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Business and Society

Michael Posner is the Center's Director and the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at NYU Stern. From September 2009 until March 2013, he served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. State Department. From 1978 to 2009, he was the Executive Director and the President of Human Rights First, a U.S.-based human rights advocacy organization.

As Assistant Secretary of State, Michael traveled to more than 40 countries where he represented the U.S. government on a wide range of human rights issues. He has played a major role in shaping U.S. policy from inside and outside of government on issues ranging from refugee and asylum law and policy, national security and human rights, Internet freedom, and business and human rights. Michael played a key role in proposing and campaigning for the first U.S. law providing for political asylum, which became part of the Refugee Act of 1980, as well as the Torture Victim Protection Act, which was adopted in 1992.

Michael holds a JD from the University of California, Berkeley Law School, and a BA with distinction and honors from the University of Michigan.

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Paul M. Barrett

Deputy Director

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Paul M. Barrett

Deputy Director, Center for Business and Human Rights

Paul Barrett is the deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He joined the Center in September 2017 after working for more than three decades as a journalist and author focusing on the intersection of business, law, and society. Most recently, he worked for 12 years for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, where he served at various times as the editor of an award-winning investigative team and a writer covering topics such as energy and the environment, military procurement, and the civilian firearm industry. From 1986 to 2005, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, serving as the newspaper’s Supreme Court corespondent and later as the page one special projects editor.

Paul is the author of four critically acclaimed nonfiction books, the most recent of which are GLOCK: The Rise of America’s Gun, a New York Times Bestseller, and THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who’d Stop at Nothing to Win.

At the Center for Business and Human Rights, Paul has focused primarily on researching and writing a series of reports on the role and obligations of the social media industry in a democracy. Specific topics have included the problems of foreign and domestic disinformation, the consequences of outsourced content moderation, the debate over the liability of social media platforms for harmful content, the role of social media companies in intensifying political polarization in the U.S., and how Congress could enhance the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection authority to regulate social media companies.

Since 2008, Paul has served as an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law. Each spring, he co-teaches a seminar called “Law, Economics, and Journalism,” in which students learn to analyze controversial social issues with the tools of those three professions.

Paul has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Harvard College.

 

Victoria Anderson

Assistant Director of Communications
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Victoria Anderson

Assistant Director of Communications

Victoria spearheads digital project planning and execution that are aligned with the Center's priorities. From shaping compelling digital communication strategies to crafting fundraising initiatives and impactful content across various platforms, including Forbes.com, Victoria's role encompasses copy-editing, multimedia content creation, and meticulous financial reporting. She also orchestrates engaging events focused on business and human rights. Victoria has a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from American University and a Masters of Science in Integrated Digital Media from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

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Dorothée Baumann-Pauly

Research Director
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Dorothée Baumann-Pauly

Research Director

Dorothée Baumann-Pauly is the Center’s research director. She oversees the Center's research activities, including development of academic publications, case studies, the Center’s forthcoming textbook, and other teaching resources. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and MA degrees in management and political science from the University of Constance (Germany) and Rutgers University of New Jersey. She joined NYU Stern in June 2013.

Dorothée has split her career between academia and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice. As a project officer and consultant for the Fair Labor Association, she helped revise the organization’s core program by developing assessment and impact measurement methodologies. She also oversaw supply chain auditing activities and supported workers’ representation projects in China. Dorothée worked as MFA-Forum country program manager at the London-based thinktank AccountAbility, managing multi-stakeholder dialogues in Bangladesh, Morocco, and Lesotho.

Dorothée teaches CSR, Business and Human Rights and Business Ethics at HEC Lausanne (Switzerland) and NYU Stern. In 2013, she published a book entitled Managing Corporate Legitimacy – A Toolbox (Greenleaf Publishing). You can contact Dorthée by email at dbaumann@stern.nyu.edu.

Michael Goldhaber

Senior Program Manager
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Michael Goldhaber

Senior Program Manager

Michael D. Goldhaber leads the program on human rights in investment at the Center for Business & Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He joined the Center in March 2022 with the mission of building upon the Center’s pioneering project of “Putting the ‘S’ in ESG” and “Making ESG Work” through a focus on inequality.

Michael previously served as U.S. Correspondent for the International Bar Association, where he monitored the decline in U.S. rule of law during the Trump presidency. For most of the prior two decades, he served as Senior International Correspondent and Chief European Correspondent for American Lawyer Media. The recipient of numerous business journalism awards, Michael has written countless articles on international human rights and complex business disputes. He is also the author of A People's History of the European Court of Human Rights (2nd ed., 2009), and Crude Awakening: Chevron in Ecuador (Kindle Single 2014). Michael is a graduate of Harvard College (summa cum laude, 1990), Columbia Journalism School (1997), and Yale Law School (1993), where he served as book reviews editor for the Yale Law Journal. Following law school he clerked for Judge Bruce Selya of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court in Boston. He currently lives in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

 
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Kerin K. McCauley

Director of Operations
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Kerin K. McCauley

Director of Operations

Kerin McCauley oversees strategic planning and operations. She also leads the Center’s efforts to support university investment offices in providing greater opportunities to asset management firms owned by women and people of color. Before coming to Stern, Kerin worked with the Faculty Administration team at Harvard Business School.

Kerin holds an MBA from NYU Stern with specializations in Sustainable Business & Innovation and Law & Business. She received a BA with honors from College of the Holy Cross and a Design Certificate from Massachusetts College of Art.

Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat

Policy Advisor on Technology & Law
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Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat

Policy Advisor on Technology & Law

Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat joined the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights in August 2022 as a Policy Advisor on technology and law. Previously, she served as Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where she helped teach the Global Human Rights Clinic. Mariana received her JD from Yale Law School and her BA in Political Theory from Princeton. She has consulted for several international human rights organizations, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Argentina and Geneva, the Council of Europe's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Center for Diversity and National Harmony in Myanmar.

Cynthia Orizaba

Administrative Assistant
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Cynthia Orizaba

Administrative Assistant

Cynthia Orizaba serves as the Administrative Assistant to the Center. Before joining Stern, Cynthia completed a one year fellowship with the Office of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as a Jame H. Dunn, Jr Memorial Fellow.

Cynthia Orizaba holds a BA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with a concentration in Public Policy and Democratic Institutions and a Minor in Business. If you would like to find out more information about the Center, please contact Cynthia at: corizaba@stern.nyu.edu.

 

Cecely Richard-Carvajal

Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellow
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Cecely Richard-Carvajal

Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellow

Cecely is the Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellow at the NYU Stern Center for Business Human Rights. She holds an L.L.M. degree in International Legal Studies from NYU School of Law, where she specialized in international human rights law. During her LLM, Cecely worked as a Human Rights Scholar at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. She also completed an internship in the Rule of Law Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary General at the United Nations. Cecely has extensive research experience in the human rights space, providing research support to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, working as a secondee at the legal action NGO, Reprieve, and completing a distance internship at Advocates for Human Rights. Cecely is a solicitor qualified in England and Wales and, before pursuing her LLM, she worked as an Associate in Clifford Chance's Project, Energy and Infrastructure team in Paris, advising lenders and sponsors on project financings internationally. Cecely speaks Spanish, French, Russian and English and holds an MA from Cambridge University in Modern and Medieval Languages.

Rubana Huq

Executive in Residence
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Rubana Huq

Executive in Residence

Dr. Rubana Huq is a businesswoman, a poet, and currently is the Vice Chancellor of Asian University for Women, an international university in Bangladesh. She is the immediate past President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), and she was also the first female occupant of the post. She is the Managing Director of Mohammadi Group, a family business conglomerate whose journey began exporting readymade garments, and has since diversified into software, digital distribution, real estate, power generation and the group’s latest is the launch of a television channel called Nagorik. She was featured in BBC’s 100 Women. Huq won the SAARC Literary Award for her poems in 2006. Her first book of poems is titled Time of My Life. She is the former CEO of TV Southasia, a collaborative platform of South Asian electronic media based in Kolkata. She was featured in BBC 100 women in 2013 and 2014. She represents the global manufacturers in the UNFCCC fashion industry charter for Climate Action for the period of 2021-22.

Dr. Huq holds a PhD in English Literature from Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

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Justine Nolan

Senior Visiting Scholar
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Justine Nolan

Senior Visiting Scholar

Justine Nolan is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW Sydney and Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute. Justine's research focuses on the intersection of business and human rights, in particular, supply chain responsibility for human rights and modern slavery. Her 2019 co-authored book Addressing Modern Slavery examines how consumers, business and government are both part of the problem and the solution in curbing modern slavery in global supply chains. Other recent books include The International Law of Human Rights (OUP, 2017) and Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016) with Dr Baumann-Pauly. She teaches international human rights law and related courses on global law, development, globalisation and business and human rights. Justine works closely with business, government and civil society and has been a key driver of the Australian business and human rights movement. In 2019 she was named 'Academic of the Year' at the Australian Law Awards. From 2016-2019 she served as Associate Dean Academic at UNSW Law.

Prior to joining UNSW in 2004, she worked as the Director of the Business and Human Rights program at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) in the USA. This work examined ways in which to prevent and redress corporate violations of human rights. During this time Justine advised both companies and civil society organisations on effective strategies to protect human rights in the corporate sphere and was closely involved in the establishment of the Fair Labor Association. She has also worked in both public interest and private legal practices. She has held various expert advisory roles. In 2020 Justine was appointed to the Australian Government's Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group. Other appointments include the Australian Government's Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group on Business and Human Rights (2017) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Ausaid's Human Rights Grants Scheme Expert Panel (2009-2013) which provided practical financial support for small community-based projects to promote and protect human rights in developing countries. Justine has given guest lectures at a number of universities including more recently Yale, NYU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Geneva, Columbia University, City University Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong. She has consulted to a range of organisations including UNICEF and the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR). She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Business and Human Rights Journal and Executive Editor of the Australian Journal of Human Rights.

 

Advisory Council

Tom Bernstein, Chair
President and Co-founder, Chelsea Piers

Mark Angelson
Chairman, Institute of International Education

Janet Band
Attorney

Renee Beaumont
Partner, Generation Investment Management

Michele Browne
Senior Advisor Chestnut Advisory Group

Michele Cameron
Director, IFM Investors

Lynda Clarizio
General Partner and Co-Founder, The 98

Daniel Doctoroff
Director, Sidewalk Labs

Ken Feinberg
Partner, Feinberg Rozen, LLP

Richard Friesner
William P. Schweitzer Professor of Chemistry, Columbia University

Deborah L. Harmon Co-Founder and CEO, Artemis Real Estate Partners

Rebecca Kaden Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures

Brad S. Karp Chairman, Paul | Weiss

Kerry Kennedy President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Harold Koh
Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School

Peter Leahey
Managing Director, Great Bay Renewables

Barbara Marcin
Former Fund Manager

Camille Massey
Founding Executive Director, Sorensen Center for International Peace & Justice

Ray McGuire
Former Head of Global Banking, Citigroup

Amol Mehra
Director, Laudes Foundation

Will Millberg
Dean, The New School

Craig Newmark
Founder, Craig Newmark Philanthropies

Mayur Patel
Head, Strategic Development Initiatives, Econet Wireless

Betty P. Rauch
Betty P. Rauch Marketing/Communications

John Rice
Founder and CEO, Management Leadership for Tomorrow

Great Neck Richman
President, Richloom Fabrics Group

John W. Rogers, Jr.
Chairman, Co-CEO & Chief Investment Officer, Ariel Investments

Christina Sass
Co-Founder and COO, Andela

Kabir Sehgal
CEO, Tiger Turn

Debora Spar
Professor, Harvard Business School

Angela Sun
Chief Operating Officer and Partner, Alpha Edison