 | Verité Board of Directors and Advisors | ||
| Board of Directors | Advisory Board | ||
Board of Directors
David Levi (Chair)
President and CEO, GrowthWorks Capital Ltd
David Levi is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Working Opportunity Fund, GrowthWorks (WVIS) Ltd. and GrowthWorks Capital Ltd. Mr. Levi played a critical role in the formation and launch of the Working Opportunity Fund in January 1992. Since that time, Working Opportunity Fund, under Mr. Levi's leadership and direction, has grown to be the largest venture capital fund in western Canada with over $435 million in assets and has invested over $316 million in more than 92 growth-oriented, entrepreneurial BC companies. In late 1998, Mr. Levi founded GrowthWorks Capital. Then in 2002, Mr. Levi led GrowthWorks in the acquisition of the management of GrowthWorks WV Funds, previously called Working Ventures Funds. Prior to launching Working Opportunity Fund, Mr. Levi was chair of VanCity Credit Union and remained as a director until 1996. He is also a past director of the Canadian Venture Capital Association.
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Doug Cahn
Doug Cahn is the principal of TheCahnGroup, LLC, a corporate responsibility consultancy dedicated to creating sound business practices that are consistent with societal needs and stakeholder expectations.
Mr. Cahn has been a corporate responsibility and public policy executive for nearly 30 years. During that time, he has implemented corporate programs that address supply chain labor standards, human rights, environment, government relations, community relations, advocacy and communications. As vice president of human rights programs at Reebok International for 15 years, Mr. Cahn led the implementation of Reebok’s corporate commitment to international human rights, both through the company’s business practices and philanthropic endeavors. Mr. Cahn is a pioneer in applying corporate codes of conduct to factories owned and operated by third parties in Asia, Central America and Eastern Europe. He developed a child labor free soccer ball factory in Pakistan and human rights training programs, worker communication systems, and assessment tools in over a dozen countries. Mr. Cahn directed the human rights grantmaking at the Reebok Human Rights Foundation. He served as a founding Board member of the Fair Labor Association and the Committee on Corporate Responsibility of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry.
Prior to joining Reebok, he served as chief of staff and legislative assistant for human rights and foreign polciy to US Representative Barney Frank (1981-1991) and legislative assistant for human rights and foreign policy to US Representative Robert Drinan (1979-1981)
In addition to serving on the Board of Verite, he is Chairman of the Board of the Fair Factories Clearinghouse, a non-profit initiative of global retail companies, consumer brands and retail trade associations dedicated to creating a system for managing and sharing information about workplace conditions.
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Roy Jones
Mr. Jones has served as Senior Trade Union Advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and advised the World Bank among others. He currently works with the law firm of Grant & Eisenhofer, providing litigation and consulting services to institutional investors, both public and private. Mr. Jones was educated at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the United Kingdom, and has a broad and deep understanding of the European pension world and its key players. Furthermore, Mr. Jones is an acknowledged expert on global corporate governance trends.
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Mara Manus
Executive Director, NY Public Theater
Ms. Manus has been Executive Director of the Public Theater in Manhattan since 2002. Before joining the Public Theater, Ms. Manus served as a leading economic development Program Officer at the Ford Foundation; as President of Los Angeles-based Chrysalis, a job development nonprofit; and as Senior VP of Production at TransPacific Films and MCA/Universal Pictures in Hollywood. Ms. Manus has been profiled in the New York Times, Newsday, Los Angeles Times; LA Weekly, Downtown News, and People Magazine. She completed an Executive Education program on Nonprofit Management at Harvard Business School and received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Stanford University.
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Miranda Magagnini
Co-CEO, Icestone
Ms. Magagnini has more than twenty-five years of marketing and management experience. She has expertise in branding, sales and marketing management, and turnaround management. Currently she serves as Co-CEO of Icestone, an environmentally-responsible company that manufactures durable surface materials from recycled glass and concrete. Ms. Magagnini helped realize the national expansion that led to the successful acquisitions of both Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream and Soho Natural Soda. More recently, she has directly invested in several social-purpose companies including Stonyfield Farm Yogurt, and the childcare company Lipton Corporate Childcare. She is the former chair of Verité. Ms. Magagnini holds an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School.
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Liddy Manson
Liddy Manson is the COO of Freewebs. In that role she oversees the business operations of the company, including sales, marketing, programming, and human resources. She joined the company in January 2007. Before joining Freewebs she was a vice president and general manager at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. Ms. Manson is a seasoned Internet and new-media executive who has held senior positions in interactive media for over 15 years. During her 9 years at WPNI, she held many senior roles including vice president of Strategy and Business Development, and vice president of Advertising and Marketing, responsible for washingtonpost.com's and newsweek.com's revenue and audience growth initiatives. Prior to WPNI, she was vice president of Special Projects for Discovery Channel Multimedia. Ms. Manson earned an MBA and Certificate in Public Management from Stanford University and received a BA in Music from Yale University.
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President, Pacific Partners International Investments, Inc.
Mr. Perl brings business experience and legal and entrepreneurial background to a number of socially responsible businesses and non-profit organizations throughout North America serving as a consultant, advisor and Board member. A resident of New York City, he has handled diverse negotiations and mediations and has been involved in a number of industries, from investment management to real estate development, from entertainment to management of a major retail company. He is one of the founders of Social Venture Network and Threshold Foundation, and he has helped start and lead a number of other companies and non-profit organizations. His current pre-occupation is the creation of a more just and sustainable economy. Richard received his M.B.A., law degree, and B.A. from Columbia University in New York City.
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Advisory Board
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Jacqui MacDonald is a highly experienced and committed senior manager with a strong track record in building ethical and fair trade international businesses and developing dynamic partnerships. She is the co-author of Business and Poverty: Bridging the Gap. Ms. MacDonald is currently is a fair and ethical trade consultant (Just Trade) and works with a variety of institutions including the ITC, Commonwealth Secretariat’s Gender Programme, WEIGO (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing), the IFC, the Co-operative College in the UK, The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), the ODI (Overseas Development Institute) as well as Verité.
Ms. MacDonald was the Director of the DFID Resource Centre for the Social Dimensions of Business Practice after serving as General Manager, Fair Trade in the Body Shop. For six years
she played a key role in creating The Body Shop International’s cornerstone fair and ethical trade strategies, as well as its Statement of Human Rights and Trading Charter.
Jacqui complements her MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice with many years of service in a variety of socially progressive organisations and businesses. Her positions have included the following: chair of Day Chocolate Company( UK Fair Trade); director/trustee of Serrv International (US Fair Trade organization), Values Based Business Network, New Academy of Business, the fair trade charity TWIN, the Advisory board of WEIGO (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing) Global Markets Programme and the Co-operative Retail Responsible Retailing Advisory Panel; former board member of the Ethical Trading Initiative; Executive Committee of the International Federation for Alternative Trade; member of IBLF’s International Partnership Unit’s Advisory Board; founding member of the UNAIDS Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS; vice-president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (Canada).
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Peter Strugatz is founder and Co-CEO of Icestone Peter Strugatz is the founder and co-CEO of IceStone. He President of Strugatz Ventures, a private equity investing firm. He is a member of the Social Venture Network
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