Verité Regional Program Directors
Verité's regional staff members are recognized pioneers in the field. Their combined expertise spans critical areas such as business, law, supply chain management, engineering, economics, accounting and social, ethics, labor, women’s rights, human rights, environmental, health and safety issues. They are problem solvers, and have a passion for helping the people that make our consumer goods. Local teams are composed in accordance with the needs of each program. Our services requires the best people with in-depth experience in the myriad complex business and social issues that affect workers and companies in today's global economy.
Wenjuan Yao, Verité’s China Program Director. Wenjuan's direction of the China Program includes the responsibilities of conducting corporate and worker training, coordinating factory inspections, program design and delivery. She has led and delivered training to audiences from the apparel, footwear, agriculture, toy and electronics sectors, and pioneered the development of Verité’s innovative approach to worker participation in CSR audits in China. For the past five years Wenjuan has led many aspects of the organization’s Emerging Markets Research Program with Verité and her team manages Verité's annual China Suppliers Conference. wyao@verite.org
Marie Apostol, Founder and Director of Verité’s Southeast Asia office. Marie has led hundreds of audits, dozens of training programs, and conceptualized the development of Verité’s program assessment and social compliance management systems methodology. She has a background in poverty alleviation and extensive experience with the UN system and NGO communities. mapostol@verite.org
Gabriela Delgadillo, Verité’s Latin America Program Director. Gabriela is responsible for Verité’s operations in Latin America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the Latin American region, on socially responsible and also gender issues and is an accomplished trainer and a former Fulbright Scholar. As Regional Director, Ms. Delgadillo is responsible for working with corporate clients and recruiting, training, and deploying audit and training teams in 14 countries, who under her direction conduct factory audits, worker interviews, and factory-level remediation training and capability building. and has led Verité’s collaborative approaches to addressing Freedom of Association issues in Central America. gdelgadillo@verite.org
Dr. Aqueel Khan, PhD., Verité’s South Asia Program Director, is concurrently Founder and Executive Director of the Association for Stimulating Know-How (ASK), an Indian NGO founded in 1992 and one of the few non-profit organizations in India working extensively in the field of corporate social responsibility. ASK-Verité functions as the South Asia Regional Program Office for Verité, undertaking monitoring and research on CSR issues and facilitating factory-level remediation, trainings, and capability building. Dr. Khan is a development professional and has experience working at national and international levels in the field of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), NGO management and sectoral issues such as gender & development, micro-credit and micro-enterprise development, and participatory irrigation management. He has led the development of programs such as Verité’s Gathering Information from Workers, and conducted training for numerous multinational corporations. akhan@askindia.org
Mitzi Pascual-Zaruk, Verité’s Europe Program Director. Ms. Zaruk designs and delivers CSR audit, remediation and training programs for brands and vendors across industries, with specialties in areas such as food & beverage and agriculture. She has recruited local teams and built capacity for delivering Verité programs throughout her region. Based in Brussels, Ms. Zaruk is Verité’s liaison with EU institutions and stakeholders. She speaks six languages: Filipino, English, French, Bahasa Indonesia, Dutch, and Spanish. mzaruk@verite.org
Sayeeda Khan, Verité’s Bangladesh Program Director. Sayeeda is Founder and Director of Sheva, a Bangladesh NGO working to help empower the urban poor, and concurrently Verité-Sheva Program Director in Bangladesh, has extensive experience working with disenfranchised women in the garment industry, among others, in Bangladesh. Her organization, Sheva, is Verité’s regional Bangladesh office and offers training, community, and microfinance programs, as well as the delivery of auditing, training, research, and program building for brands, suppliers and other stakeholders. Sayeeda91@yahoo.com
