Mil Niepold is currently the Senior Policy Advisor to Verité, where her work focuses on implementing the Harkin – Engel Protocol on child labor in cocoa production.  In this role, she has led the creation of the pioneering multi-stakeholder International Cocoa Verification Board to ensure that the perspectives of governments, trade unions, NGOs and industry would be represented in the independent verification effort.  Her ability to engage with and synthesize multiple viewpoints was instrumental to the achievement of a global series of consultative meetings to solicit and implement feedback from a wide array of experts and stakeholders to ensure that independent verification leads to sustainable and cost-effective improvements on cocoa farms.  The success of this ground-breaking multi-stakeholder model has led other sectors, such as cotton, diamonds and environment/climate change, to seek Mil’s guidance on multi-stakeholder approaches to address human rights and socio-economic challenges.

Convening diverse multi-stakeholder groups and facilitating forward-looking, robust dialogue to resolve complex social issues.

Mil previously served as Verité’s Director of Policy for over ten years. In that capacity, she drafted the framework of Verité’s social auditing and research work and built relationships with corporations, NGOs, non-profits and academia.  Prior to joining Verité, her corporate social responsibility work spanned both private sector with Fortune 500 companies such as American Express and the public sector with organizations such as UNICEF, the European Union, the French Ministry of Labor, Social Accountability International, and Oxfam International. Her other experience includes serving on Amnesty International’s Business and Economic Relations Group from 1998-2004. Mil holds degrees in International Affairs and European Studies from George Washington University and L’Institut des Sciences Politiques in Aix-en-Provence, as well as a certificate in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University.  She is also the published author of a series of children’s books.