Board Members

TransFair USA is guided in its mission to promote equitable trade among farmers, industry, and consumers by our Board of Directors. With experience in international development, green marketing, and environmental stewardship, TransFair's Board of Directors advises our senior management team to ensure that Fair Trade remains a forward-thinking business model for sustainable trade.

Michael E. Conroy
Chairman of the Board

Tom Bullock
Chairman Emeritus

Susan Clare

Paul Hodge

Rick Larson

Pedro F. Mata

Katy Murray

Ellen Peck

Paul Rice, Ex officio
President and CEO, TransFair USA

Frank Tsai

Carlos Alberto Vargas Leitón

Advisory Council members

Michael Shimkin, Founder, The Shimkin Foundation
Kenneth J. Beeby, Attorney (Consultant) Retired Vice-President General Council of Ocean Spray Cranberries
Andrew J. Ferren, Esq., Partner, Goulston & Storrs
Barbara Fiorito, Board Chair Oxfam America Advocacy Fund, 2005- ; former Board Chair of FLO International 2005-8
Debra Gerstel, Marketing and Business Development Consultant
Norissa Giangola, Director of New Business Partnerships for H*Works
John Hannan, CFO of Riverkeeper
John Henry, Senior Vice-president Grower Relations and CFO of Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.
Tim Horan, former Vice-president of Human Resources Latin America, Gillette Company
Stephen Land, Esq., Partner, Linklaters LLP
Joshua Mailman, Sirius Business Corporation
Todd Plate, Attorney and Counselor for Ruiz & Sperow, LLP
Catalina Ruiz-Healy, Philanthropic Advisor, New Progressive Coalition
Kim Samuel-Johnson, Director of The Samuel Group of Companies
George Scharffenberger, Executive Director, Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies

Former board members

Miguel Altieri, Ph.D., Professor/Author
Maureen Fenlon, OP, Social Investment Specialist
Paul Hawken, Founder of Smith and Hawken, environmentalist, best-selling author and entrepreneur
Kristen Grimm, founder and president of Spitfire Strategies
Douglass T. Lind is Founder and Managing Partner of The Sigma Group of America.
Susan Marx, Owner of S.T. Marx and Associates, Management Consultants

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Michael E. Conroy, Ph. D.
Michael Conroy is a co-founder of Colibrí Consulting – Certification for Sustainable Development, based in Austin, Texas and Oaxaca, Mexico. He recently retired from his position as Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His research has long focused on new analyses of promoting corporate social and environmental accountability through the development of certification systems, such as Fair Trade, as well as links between current forms of globalization and poverty alleviation.

Michael was a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation from 1994 to 2003; during the first four years he worked in their office for Mexico and Central America; during the last five years he worked in their New York headquarters, all in the field of social and environmental development. He then worked for three years for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as program director for Democratic Practice – Global Governance.

Michael received his B.A. with Honors in Economics and Latin American Studies from Tulane University in 1968. He then went on to complete an M.S. in Economics (1971) and a Ph.D. in Economics (1972) at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Tom Bullock – Chairman Emeritus
Tom Bullock, the President and CEO of Ocean Spray Cranberries from 1997 until 2000, brings a unique background and set of skills to the task of corporate governance. He is an executive with years of packaged goods marketing experience, a well as an in-depth knowledge of the food and beverage industry. He has served on two corporate boards, the Avedis Zildjian Company (1992-1999), the world-leading maker of cymbals and drumsticks, and Mac-Gray Company, a New York Stock Exchange company (Present), which offers laundry, copier and other services, many using smart-card technology.

As the CEO of Ocean Spray, he introduced twenty new products and executed an overhaul of operations intended to improve customer satisfaction, speed-to-market and operations efficiencies with significant savings. Recognizing the healthy qualities of the cranberry, he initiated research into its medical benefits with Harvard Medical School. The research set industry standards and initial results proved the efficacy of the cranberry as a curative and preventative of urinary tract infections. The research continues on many other health and medical benefits of the cranberry, placing Ocean Spray as an industry-leading agriceutical company. Bullock directed the entire Ocean Spray Marketing and Sales effort from 1983 to 1994 through the period of tremendous growth and prosperity. During that time the company grew from $450 million to $1.4 billion.

Susan Clare
Ms. Susan Clare has been a business consultant and lender in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.  Most recently she was the Executive Director of a loan fund that provides technical assistance and financing for worker-owned businesses. In this capacity, she worked with many start-up or emerging businesses.  Previously she spent ten years as a lender to healthcare and higher education clients with Chemical Bank, and before that, four years as a consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton in their healthcare practice. She serves as Treasurer of the board of directors of the Oxfam America Advocacy Fund. Also in connection with Oxfam she is a member of an advisory board for an endowment for COICA, a coordinating body of indigenous peoples from ten countries of the Amazon rainforest.
 
She serves on the board of the ICA Group, a national not-for-profit organization that seeks to create and save jobs through the development and strengthening of employee-owned and community-based businesses. She also services on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship and national organization devoted to defending free speech.  She has an undergraduate degree in English from Barnard College and Master’s degrees in both business administration and public health from Columbia University.

Paul Hodge
Founding Chair of the Global Generations Policy Institute, Distinguished Visiting Fellow Emeritus at Oxford University and Founding Director of Harvard University's National Baby Boomer Readiness Initiative, Generations Policy Program and Generations Policy Journal, Paul is a recognized authority and expert adviser to leaders in private industry, government and non-profits on the policy challenges and solutions dealing with our country's aging citizens and baby boomers.

In recognition of his visionary work, Paul was nationally honored by being selected as the lead baby boomer expert in the White House Conference on Aging's 2006 "Final Report to the President and Congress" which is published every ten years; was recognized as an international Social Leader at the December, 2006 Inauguration of Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and serves with 2006 Nobel Peace Price Winner Muhammad Yunus on the board of directors of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Paul has earned a MPA (2000) with honors from Harvard University, a JD from Boston University's School of Law, a MBA from Columbia University Business School and an AB from Brown University.

Rick Larson
Rick Larson is Director of Sustainable Ventures at The Conservation Fund, a national land and water conservation organization with a dual mission of environmental protection and economic development. 

He previously served as Managing Director for SJF Ventures, a $45 M venture capital fund focused on the clean technology and business services sectors.  Prior to his role at SJF Ventures, he held positions with REAL Enterprises, where he was National Director of a nationwide entrepreneurship education program, and with the Cummins Engine Company, where he worked as a shop floor supervisor and controller in manufacturing.  Larson earned an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and a BA from Amherst College.  Larson enjoys traveling, tennis, snow skiing, tree house-grade carpentry and spending time with his family.

Pedro F. Mata

A graduate of Cornell University, where he obtained a BS and a Masters of Engineering, Pedro F. Mata is the founder and President of MGS (Mata Global Solutions), and is responsible for advising companies on strategic growth and joint venturing. Prior to founding MGS, Mr. Mata was the CEO of Grace Cocoa (now ADM Cocoa), where he built the world's largest and leading Ingredient Cocoa and Chocolate processing company with 11 factories around the world.

Mr. Mata is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Zamorano, an American Agricultural University for 900 Latin American Students from 22 countries with the campus in Central America. He has also served as Chairman of the Board for Zamorano and Clinical Communications, was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Alliance of Business, and currently serves as Chairman of Petra Foods (a Global Food Company based in Singapore). In addition, he is a Senior Advisor to Quad-C, a Private Equity Fund based in Charlottesville, VA.

A native of Ecuador, Mr. Mata was an advisor to the Government of Ecuador and has lived in Latin America, Asia and the US. He has also traveled extensively in Europe and around the world, and is a skilled public speaker.

Katy Murray
Ms. Murray brings nearly 15 years of combined accounting/financial and executive management experience to TransFair USA. She currently serves as Taleo's Chief Financial Officer and is responsible for Taleo's worldwide financial operations. Most recently, Ms. Murray served as CFO of EXL Services, Inc., a leading provider of value-added offshore business process outsourcing solutions. In this role, she was responsible for leading the company's global finance operations including accounting, financial planning and analysis, strategic planning, treasury, investor relations and compliance.

Prior to EXL, Ms. Murray served as executive vice president and CFO at i2 Technologies, a multinational supply chain management software company. Ms. Murray spent nearly eight years at i2 Technologies where she held various leadership positions within the finance and accounting organization. As CFO of i2, she was responsible for worldwide accounting, financial planning and analysis, financial and reporting systems, treasury, and SEC reporting, among a variety of other responsibilities. Prior to i2 Technologies, Ms. Murray worked for more than four years at Paymentech, the largest US based processor of internet transactions as a Director of Accounting. Ms. Murray holds a Bachelor and Master's degree in Accounting from LSU and she is a Certified Public Accountant.

Ellen Peck
Ellen Peck has 15 years' experience at Save the Children, where she now serves as Director of Development. She has spent several years working with start-up non-profits or first-time capital campaigns, involved in both hands-on fundraising with individuals, corporations and foundations, and strategic planning for agency growth and new initiative development. Ellen also works as advisor and producer to documentary film, music and other projects associated with social and environmental issues, including the film "Born into Brothels," which garnered the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2005, and its accompanying soundtrack CD of original compositions and recordings.

Paul Rice - Ex-Officio
Paul opened TransFair's first "national headquarters” — a one-room office in a converted warehouse in downtown Oakland — in late 1998. Paul came to Fair Trade by way of the mountainous Segovias region of Nicaragua, where he worked for 11 years as a rural development specialist. While in Nicaragua, Paul founded and led a highly successful organic coffee export cooperative called PRODECOOP, introducing him to the transformational power of Fair Trade. Subsequently, Paul served as strategy consultant and development advisor to 22 cooperative enterprises throughout Latin America and Asia, helping them become more competitive, democratic and self-reliant. His first-hand experience over the last 20 years in the development of cooperative coffee export ventures around the world is unparalleled in the U.S. coffee industry. Paul has become a leading advocate of market linkage and enterprise development as core strategies for farmer empowerment and sustainable development

Paul holds an Economics and Political Science degree from Yale University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. In 2000 he received the prestigious international Ashoka Fellowship (www.ashoka.org) for his pioneering work as a social entrepreneur in the Fair Trade movement. In 2001 Paul was recognized by the AVINA Foundation for his "leadership for change.” Paul was also honored by the Klaus Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (www.schwabfound.org) as one of the world's top 40 Social Entrepreneurs in 2002. Paul has authored several publications, including Sustainable Coffee at the Crossroads (Consumer Choice Council, 1999), which analyzes the market potential for sustainable coffee in the United States. More recently, Paul spoke on Fair Trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2004.

Frank Tsai
Mr. Tsai is a partner in FLG Partners, a premier CFO firm in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides CFO services to public and private companies and non-profit organizations. Frank has nearly thirty years of experience as either CEO or CFO of small and large companies. He is a co-founder and vice-chairman of Community Bank of the Bay, a community development bank in Oakland. He was the CEO of Working Assets Money Fund, at the time the largest socially responsible money market fund in the country with more than $240 million in assets. He served as president of the Social Investment Forum. He also started an HMO in Chicago that he took public in 1983.

Mr. Tsai has a MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and an MPH from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He also has training as a community organizer from the Industrial Areas Foundation.

Carlos Alberto Vargas Leitón
Carlos Vargas began his work with cooperatives in 1979 with CoopeSanta Elena R.L. in Monteverde where he was the general manager for 18 years. From 1997 to 2004 he worked as general manager of COOCAFE based in San Jose, Costa Rica. Carlos was responsible for the marketing and coffee sales of nine COOCAFE affiliated cooperatives. Aside from his management experience, he has supervised other developmental and financial projects with Tostadora de Café, and worked on evaluations of production and industrialized coffee. He received a Bachelor degree in Finances Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from the Universidad Interamericana in 2002, and is completing his Masters degree in General Management. His educational background includes studies of Cooperatives and Rural Development in Israel (1989), and Leadership Management in Cost Rica (1997). Actually he works as CFO of CoopeTarrazu R.L., one of the largest coffee cooperatives in Costa Rica.

Michael Shimkin
Michael Shimkin started his career in the book-publishing field, eventually becoming the Executive V.P. for Simon & Schuster, Inc. He left the firm in 1971 to found two book companies: one which he sold to Gulf & Western industries in 1978, while retaining the other until its sale in 1993. The latter business (a Spanish language book wholesaling, publishing and retailing firm) served the book needs of most of the schools and libraries in the US and was the leader in its field.

After leaving active management responsibilities in 1978, Mr. Shimkin served as President of the Board of a major agency in the South Bronx called Argus Community, which provided emergency shelter, group homes, a public school, drug counseling, and job training and placement for "at risk" adolescents. He then joined Oxfam America's Board and served as Vice Chairman and Executive Committee member. Following six years of Board service, he stayed on as an Advisor to the agency for five years in the area of resources and constituency development.

During the years of his association with Oxfam, Mr. Shimkin undertook many projects in Nicaragua and El Salvador, many of which were funded by his foundation, The Shimkin Foundation. His interests focused on microcredit, community organizing and development and education. In connection with his Nicaragua/El Salvador work, Mr. Shimkin has associated himself with dozens of organizations that work for social justice in Central America.