Elizabeth Umlas

Elizabeth Umlas is a senior fellow at Croatan Institute. A political scientist by training, she is an independent researcher and consultant with over 20 years of experience in the field of business and human rights.  Liz’s projects are international in scope and her clients have included UN organizations, international NGOs and academic institutions in Europe. She is currently senior advisor on capital stewardship to a global union federation in Switzerland. In her work with global unions, she has spearheaded investor engagement as a key leverage point in changing corporate behavior in relation to workers’ fundamental rights. Liz is a dual national (American and Swiss) and has been based in Switzerland since 2004.

In addition to working with Croatan Institute, Umlas teaches business and human rights at Oxford University and the University of Fribourg. From 2001 to 2007, she was senior research analyst for human rights at KLD Research & Analytics, a leading socially responsible investment (SRI) research firm in Boston. Her work there involved overseeing KLD’s human rights research. Prior to KLD, she was manager of policy research at Oxfam America and before that, a program officer and consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Her recent research examines the “B Corporation” (benefit corporation) and business and human rights movements, the scope for collaboration between the two and the implications for holding corporations accountable for their impacts on human rights. Liz is a member of the international advisory board of the NGO Media Matters for Women, a  co-founder of Sustainable Finance Geneva and a member of the Amnesty Business Group of Switzerland.