We’re guided by a team of leaders who are united under our mission to alleviate global poverty and promote sustainable development. Combined with the collective wisdom and constructive feedback of our Board of Directors and Advisory Council, these individuals enable us to deliver more impact to more communities around the world.
Paul Rice is the founder and visionary behind Fair Trade USA. Raised with a deep sense of compassion for the poor, Paul has spent 40 years fighting poverty and environmental destruction. The quintessential social entrepreneur, this passion led him to develop innovative models that harness the power of consumers and business to improve people’s lives and protect the planet. Today, Paul is regarded as a pioneer in the global Fair Trade and sustainability movements.
Paul launched Fair Trade USA (formerly known as TransFair USA) in late 1998 in a one-room warehouse in downtown Oakland, California. Under his leadership, Fair Trade USA became the leading certifier of Fair Trade products in the U.S. and one of the fastest growing segments of the food and beverage industries in North America. Today, the organization enjoys the support of over 1,700 major brands and retailers who sell everything from coffee and chocolate to apparel and seafood. On Paul’s watch, the organization and its partners generated over $1.2 billion in cumulative financial impact for over 1 million farmers, workers and their families in 70 countries worldwide.
Before founding Fair Trade USA, Paul worked with family farmers for 11 years in the remote highlands of Nicaragua, where he founded and led the country’s first Fair Trade organic coffee export cooperative, Prodecoop. This deep, firsthand experience with Fair Trade in the field was profound and transformative for him, ultimately inspiring him to return to the United States with the dream of mainstreaming the Fair Trade movement in this country. He is now a leading advocate of ethical sourcing as a core strategy for both poverty alleviation and sustainable business.
Paul has been named Ethical Corporation’s 2019 Business Leader of the Year and has been recognized four times as Social Capitalist of the Year by Fast Company magazine, which dubbed him a “rebel in the boardroom.” He is also a recipient of the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the World Economic Forum’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Ashoka Fellowship. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, Skoll World Forum, Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit, TEDx, Consumer Goods Forum, and numerous universities and conferences around the world. Paul is regarded as one of today’s leading visionaries and practitioners for sustainable sourcing and conscious capitalism.
“I think of myself as a lifelong social justice warrior,” Paul said. “My grandfather was a farmworker, and I’ve always felt connection and care for farming folk and their daily struggles. My personal mission is to help empower hardworking farmers and workers to improve their lives while protecting the environment where they live. I’m inspired by the realization that we as consumers have the power to transform business into a force for good in the world.”
You can learn more about Paul Rice at www.paulrice.org.
Robin Evitts has over 30 years’ experience solving costly business problems and managing risk – often innovative “firsts” – with emphasis on global organizations in consumer products, retail, social sector and K-12 education. Currently, she serves as a hands-on Board advisor for a multi-site senior living non-profit organization and a woman-owned consulting business.
Robin has a long history of advising and working with organizations on critical finance, corporate governance, and IT initiatives. As a partner at Deloitte, she led the enterprise risk management practice for retail/consumer goods companies, advising Boards and senior management on corporate governance matters including Board governance, internal controls and compliance efforts. Prior to that, she audited the financial statements of mid-market and Fortune 1000 companies. Additionally, Robin was a managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, where she consulted with companies on major transformation initiatives and financial management issues. Most recently, with Reach Partners, Robin served for 4 years, through the COVID pandemic, as the CFO for an alliance of 6 Bay Area senior living non-profit businesses, improving the organization’s financial performance, upgrading financial management processes, and securing multi-million dollar government funding to support operations.
In addition to her consulting roles, Robin served for 7 years as a corporate executive with The Clorox Company, first as the Chief Audit Executive and then as Chief Information Officer. She was responsible for driving the technology strategy for the company and delivered a major organizational transformation of IT services that improved service and efficiency, while reducing costs. She also provided strategic leadership to corporate governance and compliance programs, executed operational audits and investigations across the company, and led a finance transformation effort.
Robin holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from University of Illinois and is a licensed CPA (inactive).
In addition to her work with Fair Trade USA, Robin is currently actively involved with Girls Inc. of Alameda County (Oakland) on its Board Finance Committee. Robin has also held industry leadership roles with the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) Information Technology Committee and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA).
Larry Ruff has 40+ years experience working with major US and global brands, small, medium, and large for-profit corporations, social entrepreneurs, and a variety of nonprofits.
Larry is a passionate advocate for social justice, sustainable development, poverty alleviation, food system transformation and health and wellness. Larry is a mission-driven leader focused on building & supporting purpose-driven organizations, leveraging business as a platform for growth and good, and delivering meaningful social, environmental, and economic impact.
Larry joined the Fair Trade USA (FTUSA) Board in 2014. He has served as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee and as a member of the Board’s Executive Committee. Larry also served as FTUSA’s President & Chief Operating Officer from April 2020 – November 2023. Larry is currently a member of the Board’s Finance Committee.
Larry served as CEO, President and Board Director for the US Healthful Food Council (EatREAL.org)—a social enterprise focused on fueling food system transformation by promoting food and beverage options that are good for people and the planet. Larry has also worked as a Strategic Advisor for several Silicon Valley-based technology startups, entrepreneurs, and major brands.
Larry worked for Levi Strauss & Company for over 25 years holding a variety of leadership positions in marketing, global brand management, business development and general management in the U.S., Europe and globally. During his time with Levi’s, Larry served as the company’s Global Marketing and Chief Strategy Officer.
Earlier in his career, Larry held a number of positions in brand management with The Procter & Gamble Company.
Larry served as a member of Cornell University’s Leadership Council on Combating Racism & Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging from September 2020 – December 2023. Larry is currently a member of the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation’s Board of Advisors.
Larry received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Rutgers University and a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Larry is also a graduate of Columbia University’s Digital Marketing Strategy Program.
Larry lives in San Francisco and Kenwood, CA with his husband, Greg and their dog Zoe.
Liz Berman has spent 20 years in Marketing and Strategy roles, through which she has focused on unlocking the potential of people, data, and technology to elevate consumer experiences. She is Founder of LKB Consulting, where she advises retail, CPG and ecommerce companies from startups to F50 corporations on customer loyalty and retention, customer experience, digital experience, customer analytics, marketing strategy, and customer growth strategy. She particularly enjoys working with high-grown, mission-driven and sustainably-minded food and beverage brands.
Previously, Liz served as VP Retail Marketing at Peet’s Coffee, where she led marketing, digital engagement, merchandising, and food & beverage innovation for Peet’s coffeeshops and launched the successful Peetnik Rewards loyalty program. She also served as VP Marketing at Safeway, where she led the complex post-merger integration for the combined $10B Own Brands portfolio after the Safeway/Albertsons merger, introducing consumer-loved brands such as O Organics (including its entirely Fair Trade Certified™ coffee lineup) into 1,000+ new Albertsons storefronts. Liz has also served in Marketing and Shopper Insights roles at PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats division and was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman.
In her community work, Liz serves on the Boards of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and J. The Jewish News of California. As a passionate educator and mentor, Liz developed and teaches a highly-rated course at Stanford Continuing Studies called “Create Customers for Life: How to Understand, Measure and Drive Loyalty.”
Liz has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics, summa cum laude, from Yale University. She lives in Marin County, CA, where she enjoys hiking, reading, and traveling with her husband and dog.
Sean Foote has been a venture capitalist since 1998, currently as co-founder of Transform Capital and Managing Director of early stage firm Co=Creation=Capital. His prior firm, Labrador Ventures, invested in more than 100 companies across 5 funds, including Hotmail, Pandora, and RocketFuel. He is also the CEO of startup fintech company Fifty Five Financial.
Before venture investing, Sean was a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group, working in a wide range of industries such as telecom, computers, healthcare, banking, and automotive on topics ranging from strategic alliances to internet strategies. Sean also worked as a systems engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories, developing artificial intelligence systems for testing the most complicated telecommunications networks.
For over 20 years, Sean has been on the professional faculty at the University of California’s Haas School of Business, teaching venture capital and private equity. He has taught a course in impact investing at Stanford University and at Haas, with a real time simulcast to 100 business school campuses around the country. He has written and published cases on venture capital and microfinance.
Philanthropically interested in economic solutions to social problems, Sean is the co-founder of Toniic and Village Capital, focused on impact investing. He is on the boards of Accion and Fair Trade USA. He has been on the US National Amateur Triathlon Team and is a singer songwriter. You can check out and subscribe to his blog here.
Sean received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri Rolla (1988), and his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business (1993), where he won the Shermett Award granted to the top 3% of students.
Natasha Chand has over 25 years of business and technology experience building and leading consumer brands, globally. Her proven track record of full P&L ownership includes transforming businesses across all life-stages: co-founding and scaling a direct-to-consumer business to over $1B in less than 5 years; accelerating the growth of an already multi-billion-dollar business; turning-around iconic brands. She brings deep global know-how, having worked in 6 and lived in 4 continents. She is known for her innovative strategic thinking, operational and financial rigor, invention on behalf of customers, and digital and tech-enabled mindset.
Natasha was most recently the Co-Founder and Global CEO of Amazon’s Softlines Private Brands. She personally conceptualized, built and scaled 3 of the top 10 Fashion brands in Amazon’s stores. She built the business from the ground up, hiring 200+ team members across 6 global offices, and developing all core processes and enabling technology across Design, Fit, Marketing, Sourcing, Quality, Supply Chain, Forecasting, Pricing and Business Management. Impatient with slow-to-scale approaches to digital marketing, Natasha pioneered a science and tech-based approach to digital marketing and merchandising on- and off-Amazon, delivering best-in-class performance revenue contribution and efficiency. A strong advocate for the customer throughout her career, Natasha has consistently worked to reshape industry standards, including collaborating on the creation of the HIGG seal, a new certification for products using sustainable materials available to the entire textile industry.
Prior to building Amazon’s Softlines Private Label business, Natasha was the General Manager of Amazon’s Sports business, which she doubled in scale in 2 years through a disciplined focus operational excellence, despite being a well established, multi-billion dollar business when she assumed leadership of it. Prior to Amazon, Natasha led Target Australia’s Menswear business, held multiple positions at Levi Strauss & Co., and worked as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. She has lived in North America, Australia, Africa and Asia through her professional career, and worked extensively in both developing and developed markets.
Natasha holds a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University, where she was named an Arjay Miller scholar for her academic achievement and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario, where she was recognized as the Gold Medalist for delivering the strongest academic results in her graduating class. Natasha lives in Seattle, where she is often out of cell-phone range, hiking trails in the Pacific Northwest.
Janet Nezhad Band has more than two decades of leadership experience in philanthropy and development with particular expertise in strategy, volunteer team building, donor engagement, solicitation, and stewardship. Janet is the Chair of Fair Trade USA’s Resource Development Committee and serves on its Executive and Governance Committees. She is a Member of the Harvard College Fund Executive Committee and a Board Member of the Harvard Club of New York Foundation. Janet also serves on the Advisory Council of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
Janet clerked for the Honorable William C. Conner in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York prior to joining the litigation practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She left Paul, Weiss to join MTV Networks as lead counsel for Nickelodeon’s off-channel businesses and the “Nick Jr.” programming block.
Janet received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and an A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard College. In 1984, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Egypt.
Nishant is driven by a passion for business growth tied to environmental and social impact, with 15+ years leading a range of high-impact executive functions including growth and business development, strategic partnerships, business operations and G2M, technology transformation and innovation, and social/environmental impact within fast-paced startups, consulting, non-profits and Fortune 100.
Most recently, he served as Vice President, Business Development and Partnerships at Salesforce, where he led market expansion, new product and business growth, and global partnerships. He also built and drove Salesforce’s investment in food security, racial justice, and climate action in partnership with a number of nonprofits. His additional leadership and growth roles are sprinkled across fast-growing tech, consulting (former Deloitte consultant, and Director for impact consulting @ Schaffer&Combs), and entrepreneurship (3 startups, climate change tech, healthcare tech, and front-end innovation).
Nishant also danced in academia, with PhD research in socio-economic anthropology from University of California-Berkeley and UCSF, focused on social entrepreneurship and socially good capitalism. His Masters is from the London School of Economics.
In addition to his excitement in joining the Board of Directors to guide the next stage of growth for Fair Trade USA, he’s deeply obsessed with his family and his growing (toddler) daughter.
Ronnie Robinson is the Founder and President of Kaleidoscope Solutions, LLC, an innovative strategic consultancy group supporting the founders and leaders of emerging food and beverage brands and products.
Previously, Ronnie worked with Walmart Inc as VP of Merchandising, responsible for various food and beverage and general merchandise product categories spanning a 29-year career. In addition to various merchandise leadership roles, Ronnie was the VP of Fresh Food operations covering the US market. During his time with Walmart, he also held various international roles such as Regional Director to Brazil, China, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and he served on two separate expatriate tours to Canada over a four-year period. At Walmart, Ronnie successfully led many innovation, sourcing, and sustainability initiatives, and during his tenure was awarded the prestigious Sam M. Walton Award.
Ronnie holds several board seats with private emerging food and beverage companies and also sits on the Board of First Christian Church of Fayetteville as the Stewardship Chair. In addition to board seats, Ronnie acts as a strategic advisor to several private food companies and tech firms, where his passion for food, innovation, technology, and people all merge together.
Ronnie is also a Strategic Advisor with several tech companies, including Rock Solid Retail and One Stone.
Ronnie has a deep and rich passion for social justice, responsible sourcing, sustainability, and conscious capitalism. He is a Bentonville, Arkansas area resident, living with his wife Candy, and is a proud father of two children, Brooklyn and Grey.
Robert Stiller, long time entrepreneur and Fair Trade enthusiast, brings with him over 40 years of business, fundraising, and coffee industry experience to the Fair Trade USA Board of Directors. After making his first fortune as the Co-founder of E-Z Wider doublewide rolling papers, Robert entered the coffee business by founding Green Mountain Coffee Roaster (GMCR) in Vermont in 1981, taking it public in 1993. He served as its Chairman, President, and CEO from 1981-2007, when he hired his successor and remained Chairman until 2012. He later retired and was made Chairman Emeritus.
Over the years, Robert Stiller led a number of key initiatives with a very inclusive, innovative culture that helped propel the growth of GMCR. For example, he spearheaded investment in Keurig in 1998, and purchased it outright in 2006 to transform the company from a regionally recognized specialty coffee roaster to a leader in the emerging single-serve beverage category in North America. GMCR became Keurig Green Mountain in 2014.
Under his leadership, the company also received numerous international accolades for its environmentally and socially responsible business practices. Since 2010, Fair Trade USA has recognized GMCR as the world’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee. It was one of the first national brands to bring Fair Trade coffee to mainstream U.S. consumers in 2000. It also donates 5% of its operating income on charitable causes, and offsets 100% of its direct greenhouse gas emissions. Today Robert serves on the Board of the Norton Museum and is Chairman of the Board of AgNovos, a medical device company. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Forbes in 2001 and helped establish the Stiller School of Business at Champlain College to include many of the management techniques that made GMCR so successful.
Liesel Pritzker Simmons is Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative, an innovative family office that invests for profit and with purpose. An early leader in the impact investing space, BHI manages an international portfolio of diversified investments in traditional asset classes, groundbreaking impact business models, and nonprofit organizations. It applies a rigorous portfolio-management lens to its investments with the goal of generating measurable financial returns as well as societal and environmental benefits.
Liesel is also Co-Founder of IDP Foundation, a private Chicago-based foundation focused on achieving universal primary education. There, she helped create the IDP Rising Schools Program, which leverages microfinance networks to empower nearly 450 low-cost private schools — established and managed by local entrepreneurs — in some of the least-developed regions of the world.
Liesel is a sought-after speaker on the topic of impact investing. She serves on for-profit and nonprofit boards and investment committees of organizations including Impact Assets, Synergos, Toniic, Eco-Post, and the ImPact, a network of families committed to the conscientious stewardship of wealth. Liesel attended Columbia University in New York City, where she studied African History. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, Ian Simmons, and their daughter.
Carlos Vargas Leitón was born into a peasant family in the northern mountains of Costa Rica. Being one of 12 children, he grew up with the experience of struggling to meet basic needs. Despite their hardships, Carlos’s family always prioritized schooling and professional development.
Carlos has been involved in coffee cooperatives in Costa Rica for over 40 years, with major focuses on the strategy, finance, and marketing of coffee. Carlos holds two bachelor’s degrees in International Commerce and Finance from the UIA of San José, Costa Rica, as well as a master’s degree in Management from the Universidad Inter América (now Universidad Latina). He has completed specialized courses in the areas of Senior Management, Management with Leadership, Management and Finance, and Consulting at the INCAE Business School.
From 2000-2001, Carlos was part of a team of three people who spearheaded the process to reform the National Coffee Law in Costa Rica. He also was part of the group that worked to make the resources of the Banking Development System reach small producers and placed Coopetarrazú as one of the main operators of the system.
Since 2004, Carlos has been a member of the CoopeTarrazú Management Team and has been General Manager since 2017. This cooperative currently processes 15% of Costa Rica’s production, with over 4,500 small affiliated producers. The cooperative is one of the main suppliers of Fair Trade Certified coffee.
Carlos previously served as a Fair Trade USA Member of the Board of Directors from 2003 to 2013, then moved to its Advisory Council. He was elected to re-join the Board in October 2019.
Ricardo is Chief Commercial Officer and third-generation co-owner of Wholesum, family owned and operated farms that grow and market certified organic produce in the US and Mexico. Motivated by a sincere belief in stewardship, Ricardo’s efforts have positioned Wholesum as a pioneer in organic growing methods, ethical farming, and responsible sourcing.
Ricardo spearheads Wholesum’s Sales and Marketing efforts through deep industry knowledge and vision. His triple bottom line approach addresses Wholesum’s responsibility to the people who grow and buy its produce, the one planet we all share, and the profits that enable the continued growth of the company. These commitments are exemplified not only by Wholesum’s organic growing methods, which eliminate synthetic chemicals to grow vegetables that are safe for both farmworkers and consumers, but also through equitable labor practices and environmental protection. Wholesum first began certifying its operations in Mexico under fair trade in 2011 and in 2016 became the first Fair Trade Certified vegetable farm in the United States. In Ricardo’s tenure there, Wholesum has also become a leader in environmental sustainability by making investments in solar energy, irrigation efficiency projects, and promoting biodiversity at the farms.
As company leader and fair trade ambassador, Ricardo has worked to create a market for fair trade produce by educating retailers and connecting consumers with farmworkers through authentic storytelling. He has also propelled the fair trade movement by partnering with growers of the same vision and social and environmental commitments.
To serve his local community, Ricardo serves as a board member of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, an organization that fosters trade between the US and Mexico. He is also a volunteer at the Kino Border Initiative helping migrants in the Sonoran Desert by feeding and clothing those in need.
Ricardo holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He resides in Nogales, Arizona with his family.
