Team

Prof. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly teaches at Geneva University’s School of Economics and Management and directs the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights. Since 2013, she has also served as the Research Director at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University. In these roles, Dorothée works with companies to advance human rights in corporate practice. Her applied research is focused on embedding human rights in organizations and developing business models that enable profits and human rights principles to coexist. Dorothée also teaches Business and Human Rights and she co-edited the first textbook on Business and Human Rights (Routledge 2016). In 2016, she co-founded the Global Business School Network for Human Rights to integrate human rights in business education as well as the Business and Human Rights Young Researchers Summit for emerging scholars. Dorothée earned her PhD in Economics (summa cum laude) at the University of Zurich in 2010 while working for the Fair Labor Association, a multi-stakeholder initiative with the mission to improve labor rights in global supply chains.
Please also refer to Dorothée’s UniGE webpage and her list of publications.

Rim Bitar is a Ph.D candidate and a teaching assistant at the Geneva School of Economics and Management. Her field of interest is business and human rights, especially in complex environments. Before joining the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights, Rim has had assisting experience in other research centers, including at the Institut de Recherche et d’Action contre la Fraude et le Plagiat Academique (IRAFPA) and Observatoire des Valeurs de la Stratégie et du Management (OVSM). She joined the GCBHR in September 2020. Rim is a graduate of the University of Geneva with a Bachelor’s degree in Management and a Master’s degree in Management and Marketing.

Pascale Chavaz is a research associate at the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights. She supports Prof. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly and her team in all aspects of the Center’s activities from research and communication to teaching and administration. Before joining the GCBHR, she had mostly worked in the academic world and civil society in the field of ethics, socially responsible investing, and philosophy. She co-authored a book on Sovereign Wealth Funds and their regulation (Globethics, 2016). Pascale also works as a freelance certified coach and neuro-linguistic programming master practitioner. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Linguistics from the University of Geneva, and a Master’s degree in Applied Ethics from Sherbrooke University.

Serra Cremer Iyi is a consultant at the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights. Trained as a corporate lawyer with a background in M&A and project finance, Serra brings her experience representing businesses and advising senior management to the interdisciplinary field of business and human rights. Prior to her position at GCBHR, she worked as an adjunct professor of U.S. law, a local counsel for the International Refugee Assistance Project, and a managing director at Executive English Coaching. Serra continues to work as a global communication coach to executives at multinational corporations. She is a member of the New York Bar Association and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Fordham University School of Law and a double major Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from New York University.

Emmanuel Josserand is a Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva and Professor at the Business Science Institute, Luxembourg. He is passionate about social innovation and has led a series of projects on human rights and labor standards in national and global supply chains. One example is a project he recently concluded in collaboration with a global asset management company in which he helped define the labor and human rights strategy and structure in the organisation. He also serves as a lead CI at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and focuses on the improvement of labor and human rights conditions in the cotton supply chain. His prior work includes contributions to the Cleaning Accountability Framework, a multi-stakeholder initiative aiming at eliminating labor abuses in the Australian cleaning supply chain. Emmanuel was formerly founder and Director of the Centre for Business and Social Innovation and co-Director of the Centre for Management and Organisation Studies at UTS. Before joining UTS, he was a Professor at the University of Geneva and an Associate Professor at Paris-Dauphine University. He has a strong international publication track record with more than 100 publications, including books and peer reviewed journals. He also has extensive experience in consulting as an independent advisor and partner to several consulting firms in Paris and Geneva.

Dr. Berit Knaak is a postdoctoral researcher at the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights. She completed her Ph.D. in Management with a focus on integrating business and human rights at the University of St.Gallen in 2020. Her research evolves around business perspectives on human rights and approaches to facilitate corporate engagement with human rights issues. In her work, Berit focuses on resilience and ethical supply chains, companies’ impact in their ecosystems, and on children’s rights, among others in a collaboration with UNICEF. Berit builds on a dual background in economics and in human rights law, holding a Master of International Business from Maastricht University and an LLM degree in International Human Rights Law from the National University of Ireland. During her time as doctoral researcher, she served as a fellow for the Business and Human Rights Journal.

Molly Penet is an intern at the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights. She supports the team in research. Her field of interest is business and human rights related to firm responsibility and embedding sustainability in mainstream practices. She completed a Bachelor in Management and is currently studying for a Master in Strategic and International Management at the GSEM.