Dr. Martin Kunz, Executive Secretary

Martin Kunz has focused on Fair Trade for over 40 years. As a university student, he co-founded a World Shop in his hometown, Ludwigsburg, Germany. His doctoral thesis on “World Shops“ has been the first dissertation world wide on Fair Trade. He was the first chairman of the board of the Fair Trade wholesaler GEPA, co-founder and first executive secretary of the international Fair Trade umbrella associations Transfair International and its successor FairTrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) International. When he is not working for the Fair Rubber Association, Martin Kunz sets up production chains for sustainable products for a number of companies and he is co-chair of the criteria committee of the ethical investment fund Oekovision. His latest activities involve honey from Asian bees (to help enhance agricultural yields of small farmers in India) – and the preservation of meadow fruit orchards in Swabia (southwest Germany): To him local things have always mattered, on a global scale. More about Martin Kunz here.

fon +44 (0)20 ‒ 89920175

fax +44 (0)843 ‒ 5240770

gf[at]fairrubber.org

Olaf Paulsen, Project Manager

For more than 20 years, Olaf has been connected to Fair Trade - it all started during his work in development cooperation when he was supporting producer groups and bringing them into contact with Fair Trade actors (traders). Back in Germany, he worked for TransFair International which then became FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organisations) where he worked until the end of 2004 as the head of Standards & Policies and member of the management team.

Since 2005 Olaf has been a freelance consultant but still mainly involved with Fair Trade matters from different perspectives, i. e. value chain analysis of the coffee sector in Jemen, developing a monitoring system for suppliers of German worldshops, and conducting audits for WFTO.

fon: +49 (0)6384 - 925372
fax: +49 (0)6384 - 925372
paulsen[at]fairrubber.org

Dr. David Löw Beer, Chairman

David Löw Beer has been chairman of the Fair Rubber Association since 2014. He has studied international economics and political science in Tuebingen, Germany, Burlington, US, and Niteroi, Brasil. He has written his dissertation on "economic education for a sustainable development". David Löw Beer works as a research associate at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany. His work focuses on sustainable investment, divestment, capital theory as well as political and economic education.

Duncan Jepson, Deputy chairperson

Duncan Jepson is the managing director of Liberty Shared and a lecturer at the Keller Centre, Princeton University. He established Liberty Shared in 2011 which has become a leading global anti-human trafficking and anti-modern slavery organisation working through legal advocacy, technological interventions, and strategic collaborations with NGOs, corporations, and financial institutions. Previously he was head of legal as BNY Mellon Investment Management APAC and before that was regional general counsel and head of compliance for ING Investment Management Asia Pacific for nearly a decade. Duncan started his legal career in corporate finance and prior to that ran a consultancy business working on supply chains from China to the UK. He is a novelist and filmmaker. 

Stefan Hörmann, Board Member

Stefan Hörmann has studied political science and administration. He is deputy executive secretary of the environmental foundation Global Nature Fund (GNF). He is in charge of the Bonn office of GNF and is project in charge for the programme ‘Companies and biodiversity’. His area of expertise is the support of companies in their attempts to establish and improve sustainable supply chains. He gathered international experience e.g. when he was project manager for the global network ‘Living Lakes’ as well as satellite offices in the Middle East and the Caribbean.