B Lab Global Board of Directors announces two new members
The B Lab Global Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Mahlet Getachew and Dr. Nyagoy Nyong’o as the newest members, effective November 2022.
As B Lab Global tackles the complex and critical challenges of evolving the standards and verification processes behind B Corp Certification, our network needs directors with expertise in standards and certification schemes. With their breadth of professional and lived experiences, Mahlet and Nyagoy will add essential capabilities to the Board in these critical aspects of our work.
“I’m thrilled that Mahlet and Nyagoy are joining the Board, especially at this exciting time as we’re evolving our standards, tools, and processes at B Lab,” said Debra Dunn, chair of B Lab Global Board and co-founder, FEED Collaborative at Stanford University. “Both Mahlet and Nyagoy bring deep expertise in systems change and understand the important role standards play in bringing about the transformation we seek. In addition, with Nyagoy joining us from Kenya, we’re closer to our board expansion goal of 50% of board members coming from outside of the United States.”
Mahlet Getachew is currently the Managing Director of Corporate Racial Equity & Legal at PolicyLink, the national research and action institute at the forefront of advancing racial and economic equity in America. She also has been a member of the B Lab Standards Advisory Council (SAC) since 2020. As a member of PolicyLink’s Leadership Team, Mahlet works to ignite the racial equity movement more broadly and deeply across corporate America, leading a portfolio of strategic initiatives, including co-founding the Corporate Racial Equity Alliance with FSG and JUST Capital and leading a multi-year effort to develop corporate performance standards on racial and economic equity. As a former corporate lawyer, she has extensive experience advising public and private corporations across various industries as external legal counsel and in-house counsel. Her prior corporate roles include serving as the General Counsel, Head of HR and Business Operations at a Silicon Valley healthcare technology company, as well as the Associate General Counsel & Assistant Secretary at a consumer electronics company previous to that. Mahlet started her career as a corporate attorney at an international law firm, where she represented large and small companies on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters in the software, internet, renewable energy, media, education, and semiconductor industries. Her commitment to advancing equity extends to serving on the Board of Aim High, a nonprofit advancing educational equity and access for Bay Area youth through summer enrichment programs. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Lewis & Clark College and received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Dr. Nyagoy Nyong’o, is currently an Independent Consultant in Sustainable Development. She is the immediate former Global CEO at Fairtrade International. Fairtrade International is the umbrella NGO that creates the internationally agreed Fairtrade Standards and coordinates Fairtrade worldwide. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of Fairtrade Africa and was with the organization for 17 years, having also been an auditor of the Fairtrade Standards for Max Havelaar, Switzerland and FLOCERT. Before Fairtrade Africa, Nyagoy was engaged in the humanitarian sector as the Certification Coordinator at HAP International in Geneva, certifying NGOs against the HAP Standard on quality management and accountability. She has worked in the development sector, animal conservation sector, forestry research, academic and governmental sectors. Nyagoy has worked within multicultural environments where, apart from short-term missions in many African countries, Asia and in Europe, she has also lived and worked in Ghana, Togo, Tanzania, Kenya, U.S. and Switzerland. She holds MSc and PhD degrees in Forest Genetics from Iowa State University and a BSc. in Forestry from the University of Nairobi. She is married and a mother of three.
Mahlet and Nyagoy’s terms begin November 2022 and will run through the end of 2025.