LRQA Leadership Series 2023
New York — Schedule

Schedule — Monday, October 23^rd, 2023

8:00 – 08:45 | Registration and continental breakfast / coffee / tea

8:45 – 09:15 | Welcome and overview of the day

• Andrew Savini, Regional Sales Leader, UK and Americas, LRQA

9:15 – 10:00 | 2023 Top trends in responsible sourcing

Listen to Ian Spaulding, CEO, LRQA, review the top trends in responsible sourcing and discuss his candid view on their implications on the ESG environment and how they are influencing your programs.

• Ian Spaulding, CEO, LRQA

10:00 – 10:40 | Supply chain due diligence regulations around the world

More stringent enforcement policies at the US border have changed the playing field in the sourcing community. Since last year, US Customs & Border Protection has detained at least $960 million in imported goods for suspected ties to forced labor. This volume and the unpredictability of detentions have forced many companies that are traditionally free from import scrutiny to reconsider their approach to supply chain management. Listen as the LRQA team breaks down due diligence regulations around the world – from the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – offering a dynamic perspective on what companies should do to respond. (in-room survey)

• Erin Lyon, Vice-President, Consulting Global, LRQA

• Shawn Harwood, Advisor, LRQA

• Peter Koski, Partner, Covington

10:40 – 11:00 | Coffee and networking break

11:00 – 11:45 | Reimagining your responsible sourcing program

Change can occur with small incremental adjustments each year or cathartic developments over a very short period. After Rana Plaza, industry mobilized and acted, building a whole new ecosystem to monitor and manage building, electrical and fire safety risk. Forced labor legislation presents a different but equally defining moment. In the absence of a detailed roadmap from CBP or clear definition of what the new standard of due diligence is, corporations regardless of industry, are being left to figure it out…and there are so many questions. Are we going to see the mutual recognition trend reversed? Will there be a new monitoring paradigm that increases the number of in-factory visits?
Join Mark and Suzanne as they review what they have seen through LRQA engagements over the past two years and what it may mean.

• Mark Jones, Chief Customer Officer, LRQA

• Suzanne van Huijgevoort, Associate Director, Advisory, LRQA

• Jessica Rivas, Director of Human Rights, McDonald’s

• Jill Turner Hurley, Head of Global Citizenship, Worker Well-being, Ralph Lauren Corporation

11:45 – 12:30 | Investors and lenders

New regulations and enforcement are changing the investor approach to evaluating their investments. This is happening quietly, but quickly. Investment playbooks with much more detailed analysis of supply chain risk are being developed. Both publicly traded and privately held companies will be forced to respond to an ever more knowledgeable group of investment professionals. Join LRQA in a discussion with investors and lenders to better understand this change.

• Jeff Berger, Senior Director, Consulting NAM, LRQA

• Jaren Dunning, Senior Legal Director Employment Law & Global Head of Human Rights, PepsiCo

• John Hoeppner, Head of US Stewardship and Sustainable Investments, LGIM America

12:30 – 1:30 | Networking luncheon – NYSE trading floor tour

1:30 – 2:15 | (US) Due diligence and monitoring

LRQA will facilitate a table-top exercise to discuss individual approaches being adopted in response to specific challenges in monitoring US companies and suppliers. Each table will help solve a critical piece of the puzzle and together the combined solutions will provide insight into overall program design.

Facilitators:

• Meghan Quinlan, Vice-President, Food and Agriculture, LRQA and Margot Sfeir, Senior Director, Client Services, LRQA

2:15 – 2:45 | Reporting: benchmark of what we’re seeing in the industry

Corporates are longing for an alignment of meaningful global sustainability disclosure standards. The recent pushback from major companies regarding the EU-Taxonomy bring the challenges to the point: divergent interpretations, non-comparability and questionable relevance for investors are recurring criticisms. Join LRQA’s Erin Lyon through an interactive tabletop exercise on where the gaps lay and how companies can best report on their program’s impact.

Internal reporting is what we would like to build this session around. To share a pre-event survey to cover existing reporting that clients are doing.

• Erin Lyon, Vice-President, Consulting Global, LRQA

2:45 – 3:30 | The role of worker voice in the new model

As NGO’s have done for years, regulators seem to placing a great deal of emphasis on worker voice as a critical element in supplier due diligence. Worker surveys have always been seen as an effective tool, but discretionary in nature. The trend appears to be suggesting that is needs to be more seriously integrated into the standard due diligence model. Sofia will share important developments in the industry and where this is taking us.

• Sofia Nazalya, Associate, Consulting NAM, LRQA

3:30 – 3:50 | Networking break

3:50 – 4:30 | Integrating carbon and climate into supply chain programs: navigating the challenges

Join LRQA’s distinguished panel of industry experts as they delve into the intricacies of integrating carbon and climate considerations within supply chain programs. Through insightful discussions, the panelists will provide valuable perspectives on the current state of climate disclosure and data gathering, exploring anticipated future trends and expectations of various stakeholders, including investors, regulators, and consumers. By examining the issues and opportunities associated with data collection, this panel aims to help with approaches for integrating carbon and climate concerns into supply chain programs.

• Kevin Franklin, Managing Director, LRQA

• Jimena Klauer, Strategic Account Manager, Sustainability, North America, LRQA

• Kevin Franklin, Managing Director, LRQA

5:10 – 7:00 | Networking reception