The Board of Fairtrade International

Molly Harriss Olson is a Director of Eco Futures, an Australian-based international policy firm working on building sustainable strategies with business, government and civic leaders; and is an internationally recognised leader on sustainability. Ms Olson is co-founder of Earthmark; and the Founder of the National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development. She also serves on the Boards of the Green Building Council of Australia, and is Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board of Ecos Magazine.

Ms Olson worked in the White House as the Founding Executive Director of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. Between 1995-97, she was President and CEO of The Natural Step, a non-profit environmental education organisation working with business leaders. 

Dr. Esther Guluma is a senior manager and a development professional. She has an extensive knowledge of key issues and organisations in international development, with a record of research, policy advisory and public affairs work, and is also on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Fund for UNICEF.

Having served as the Regional Director for UNICEF in West and Central Africa and as the Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, she accumulated over 30 years of development experience and is familiar with child labour issues. Prior to that, Guluma was a Project Manager for the US Agency for International Development (AID). This, and her previous posts as UNICEF Representative to Benin, and UNICEF Deputy Representative to Liberia and to Kenya, contributed to her extensive experience in advocacy, in particular for child protection and gender.

In addition to her international development experience, Esther Guluma has expertise in research design and teaching at the university level and is currently lecturing at the Medical School for International Health in Israel, as well as in a number of other academic institutions. Esther Guluma has a PhD in Sociology.

John Kay is Chief Executive Officer of the United Community Services Cooperative and Chair of the Board of The Affordable Sustainable Habitats Foundation. Prior to joining the United Community Services Cooperative, he held senior positions in the private and public sectors. On the Fairtrade International Board, John represents Labelling Initiatives and chairs the Finance Committee. John is a Certified Management Accountant and holds an Executive MBA from the Segal Graduate School of Business at Simon Fraser University. John also Chairs the Board of Fairtrade Canada.

Noel Maxwell Oettlé was born and educated in Cape Town. He represents producer organizations in Africa and is also a Board member of the African Fairtrade Network. After farming fruit for 13 years, he began working in the fields of rural development and sustainable resources. 1989 he joined the University of KwaZulu Natal, and subsequently became the director of the Farmer Support Group, and agricultural development and extension institute of the university. 

Among other positions he took over the years, Oettlé contributed to a couple of United Nations Agreements and projects. During one of the UNCCD’s pilot projects, he provided support to a Fairtrade certified tea producer organisation. Since then, many other farmers relied on his help and knowledge. 

Fair Trade has been an important focus of his work since 2003, and he has been involved in the movement in different ways, from working with producers to participating in the governance of the fair trade system nationally and internationally. He was instrumental in establishing the Association for Fairness in Trade and the Southern African Fairtrade Network (now Fairtrade Africa Southern African Region) and remains convinced that fair trade can deliver important developmental benefits to disadvantaged communities.

Andrea Schlehuber represents Fairtrade registered traders. Schlehuber is the General Manager of EZA Fairer Handel GmbH, the largest Fair Trade company in Austria.