Board

CLAUDE FONTHEIM

NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN & CO-FOUNDER

Claude Fontheim is the CEO of advisory firm Fontheim International, LLC, and Chairman of civil society organizations GlobalWorks Foundation and GoodWeave International. He has decades of experience advising global companies, civil society organizations and government officials regarding ESG and global public policy.

Mr. Fontheim was among the first practitioners in the fields of corporate social responsibility and related governance issues. He has also long advised global businesses, civil society organizations, government officials, and Presidential and congressional campaigns regarding international trade, global development and foreign policy matters.

Mr. Fontheim’s extensive nonprofit activities include service on the following boards of directors:

  • GlobalWorks Foundation provides capacity building, training and analysis regarding labor and human rights, and sustainable development. It is best known for developing and supporting Co-Governance programs that protect human rights in global supply chains: Chairman & Co-Founder

  • GoodWeave International is among the world’s leading civil society organizations working to eliminate child, forced and bonded labor from global supply chains: Chairman

  • Center for International Private Enterprise is a core institution of the National Endowment for Democracy: Executive Committee, Board of Directors and Chairman, Strategic Partnerships Committee

  • NewDEAL Forum supports outstanding pro-growth progressive state and local elected officials through education and professional development programs; Mr. Fontheim was a founding board member of NewDEAL (a c4 organization) and now serves on the board of directors of its counterpart 501c3 organization.

Mr. Fontheim is a Co-Founder and Senior Advisor to the American Leadership Initiative, which is co-creating a 21st Century agenda for American global leadership with thought leaders from civil society, politics, government, academia and business.

He also serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Michigan – Michigan in Washington Program where he and his family have funded an annual scholarship for students unable to afford participation.

During his career, Mr. Fontheim has led many global ESG and public policy initiatives. A few examples include:

  • Developed and advised on sustainable and responsible supply chain programs over the past 30 years

  • Worked with members of Congress, businesses and civil society organizations to develop and successfully advocate for the Africa Growth & Opportunity Act, and then worked with global businesses investing in sub-Saharan Africa

  • Developed and participated in implementing many corporate labor and human rights codes of conduct and programs to protect these rights over the past 30 years

  • Created and managed high level track II dialogue programs between the United States and China concerning a wide range of policy issues

  • Developed and continue to participate in all aspects of a corporate – labor federation partnership in Honduras that has protected the welfare of workers and enabled the ongoing success of the business

  • Mediated the resolution of a crisis involving ongoing gender-based violence (GBV) in a major manufacturing complex to create a first of its kind anti-GBV program involving 3 major apparel brands, an apparel manufacturer, local worker representatives and women’s NGOs

  • Developed and participated in implementing corporate risk management programs for supply chains and other ESG challenges

Mr. Fontheim served previously on the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations, as well as the advisory committees on Africa for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and on international economic policy for the State Department. He was also a partner in a global law firm.

Mr. Fontheim received his J.D., M.P.P., and B.A. from the University of Michigan where he graduated with High Honors, High Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, and was Managing Editor of Michigan’s international law publication.

D. HOLLY HAMMONDS

CO-FOUNDER & BOARD MEMBER

D. Holly Hammonds is a Co-founder and Board member of GlobalWorks Foundation, an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Senior Advisor of Fontheim International, LLC.

Ms. Hammonds has extensive experience, as a government official and as an adviser to businesses and nonprofit organizations, in the areas of global trade, labor and human rights, gender equity and inclusive development.  She has worked in many capacities on opportunities and challenges at the intersection of these issues, across a range of sectors worldwide, including textiles and apparel, communications and technology, financial services, and food and agriculture.

Ms. Hammonds has served on the senior staff of the White House National Security and National Economic Councils, as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Economic Affairs, as a presidential appointee to the Board of Conciliators of the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, as a trade negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, as a partner and managing director of Fontheim International LLC, and as an attorney in private practice.

Ms. Hammonds has degrees from Yale Law School (JD) and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (MPA). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has held fellowships with the Council on Foreign Relations, World Resources Institute, and Progressive Policy Institute.

JOE PELZMAN

BOARD MEMBER

Joe Pelzman is Professor of Economics, International Affairs and Law at George Washington University. Professor Pelzman received his B.A. in economics from Boston College and began his MA in Soviet Studies at Harvard University. His Ph.D. in Economics was completed at Boston College in 1976. Professor Pelzman also has a JD from George Washington Law School, which he completed in 1998. He is admitted to practice in the State of Maryland.

Prior to his work at George Washington University, Professor Pelzman worked as a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow and as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of South Carolina.

Professor Pelzman has held appointments at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel) as Fulbright Senior Scholar (1995-96); Visiting Professor of Law and Economics at Catholic University Law School (2001-05); Visiting Professor of Law at the Radzyner School Of Law, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel (2001); Research Associate, The Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel (1988-97); Visiting Scholar and Fellow, The Russian Research Center, Harvard University (1991-92); and Visiting Professor of Economics and Lady Davis Fellow, Department of Economics and Soviet and East European Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1984-85).

Professor Pelzman has published articles in, among others, the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, European Economic Review, and Southern Economic Journal.

JIM WALLACK

BOARD MEMBER

Jim Wallack is the Director at Goulston & Storrs. Jim heads up the firm’s bankruptcy and restructuring group, with extensive experience in complex Chapter 11 reorganizations, workouts and transactions involving distressed assets.  A primary focus of his practice is representation of private equity firms and their underperforming portfolio companies.  Jim is also known nationally for his industry expertise involving the acquisition and disposition of troubled real estate assets and retail and consumer products companies.  Recognized by Chambers USA as “brilliant and tenacious” and “one of the best lawyers in the area…A practical lawyer with a great deal of experience and wisdom who is highly respected in Court,” Mr. Wallack represents debtors-in-possession, secured lenders, unsecured creditors’ committees, investors and bankruptcy fiduciaries in bankruptcy proceedings in New England, New York and throughout the U.S.


SAM FRIED

ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR

Throughout his career, Sam Fried has served as a deeply trusted counselor to founders, boards of directors, CEOs, and other senior leaders of fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and innovative organizations. His corporate experience covers multiple industries and the full range of public and private enterprise — from start-ups, IPOs, spin-offs, carve-outs, and workouts to mature businesses with dominant market share. He has a long record of creative contributions to the successful resolution of the most complex and sophisticated corporate challenges.

• From June 2022 to the present, Mr. Fried has served as Chair of the GlobalWorks Foundation Advisory Board. GlobalWorks provides thought leadership and educational programming for civil society organizations, businesses, and government officials regarding global business and human rights, gender-based violence and gender equity, and sustainable and inclusive development.

• From August through December 2021, Mr. Fried served as counselor to the Board of Directors of Bath & Body Works. From May 2020 through July 2021, Mr. Fried served as Secretary and Counsel to the Board of Directors of Bath & Body Works.

• From November 1991 through May 2020, Mr. Fried was the Board Secretary and the Chief Legal, Governance, and Compliance Officer of L Brands and its predecessors, having also served in such capacities for its existing and spun-off retail brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Brylane, C.O. Bigelow, Express, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Justice, Lane Bryant, Lerner New York, Limited Stores, Penhaligon’s, Pink, Victoria's Secret, and White Barn Candle Company. The company also created, incubated, and took public Alliance Data Systems, a leading credit card processor.

• From 1987 to 1991, Mr. Fried was Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Board Secretary of Exide Technologies, the world’s oldest and largest manufacturer and distributor of automotive and industrial batteries (founded by Thomas Edison).

• From 1982 to 1987, Mr. Fried was Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Treasurer of Clevite Industries, a multinational company engaged in the manufacture and distribution of component parts for the transportation and general industrial markets.

• From 1977 through 1981, Mr. Fried held senior legal and international finance positions with Bendix, a multinational company serving the aerospace-electronics, automotive, forest products, and machine tool industries.

• Mr. Fried began his legal and business career in 1974 with a Boston law firm, since merged into K&L Gates, where he specialized in counseling private equity clients.

Mr. Fried received his A.B. (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Washington University in St. Louis and his J.D. (with honors) and Master of Laws (LL.M. Taxation) from Boston University School of Law. In addition, Mr. Fried is ordained as a rabbi by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Mr. Fried has been a leader and an innovator in numerous civic, religious, educational, and philanthropic organizations. He is also active in Democratic politics and policy at the federal, state, and local levels. President Clinton publicly acknowledged Mr. Fried as the source of his administration’s major policy initiative to “put a human face on the global economy.”

Mr. Fried and his wife Gigi have five children and nine grandchildren and reside in Delray Beach, Florida.