Abhishek has over 20 years of experience working with start-ups, social enterprises and multinationals in India and international markets. As the CEO of the Fairtrade India Project, Abhishek leads a team responsible for building a sustainable and ethical platform for consumers, institutions, businesses and farmer organizations in India. Prior to joining the Fairtrade India project, Abhishek headed Navdanya’s Organic and Fair Trade marketing division where he was mentored by Dr. Vandana Shiva for creating sustainable food and fashion systems. Abhishek began his career as a business advisory consultant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and subsequently has held leadership and advisory positions in marketing, food & beverage and technology ventures across the development and commercial sectors. Abhishek received his Bachelor’s in Economics from St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University); and completed his Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
With over 23 years of robust leadership experience in the fashion and lifestyle retail industry, Mr. Vivek Sandhwar is the Chief Operating Officer at Being Human Clothing — a purpose-driven apparel brand that combines fashion with social causes.
An alumnus of IIMC and NIFT, Mr. Vivek has held leadership roles across brands like Levi's, Flying Machine, U.S. Polo Assn., Converse, ColorPlus, Park Avenue, and Raymond. His areas of expertise include strategic business planning, market development, retail operations, product development, and customer relationship management.
He has successfully driven revenue growth, market share expansion, product portfolio diversification, and operational excellence across multiple functions and geographies. Recognized for innovation and high performance, he is a recipient of the Koshland Award and the Asia Pacific Excellence Award for his work at Levi's India.
Passionate about conscious consumption and value creation, Mr. Vivek is also an angel investor supporting emerging entrepreneurs.
Tobias Meier is an experienced sustainability and Fairtrade expert with over 25 years of leadership in ethical value chains, sustainable textiles, and international development. Currently serving as Global Product Manager Cotton/Textiles at Fairtrade International and Head of MaxTex Switzerland, he has previously held senior roles at ecos and Helvetas. Tobias played a pivotal role in developing sustainability platforms such as Sustainable Textiles Switzerland 2030 and led projects across Europe and West Africa promoting organic and Fairtrade cotton. His work has earned him industry recognition, including the Innovation Award from Textile Exchange. Tobias is a well-known voice in Switzerland’s Fairtrade movement, having served on multiple boards including Swiss Fairtrade and Max Havelaar. He brings intercultural fluency, deep sectoral knowledge, and a passion for sustainable development to all his endeavors.
Bindu Sukumarapillai brings over 20 years of experience as an accomplished agriculture professional and has made significant contributions to the agriculture, rural, and sustainable developmental sector. With a Master’s degree in Agricultural Science, she has dedicated her career to empowering farmer groups across Asia through grass-root capacity building and sustainable practices. Bindu’s expertise spans ethical certification, organizational development, organic agriculture, horticultural research, Resource Mobilisation, and project management. Her work reflects a deep passion for fostering sustainable farming practices and improving livelihoods in rural communities.
Since joining Fairtrade NAPP in 2018, she has played a transformative role in advancing funding initiatives, strengthening partnerships, and spearheading impactful advocacy efforts that have directly benefited producers and workers.
Mr. Pravakar hails from a very non descript town Titilagarh in Orissa. He is second generation family working in cotton sector .With a humble beginning his father initial started a cotton ginning factory in nineties. Later when the family business started dwindling he thought to support his father but quickly he realized that he has to leave his well paid MNC job and comfortable life in city to toil in the soil and work with the marginalized farmers.
Being an engineering graduate and having good exposure of technology not only helped him to turn around his family business fortune but he also brought drastic changes in his area by encouraging farmers to go for the native varieties of cotton and adopting Organic practices that led to better yield and quality of cotton fiber .It immensely helped the marginalized farmers in realizing better returns on their produce.
One of his dream is to enable farmers to become part of sustainable value chain by creating an ecosystem within the industry that works for the weakest link in supply chain.