Amanda Gardiner leads social responsibility strategy at Verizon, working across the company to implement responsible business practices that drive digital inclusion, climate resilience, and stakeholder well-being. Previously, Gardiner led sustainability and social innovation at Pearson. She developed Pearson’s 2020 sustainability plan, founded a company-wide incubator to innovate for ‘Tomorrow’s Markets,’ and established a partnership with Save the Children supporting Syrian refugees. She
spent three years at UNDP leading the ‘Business Call to Action,’ advancing global development goals through business model innovation. She was previously program director at the International Business Leaders Forum in London, advising on CSR in emerging markets and heading the Voluntary Principles on Security & Human Rights secretariat. Gardiner chairs the Board of Children in Conflict and also serves on the Board of The Partnering Initiative.

Shankari Mylvaganam is the director of strategy and global partnerships at Unreasonable Group. A career strategist and deals professional, Mylvaganam is focused on how commercial solutions and enterprise can drive social innovation. She has substantial experience in M&A advisory, having worked with private equity and corporate clients, across the deal continuum, on IPOs, acquisitions and divestitures ranging from $50m to $20bn in size. Prior to this, she worked in strategy consulting advising the C-Suite at Fortune 200 and private companies, as well as leadership of federal governments and international institutions on growth, operations and organizational transformation. Mylvaganam also acts as a Private Sector Delegate to the United Nations on issues of Public Private Partnerships and private investment into the social sector.  She currently resides in New York but is a proud Australian with a global background, having lived in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Dr. Seth Garz manages the research and measurement portfolio for the Financial Services for the Poor strategy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, Seth was a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action, where he was the lead researcher for a large-scale randomized control trial in the Dominican Republic, evaluating innovations to the country’s G2P conditional cash transfer program. Garz has previously worked for Goldman Sachs and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and has conducted a variety of policy consulting work for organizations such as the World Bank Gender Innovation Lab and the City of San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment. He remains actively engaged in research at the intersection of G2P programs, financial inclusion, and gender. 

Kate develops BSR’s grant-funded initiatives, focusing on women’s empowerment, human rights, and supply chain issues. She works specifically with foundations and bilateral donors in the EMEA region. 

Before joining BSR, Kate led the development team at the International Federation for Human Rights, where she successfully built partnerships with a broad array of public and private donors and led significant growth in the organization’s resources. Previously, she held development roles within an INGO with programs aiming to improve access to quality education for all in countries across the globe, with a focus on corporate partnerships.

Kate holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a B.A. with Honors (first class) in International Relations from Victoria University of Wellington, specializing in the politics of development. She also holds a certificate in teaching English as a second language from Cambridge University.  She speaks fluent English and French.