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Sarah O’Brien is CEO of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC), a nonprofit organization that leads a global community of purchasers, suppliers, advocates and experts dedicated to driving positive environmental and social impact through the power of procurement. SPLC’s public sector and corporate members represent over $500B in annual purchasing power.

Ms O’Brien is a recognized expert on sustainable purchasing and more sustainable electronics. Just prior to joining SPLC she directed the multi-stakeholder Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN), where leading brands, NGOs, suppliers and chemical suppliers focused on elimination of worker exposure to toxic chemicals in electronics production. For more than a decade previously, Ms O’Brien led global stakeholder engagement with the EPEAT IT hardware sustainability rating tool (which she participated in developing through a US EPA-sponsored process) for the Green Electronics Council.

Earlier, Ms. O’Brien developed and led the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program of the nonprofit Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (now Practice Greenhealth), and served as a Senior Outreach Associate for INFORM’s PBT-free purchasing program, working with states across the US to reduce procurement of products containing mercury and other persistent toxics. Prior to entering the field of sustainable procurement, she worked as a state and regional legislative advocate and community organizer for the National Wildlife Federation and Vermont Public Interest Research Group, with a focus on toxics elimination, pesticide regulation, power plant pollution controls and other environmental health issues.

Ms O’Brien holds a BA from Yale University and an MA in anthropology from Temple University.

Schulte spent most of his professional career at Unilever. In his final role, he led the creation of the global Unilever procurement function.

Other roles include serving as head of the Personal Care supply chain for Europe; technical director for the Elida board; works manager of the Elida Gibbs Personal Care factory (in Germany); head of development and quality assurance of Lever Division Household Products and Personal Care (Sao Paulo, Brazil); head of production for detergent powders and liquids and product development (Lever Germany); and scientist/chemist in England and Germany.

Later he was executive director of the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre and leader of the Global Sustainability Centre at The Conference Board. In this role, he worked closely with the C-suite executives to help them better understand and identify sustainable business risks and opportunities and was the host to the Podcast Series ‘Let’s Talk Sustainable Business