Francesca de Meillac | SENIOR ADVISOR
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As Senior Advisor at Shift, Francesca works with companies and financial institutions to support their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs).
Francesca was previously Principal Consultant at Environmental Resources Management (ERM), where she led ERM’s UK human rights team, and global technical community on modern slavery and human rights. Francesca advised multinational companies to assess and address human rights risks, build internal capacity and develop and implement fit-for-purpose policies and management systems. She also worked closely with financial institutions including development finance institutions (DFIs), commercial banks, export credit agencies and private equity on assessing and managing human rights risks in accordance with international standards including the UNGPs, IFC Performance Standards and Equator Principles IV.
Prior to ERM, Francesca was Senior Business Advisor at the Ethical Trading Initiative, a leading initiative of companies, NGOs and trade unions promoting respect for labor rights in supply chains. She supported companies to develop and improve ethical trade strategy, implementation and reporting.
From 2012-2016, she was the in-house human rights specialist at BG Group, a multinational energy company. Francesca developed and managed BG Group’s approach to integrating the UNGPs into company processes, and supported BG Group’s country offices on site, on issues including community impacts, grievance management, security and conflict, stakeholder engagement, and social investment.
She has international work experience across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America including on-the-ground experience conducting stakeholder consultation, human rights impact assessments (HRIA), environmental and social due diligence (ESDD) and monitoring. Francesca is also experienced in designing and delivering training and capacity building on social performance, human rights and sustainable finance.
Francesca holds an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a MA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. She is from Trinidad & Tobago.
