Ursula Wynhoven
Ursula Wynhoven is the General Counsel as well as the Chief, Governance and Social Sustainability for the United Nations Global Compact, the UN’s corporate sustainability initiative. She is a member of the office’s Executive Team. In addition to managing legal affairs and governance matters, Ursula founded and is overall responsible for the office's work programs on the various dimensions of social sustainability, including human rights and labor principles, women’s empowerment, business and children, indigenous peoples' rights, and human trafficking, and on business and the rule of law. Ursula joined the UN Global Compact in 2002. Ursula worked in private legal practice and government human rights agencies in both Australia and the US before joining the UN. Ursula has also worked for the Secretariat of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the OECD’s corporate responsibility initiative. Among other academic qualifications, Ursula has two Masters of Law degrees - from Columbia Law School, where she was also a Human Rights Fellow, and from Monash University Law School in Australia. She has been an Adjunct Professor in Corporate Sustainability, Transnational Business and Human Rights at Fordham Law School in New York since 2007. She is admitted to practice law in jurisdictions in Australia, United States (California), and England and Wales. Ursula is also a Trustee of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law and a Girl Scout troop leader.
