Corporate governance

The corporate governance structure encompasses GFA’s board of directors and our steering committee of Strategic Partners.

Board members on stage summit

Corporate governance

Funding for our activities comes from both the public and private sectors across five key areas: partners (Strategic and Associate), sponsors, summit ticket sales, public funding and grants.

Our corporate governance structure encompasses the organisation’s board of directors and our steering committee of Strategic Partners.

Steering committee

The Global Fashion Agenda steering committee acts as the sounding board by providing essential leadership to support Global Fashion Agenda’s mission. The steering committee convenes three times a year and comprises two senior sustainability representatives from each Strategic Partner company. Our Strategic Partners are a small group of hand-picked companies, representing different market segments and geographies, who are committed to driving sustainable progress and provide essential leadership to support GFA’s mission. Each company contributes a fixed amount of money annually.

Board of directors

The board of directors is Global Fashion Agenda’s executive body and signs off on the organisation’s budget and strategy. The board is comprised of six to eight appointed executive members, who have experience from the fashion industry or from other areas relevant to Global Fashion Agenda’s purpose. The board’s role, in addition to ensuring corporate governance and compliance, is to oversee that Global Fashion Agenda operates in a healthy manner in terms of the organisation, team, funding and overall objectives and activities.

    Thomas Tochtermann

    Chairman, GFA and Director Emeritus, McKinsey & Company, Inc.

    Thomas Tochtermann

    Chairman, GFA and Director Emeritus, McKinsey & Company, Inc.

    Thomas Tochtermann, Chairman, was formerly Vice Chairman of GFA. Tochtermann has supported the organisation since 2014 and served on the Board of GFA since 2016. He contributes a wealth of industry insights, having advised international clients in the fashion, luxury and consumer segments for over three decades. He has also been building and leading McKinsey & Company’s global Fashion & Luxury Practice for many years and works directly with key industry players to improve the state of fashion. In his role, he oversees that GFA operates in a healthy manner in terms of the organisation, team, funding, strategic objectives, and initiatives that create transformative progress in the industry.

    Thomas Klausen

    Vice Chairman, GFA, CEO, Dansk Fashion & Textile

    Thomas Klausen

    Vice Chairman, GFA, CEO, Dansk Fashion & Textile

    Thomas Klausen, Vice Chairman, has been on the Board of Directors since 2015. Klausen brings valuable insights of the fashion and textile industry and its challenges. Alongside his role at GFA, he is CEO of Danish Fashion & Textile which represents approximately 400 companies with more than 800 brands in Denmark. In addition to this, Klausen is also the Chairman of the Copenhagen Fashion Week. Previously, Klausen was president of the Tytex Group – a world-leading textiles manufacturer with facilities in Asia, North America and Europe. As Vice Chairman, he supports Tochtermann in assuring the organisation’s governance and compliance and steering the team to continue its activities to inspire, educate and mobilise the industry.

    Cristiana Falcone

    Senior Adviser, World Economic Forum

    Cristiana Falcone

    Senior Adviser, World Economic Forum

    Cristiana Falcone is a global leader in media, business and social development sectors. She began her career in radio and television, covering foreign affairs including war and humanitarian crises. Over the past 15+ years she has honed her experience as a strategic adviser, investor and philanthropist and acquired vast experience with multinationals, international organisations and the media. She presently serves as Senior Adviser to the Executive Chairman and founder of the World Economic Forum. Joining the Forum in 2004, she led the Media, Entertainment and Information Industries, building and managing strategic partnerships with industry leaders, policymakers, experts and academics worldwide. Furthermore, Falcone is an early investor and adviser in several young talented hand-picked start-ups, a member of the board of directors of Viacom and Revlon and holds leadership roles in several organisations. As CEO of the JMCMRJ Sorrell Foundation, she leads transformative initiatives in health, education and poverty alleviation worldwide. Falcone graduated from the University of Rome – La Sapienza in Political Science and earned her Master’s Degree in Humanitarian Assistance from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She holds a Master’s in Diplomatic Studies from the Italian Society for International Organizations and the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy as well as several post graduate certificates in leadership, change management, corporate strategy and business management.

    Eva Kruse

    Group SVP, Brand and Impact, PANGAIA

    Eva Kruse

    Group SVP, Brand and Impact, PANGAIA

    Eva Kruse is the Group SVP, Brand and Impact at PANGAIA, a direct-to-consumer materials science company on a mission to save the environment through breakthrough innovations for everyday lifestyle products. PANGAIA functions as a global collective of scientists, designers, thinkers and creators from all backgrounds and walks of life, driven by purpose and powered by science – designing a better future. Eva Kruse has been a pioneer by spearheading the movement towards a more responsible fashion industry for more than a decade, as the founder and CEO of Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) – the non-profit organisation behind the renowned landmark event Copenhagen Fashion Summit. Her mission the past many years has been to guide and mobilise industry leaders in taking bold and urgent action on sustainability. Under Kruse’s leadership, GFA has also accelerated the industry’s transition towards a more circular fashion system through its 2020 Commitment and policy work, as well as setting the benchmark on measuring and reporting on industry progress with Pulse of The Fashion Industry Report and industry guidance with the Fashion CEO Agenda. Previously, Kruse also co-founded Danish Fashion Institute along with Copenhagen Fashion Week in 2005. The fashion week in Copenhagen is now Scandinavia’s largest fashion event and was one of the first fashion weeks in the world to arrange an open programme with fashion events for the public. Through working with the fashion industry’s leading brands, United Nations, European Commission and many international foundations, Kruse strives to drive awareness and action on sustainability with the aim to safeguard the future of our planet. As a globally recognised voice in sustainability and keynote speaker at conferences across the world including TEDx Talk, Kruse holds the Human Rights Prize from the French Embassy, and a Royal Order of Chivalry from the Danish Monarchy.

    Harsh Saini

    Global Supply Chain Expert

    Harsh Saini

    Global Supply Chain Expert

    Harsh Saini is an industry veteran in sustainability, supply chains, thought leadership and innovation, Harsh has spent over two decades at global brands in various roles from corporate communications, marketing, trade relations, to supply chain compliance and sustainability. The majority of her career was at brands Nike, The Body Shop and global supply chain manager the Fung Group. Harsh gained experience and success delivering industry-changing improvements in diverse commercial settings around the world, with integrated brand reputation strategies to identify value-adding opportunities for brand building and reputation, increased environmental sustainability, human rights, and equality with digital innovation. Harsh has served on multiple industry committees and boards.

    Peder Michael Pruzan-Jorgensen

    Director & Owner, ORCA & Co.

    Peder Michael Pruzan-Jorgensen

    Director & Owner, ORCA & Co.

    Peder Michael Pruzan-Jorgensen is the Founder and Director of ORCA & Co., a strategy advisory firm that works with companies and asset owners to maximize business value and societal impact by placing environmental, social and governance factors at the heart of decision-making. Pruzan-Jorgensen was previously a member of the executive committee at BSR, where he led the organisation’s growth in EMEA as well as its work on multi-company collaboration, women’s empowerment and government and foundations. An experienced sustainability executive, he is a member of several sustainability advisory boards and works with world leading companies in multiple industries. Pruzan-Jorgensen has worked with the fashion industry through most of his business career, in recent years mostly on how to advance women’s empowerment in global fashion supply chains. He led the formation of one of the first collaborative initiatives in the luxury industry, the then Sustainable Luxury Working Group, initially focused on exotic skins supply chains. He has supported the Copenhagen Fashion Summit since its beginning.