Gerald Pachoud

Outside Gerald’s role at TrustWorks, he is the managing partner of Pluto & Associates, a boutique advisory firm advising major companies, international organizations and governments on corporate responsibility and public policy challenges and opportunities, working with a network of experts and likeminded public and private organizations. Gerald previously held various positions in the United Nations and the Swiss administration, notably initiating and leading the program on business and human security at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From 2005 to 2011, Gerald served as the Special Adviser to the Secretary General’s Special Representative on business and human rights, Professor John Ruggie. In this role, he was closely involved in the conceptual, political and operational development of the “protect, respect and remedy” framework, and in the drafting of the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights. After the SRSG mandate and until 2015, Gerald worked in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General in New York, focusing on formulating strategy and advising the senior leadership on UN engagement with the private sector, particularly in the context of the (then upcoming) Sustainable Development Goals. He also led the negotiations on behalf of the Secretary-General on his proposal to strengthen the UN capacity to engage in multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Gerald serves in his personal capacity on the advisory boards of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI), a business initiative promoting better respect for human rights led by a core group of 18 major corporations; the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative, a group of major pharmaceutical and healthcare companies who promote responsible supply-chain management of their industry; the SRI Advisory Board of Candriam (formerly Dexia), a leading European asset management company; and, until 2017, on the Governing Board of ACCESS Facility, a global non-profit organization that seeks to promote non-judicial grievance mechanisms to prevent and resolve conflicts between companies and communities.

Gerald holds a BA in international relations and a MA in international law from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute for International Studies. He was a research fellow with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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