Carnival Corporation Appoints Julia M. Brown as First Chief Procurement Officer
On March 25, Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CUK), the world’s largest travel and leisure brand, announced that it has appointed Julia M. Brown as its first Chief Procurement Officer. Brown will focus her efforts on greater strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management throughout the corporation’s nine global brands and support groups to help them more effectively and collaboratively leverage the company’s global resources. She will report to Carnival’s Chief Strategy Officer, Josh Leibowitz, and will be based out of the company’s Miami headquarters.
Brown brings over 25 years of sourcing and procurement experience to the role, most recently serving as CPO at Mondelez International, which split from Kraft Foods in 2012, CPO and Senior Vice President at Kraft Foods, CPO and VP of corporate procurement and contract manufacturing at Clorox. Other roles include sourcing stints at Diageo, Gillette, and Procter and Gamble where she began her career. Brown earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. We congratulate her on her new role and wish her all the best.
British Parliament Passes UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015
On Wednesday, March 25, British legislators granted “Royal Assent” to the Modern Slavery Act of 2015, signing it into law on the last day of parliament before legislators broke for recess. The Act, which was modeled on the state of California’s Transparency in Supply Chain Act, is the first of its kind in Europe and seeks to provide greater visibility into the supply chains of British-owned and -operated businesses regarding child labor, domestic servitude, forced labor, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
It will also require businesses owned and/or operating in the UK to disclose what efforts they have taken and are taking to rid their supply chains of these labor practices. The Act also increases the maximum potential sentence for convicted perpetrators from a 14-year prison term to life imprisonment, and requires them to compensate their victims for damages and lost wages. Finally, the Act will provide for greater defense against victims’ prosecution for certain crimes committed as a result of their being trafficked or enslaved.
According to Business Insider, final details of the Act are still being hammered out – most notably, which companies will be covered under the Act (i.e., above what threshold for yearly revenue), and whether subsidiaries owned by UK businesses but operating and serving outside of the UK will be covered under the law. As the Guardian noted, a draft version of the Bill contained a loophole that allowed such businesses to remain outside of the scope of the Act. British legislators have until May 7 to finalize these details. It is currently unknown when the Act will be implemented and enforced.
There are reportedly up to 13,000 victims of child labor, domestic servitude, forced labor, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation in the UK, alone, with most victims reportedly originating from Albania, Nigeria, Romania, and Vietnam. But in a globalized economy, many more victims and nations are touched by illegal and/or unethical labor practices. Modern slavery reportedly is a $150 billion a year industry, with roughly 36 million victims caught up in the worldwide practice that spans six of seven continents and many industries.
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