The Fashion Industry's Ethical Dilemma and

What It Means For Today's Business
 

Tuesday, February 22, 2022
6 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. ET
Zoom
Register Here

The Student Leadership and Ethics Board will host Meredith Koop, an advocate for social responsibility in the fashion industry and stylist to Michelle Obama; and Amy Tsai, the Corporate Responsibility Director at PVH Corp., Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. This event is moderated by Donald Bradford EMBA '22, Senior Design Director of menswear at Calvin Klein.

This discussion, featuring two prominent fashion industry leaders, will focus on real-life ethical issues and the consequences of business decisions. The panelists will discuss how the fashion industry, despite its reputation, can be a front runner in sustainability and social responsibility and how these learnings can be applied to other industries. They will also touch upon tensions between business operations in our globalized world while attempting to consider impacts to all regional communities and stakeholders.

About Meredith Koop

Meredith Koop is an American fashion stylist most well known for her work as Michelle Obama’s stylist. As one of the top stylists, Meredith has brought a humanist approach to the fashion industry. She focuses her attention on local designers that have created brands that weave social responsibility into the fabric of the business.

Meredith has created a network of fashion industry leaders that focus on social responsibility. She has worked alongside sustainable brands including Cuyana, a brand that's mission is to empower women to look their best while being sustainable. She has found herself at the heart of several national events during her tenure at the White House where she was able to combine her love of fashion with her passion for humanitarian purposes.

After Meredith earned her degree at Vanderbilt University, she started her career in fashion at Chicago's famed boutique, Ikram. At the boutique, she refined her skills as a stylist while working with high profile celebrities, including Michelle Obama. She has had international recognition for her work and has interviews that can be found in the W Magazine, Vogue, Business Insider, Forbes, and the New York Times.

About Amy Tsai

Amy Tsai is the Corporate Responsibility Director at PVH Corp., owner of lifestyle brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. In this capacity, she is dedicated to upholding the human rights of individuals across the supply chain and works cross-functionally to embed environmental sustainability into business operations.

Prior to joining PVH, Amy was the first employee of a start-up nonprofit seeking to transform the lives of the underprivileged in Hong Kong. She worked to build synergies between local social service agencies, NGOs, churches, and multinational companies’ Corporate Responsibility departments.

Amy earned her Master of Business Administration from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business and Master of Public Administration from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in 2017, and her Bachelors of Arts from Duke University in 2010.

About Donald Bradford EMBA '22 (Moderator)

Donald Bradford is the Senior Design Director of menswear at Calvin Klein. As head of the design team, Donald’s mission is to steer the brand into being socially responsible while keeping to the design aesthetics of the brand.

Donald is currently an EMBA’22 at Columbia Business School. He came to the program with almost two decades of fashion design experience designing for a handful of well-known brands including Donna Karen, Alexander Wang and Calvin Klein. He has worked directly with factories all around the world and has firsthand experience dealing with ethical dilemmas involving industrial globalization.