Senior Advisor
Shift

Ashleigh Owens is a Senior Advisor with Shift, a New York based non-profit that works with a wide range of government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, trade unions, major investors and financial institutions to provide companies around the world with practical, context-specific advice on how to ensure respect for human rights. Ashleigh leads Shift’s work with financial institutions and investors, supporting them to model and move markets to reward respect for human dignity. Prior to relocating to NYC in 2018, Ashleigh was Executive Director at EY Climate Change & Sustainability Services in Tokyo, in which role she helped leading companies to embed sustainability into their strategy, operations and disclosures. Ashleigh was previously a lawyer with Herbert Smith Freehills in the Dispute Resolution team, advising on labour, competition and international law matters. As social expectations of companies began racing ahead of legal obligations, Ashleigh headed to EY and then Shift, by way of the United Nations University, OHCHR and the UN Global Compact, to work together with companies and standard setters as they shape the capitalism of the future. Ashleigh has a Master of Science in Sustainability from the United Nations University, a Bachelor of Laws and a degree in Asian Studies and is fluent in Japanese.