Simone Cipriani

Simone Cipriani founded (in 2007) and manages the Ethical Fashion Initiative, a flagship programme of the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the United Nations and of the World Trade Organization.
 
Simone Cipriani has made it his mission to build a more responsible and sustainable fashion industry, by transforming it into a vehicle of poverty reduction and of empowerment of women, throughout the developing world. The Ethical Fashion Initiative enables artisans who live in marginalised conditions, in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to become regular suppliers of international fashion and lifestyle brands, thus reducing poverty and empowering large numbers of women artisans.
 
Mr Cipriani is a member of the board of advisers of the Artisan Alliance of the Aspen Institute (Washington DC). He is also a member of the international scientific committee of the Italian academic magazine Religioni e Società. Mr Cipriani delivers speeches & presentations at International trade organisations, conferences, events and at top fashion universities across the globe. In 2013, Cipriani was included in Business of Fashion’s list of 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry.
 
Mr Cipriani previously worked in Ethiopia, where he managed a UN industrial development led intervention aimed at improving the national leather industry. He also worked in both Ethiopia and Kenya to set up strategic frameworks to develop sustainable leather and shoe industries. He has consulted for a host of UN and international agencies. He designed and managed development industrial cooperation projects in Indonesia, India, Vietnam, China, Tunisia and Bangladesh. He has organised and participated in technical symposia on tannery ad effluent treatment plants in China and in India.
 
Simone Cipriani has worked extensively in the shoe and leather industry, as GM of service companies managing industrial collaboration and trade in Asia.