MEET THE TEAM

Founder and Principal

Mary Francis is a business and human rights expert with a focus on human rights due diligence, international labor standards, and trade and labor affairs, including addressing impacts of vulnerable populations and intersectiong vulnerabilities. . She has worked with and for governments, industry, and civil society to conduct human rights due diligence, build capacity, and support partnerships and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to co-founding Ardent Global Advisors, Mary worked with and for Fortune 100-500 multinational enterprises, supporting compliance with labor-related trade law, conducting research and developing human rights due diligence strategies, and identifying, mitigating, and remediating violations. Implementation of efforts range from raw commodities to finished products in the agriculture, mining, quarrying, tourism, technology, and apparel and footwear sectors.

Mary also worked for ten years as a senior government official at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) where she worked substantively on international labor standards and labor-related trade law. She worked closely with businesses, foreign governments, labor and other civil society organizations, the international labor organization (ILO) and the United Nations. She served on Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and CBP committees to develop and determine labor-related trade enforcement policy. She also served as the labor advisor to the United States OECD National Contact Point for Multilateral Enterprise Due Diligence.

Senior Gender Advisor

Julia Arnold is an experienced social and economic inclusion professional with a strategic focus on women’s economic inclusion, including intersecting vulnerabilities. As a seasoned research director, she has designed and managed global and regional projects supporting women’s economic inclusion, including research and strategy design, mixed methods research, and partnership and stakeholder engagement. She has extensive expertise in change management, strategic communications, capacity building, and learning and measurement. Her expertise spans women’s financial inclusion, labor rights, gender norms, gender-based violence, digitalization and digital inclusion, and livelihoods.

Julia has provided strategic guidance, thought leadership, and evaluations for a diverse range of clients, including businesses, labor organizations, and other civil society organizations. She has led initiatives on digital financial capability, designed and written technical toolkits and guides for practitioners and implementors, and developed evaluation frameworks and analysis.

Previously, she held leadership roles at the Center for Financial Inclusion and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), where she developed research agendas, led global research projects, and provided strategic and technical support across teams.

Her technical skills include qualitative and quantitative research, gender analysis, data evaluation, and strategic knowledge management. Julia is a published author of several major reports and journal articles on women’s digital financial capability and gender-transformative financial inclusion.

Senior Gender Advisor

Kate Francis is an expert in international development with a focus on gender. She has nearly twenty years of experience working with civil society, governments, and industry to design and implement women’s economic inclusion, gender integration, and social inclusion programs. Kate’s subject matter expertise spans women’s economic empowerment, violence and harassment, human trafficking, child labor, gender budgeting, and women’s leadership and political participation. She has led advocacy, strategy development, program development, and thought leadership initiatives with leading international organizations, including The Asia Foundation, Plan International, Freedom Fund, and GoodWeave International.

Preferring to collaborate closely with community leaders, government officials, and colleagues in diverse contexts and countries. Kate leverages and adapts innovative gender and inclusion strategies across borders and sectors. She has worked with business leaders, civil society, philanthropists, and government funders to support new approaches to foster market-driven social good.