Steven A. Jesseph

Vice Chairman and President

Steve serves as President and CEO for the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) organization, a factory-certification group based in Arlington, VA. He served as the chair of the task force that formed the WRAP program from 1997 until WRAP started operations in 2000. Today, WRAP is the world’s largest factory certification program with participation from 22 trade and business associations around the world and has certified factories in over 60 countries.

Steve recently retired as the Vice President for Compliance and Risk Management at Sara Lee Branded Apparel, an operating group of Chicago-based Sara Lee Corporation. His responsibilities included environment, health & safety, product liability, social compliance, claims and security. Sara Lee Branded Apparel has over 70,000 employees in over 30 countries in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Africa and Asia, and manufactures brands such as Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Bali, L’eggs, Dim and Just My Size. He previously served as Executive Director for Sara Lee Corporation’s global health and safety group where he had responsibility for 148,000 employees in 55 countries.

Steve also serves as the co-chair of the Social Responsibility Committee of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, was appointed to the Governing Board of the International Council of Toy Industries CARE Program, is on the Board of Delegates and Board of Trustees for the National Safety Council, and serves on the Graduate School Advisory Committee for Appalachian State University. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Otterbein College and Master’s degree from Xavier (Ohio) University. He is a native of Seattle, Washington and now resides in the mountains of Western North Carolina.