Kevin Kolben

Background

About Kevin Kolben

With over 20 years of work experience in consulting, teaching, and research, I am a professor of business law at Rutgers Business School, where I teach courses on business law, supply chain regulation, fashion law, and labor and human rights in global supply chains. I have lived and worked in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, as well as other regions, and I am passionate about making the global economy serve the interests of working people and the poor. As a researcher, I have published extensively on labor provisions in trade agreements, international labor law and regulation, and international economic law. I have presented my work to universities, companies, and governments around the world. As a teacher, I aim to not only improve my students' analytical skills, but also to provide them the tools and context to critically engage with the economic and political systems in which they work and live as both managers and citizens. If I can broader my students horizons and made them think about issues they hadn't been exposed to before, I believe I have succeeded. For several years I taught a course on India, Business, and Development, in which I travelled with students for 10 days to India to meet with managers, change makers, and policymakers. My aim was to expose students to both the benefits as well as the costs of development and free markets by exposing them to all walks of life, rural as well as urban poverty, as well as India's elite. In addition to my research and teaching I frequently work as a consultant on trade, labor, and supply chain matters for various NGOs, companies, intergovernmental organizations, and government agencies. In addition to my consulting work, I have served on advisory committees to the US government on trade and labor provisions, and I am appointed to the US list of panelists for disputes under the USMCA's Facility Specific Rapid Labor Response Mechanisms. I enjoy applying my knowledge and experience to real-world problems and creating positive impacts for my clients and stakeholders.