Margaret Ellen Roggensack

Margaret Ellen Roggensack is the Senior Advisor for Business and Human Rights at Human Rights First. In that position, she represents the organization in multi-stakeholder initiatives to address the human rights impacts of global business operations.  She is also responsible for advocacy, research and media and public outreach.  Professor Roggensack is a member of the Consultative Group to Eradicate Child and Forced Labor in Agricultural Production, established under the 2008 Farm Bill.

Prior to joining Human Rights First, Professor Roggensack practiced law with Hogan and Hartson, chairing the firm’s Latin America Practice Group. During Professor Roggensack’s nearly 20 year career in private legal practice, she counseled clients on bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and sector specific arrangements; represented private sector interests in World Trade Organization dispute settlement proceedings, and played leadership roles in industry task force and coalition efforts, helping to found and lead multi-stakeholder coalitions on international trade and investment, tax and health care policy initiatives at the federal and state level.

In the course of her legal career, Professor Roggensack advised major corporations on initial North American investments and related sourcing, training and corporate responsibility initiatives. She has also provided strategic guidance and leadership on corporate responsibility and related issues to multinationals, governments, and nonprofits. This included analyzing and recommending improvements to corporate initiatives in the extractive and service sectors; formulating compliance protocols for companies operating in states and regions lacking effective governance; and fostering collaboration between disease foundations and pharma/biotech on drug discovery and development bottlenecks.

Professor Roggensack has served as an advisor to numerous private and quasi- governmental organizations on democratic transition, rule of law, and economic recovery initiatives, and U.S. policy toward Latin America.   She is a member of the board of the Due Process of Law Foundation, past president of the Washington Foreign Law Society, and Past Vice President of the Board of the Washington Office on Latin America. She is a founding board member of the Packard Center for ALS Research   and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Disaster and Refugee Response at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Professor Roggensack graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota in 1976 with a B.A. in history. She was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow from 1976 to 1978, studying economic development projects in Latin America. She received her J.D. from George Washington University in 1984, where she was the Articles Editor of the Journal of International Law and Economics.