Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, NYU Stern
Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at the NYU Stern School of Business and Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights, the first-ever human rights center at a business school. He is the author of Conscience Incorporated , a look at the ways business leaders can create profitable, sustainable, and socially conscious companies. Before joining NYU Stern in 2013, Posner served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 2009-2013. In that role, he traveled to more than 50 countries - including China, Russia, Egypt, Myanmar, Haiti, Bahrain, Nigeria, Israel, Libya, Colombia, Mexico, Morocco, Afghanistan, and Pakistan - to advance U.S. human rights policy.
From 1978 to 2009, Posner led Human Rights First, a New York-based human rights advocacy organization. Earlier in his career, he played a key role in advocating for landmark U.S. human rights legislation, including the Refugee Act of 1980, which established the first U.S. legal framework for political asylum, and the Torture Victim Protection Act, enacted in 1992.
Throughout his career, Posner has been a leading voice on human rights in global business, with a particular focus on manufacturing supply chains, the extractive industries, and the technology sector. In the mid-1990s, he helped found the Fair Labor Association, which brings together companies, universities, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to promote safe and fair working conditions in global manufacturing. He served as Chair of the Fair Labor Association's Board of Directors from 2017 to 2025.
Posner also taught for many years at Yale and Columbia Law Schools until 2009. He earned his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Michigan.
