BAN’s Staff
Jim Puckett, Founder and Chief of Strategic Direction
Jim is Chief of Strategic Direction for BAN, an organization he founded in 1997 after leaving a very successful career as Toxics Director at Greenpeace International. Jim leads the BAN team in strategic oversight and policy development in order to implement the standing programs on electronic waste, plastic waste, and green ship recycling. As an activist for over 35 years, his pioneering work preventing toxic waste and toxic waste trade has helped safeguard fragile ecosystems and protect the world’s poorest communities' health. He has been a chief proponent of just international policies and law within the United Nations Basel Convention since its inception in 1989. As the only person to have attended every meeting of the Conference of the Parties of Basel, he continues the effort to support delegates stemming the tide of global waste dumping and toxic production. His assistance was instrumental in the creation of several regional waste trade agreements, including the Bamako Convention, Central American Agreement, Waigani Treaty, and the Izmir Protocol. He has traveled the world researching, speaking, writing, and producing films. He was the first to investigate and expose the export of electronic waste (e-waste). BAN’s 2002 film, Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia, was the first to shine a spotlight on e-waste trade and transformed an unknown dumping practice into a well-recognized, global issue. He has since overseen the creation of the e-Stewards Certification Program, which certifies electronics recyclers to the industry’s gold standard for environmental and occupational health and safety protection. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Speech and Filmmaking from the University of Oregon.
Hayley Palmer, Executive Director
Hayley serves as the Executive Director for Basel Action Network (BAN). She holds a degree in Political Science with minors in Legal Studies and International Relations, and pursued her graduate studies in Public Policy and Administration. Motivated by a passion for environmental advocacy, Hayley joined BAN in 2015 to apply her expertise toward driving positive environmental change. She is deeply committed to educating others about sustainable consumption and promoting socially just practices.
Hayley believes that while perfection is unattainable, our daily choices as consumers have a meaningful impact. Her personal motto, “Think for yourself, live for the world,” reflects this philosophy. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Hayley relocated to Seattle in 2014 after living in Los Angeles. Outside of work, she enjoys exploring the outdoors and natural world through activities like backpacking, kayaking, camping, hiking, rock climbing and paddleboarding.
Dan Kasem, Operations and Research Manager
Dan started his career as a programmer in market research, collecting and processing data to guide business decisions and drive profit. Most recently he was an executive assistant at an Agile consultancy, helping software development teams find new ways of managing the work they do together. He joined BAN in search of meaningful work that matters, and helps the organization track the details behind several BAN initiatives.
Christopher Hudak, Senior Policy Advisor
Christopher Hudak is the Senior Policy Advisor with Basel Action Network. He is an attorney with extensive experience representing environmental nonprofits in complex litigation against polluters and to protect natural areas and wildlife. He is a graduate of Yale, the Yale School of the Environment, Berkeley Law, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Mongolia.
Angelo Godbey
“We take far too much from this world; yet, we never give back.” These words spoken by his Civil & Environmental Engineering professor at the University of Washington imbued a philosophy that led him to work at BAN. He helps the organization achieve its mission through creating custom technologies such as developing mobile apps on iOS and Android to spread awareness on the positive environmental impacts on decisions we make; creating and developing custom in-house hardware and software to track, visualize and understand toxic waste flows; materializing the big list of amazing projects we have brewing at BAN through integrating tools like Asana; or, help understand the causes and campaigns effectiveness with SalesForce. Understanding, creating and utilizing technology plays a crucial role in growing the organization, and supporting the realization of the BAN mission.
Selena Turnock, e-Stewards Certification Director
Selena Turnock is the e-Stewards Certification Director for e-Stewards. Selena is an Environmental, Health, Safety, and Compliance professional with over eight years of experience in the e-scrap and recycling industry. As her previous role was within an e-Stewards certified organization, she is accustomed to working with the e-Stewards Standard from the recycler standpoint and uses this familiarity in her role as Certification Director. Between being an ISO 14001 certified internal auditor and holding an OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 training certification, she was also a member of the e-Stewards Standards Committee tasked with creating vV4.0 of the e-Stewards Standard.
Daniel Puckett, e-Stewards Business Director
Daniel Puckett is the e-Stewards Business Manager. Daniel attended his first electronics recycling conference at the age of 10! After studying at California State Polytechnic University, Daniel left school to pursue a passion for entrepreneurship. He moved back home and launched his first business, Boom Foods. While home Jim and Daniel would often bounce ideas about business and sustainability, when the opportunity to assist with e-Stewards arose he jumped at the chance. When not working on Boom or e-Stewards, he enjoys fishing, listening to podcasts, and relaxing with the family cat, Molly.
BAN’s Contractors
Lisa Crosby, Researcher
Lisa Crosby is a Researcher for Basel Action Network. Lisa has been interested in waste reduction for most of her life, following her wake up moment when she drank from a beautiful mountain creek only to see it was piled with trash a few hundred yards up-stream. Shortly thereafter she volunteered for Greenpeace NW. She has a degree in environmental science, volunteers as a mediator/facilitator and belongs to a few waste-reduction related groups including her local Solid Waste Advisory Committee in Jefferson County Washington.
Wong Pui Yi, Waste Trade Researcher and Campaign Advocate
Wong Pui Yi serves as BAN's waste trade researcher and campaign advocate based in Malaysia focused primarily on plastics and electronic waste. Her interests lie in comparative politics, human rights, and environmental governance and she holds a Master of Economics degree from Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She previously worked with the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism in Malaysia as well as Break Free From Plastic Asia-Pacific, investigating the harm caused by the global plastic waste trade. When not documenting foreign waste in illegal dumpsites and factories, she's exploring Malaysia's tropical rainforests, caves, rivers, and seas.
Gilbert Kuepouo, Political and Campaign Consultant
Gilbert Kuepouo, serves as BAN’s political and campaign consultant for Africa. He holds a PhD degree in geochemistry at the University of Kobe, Japan in 2004. He is co-founder and current Executive Director of the Centre de Recherche et d’Education pour le Développement/Research and Education Center for Development (CREPD), a non-governmental organization bridging science and environmental advocacy in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Kuepouo has almost 20 years of experience in negotiation and implementation of chemicals and waste related conventions, including the Stockholm, Basel and Bamako Conventions. His interests are meetings and interactions with new people, networking, volunteering, reading, walking, and gardening. He is based in Yaoundé, Cameroon.