Dr James Cockayne

Dr James Cockayne is NSW’s first independent Anti-slavery Commissioner, with responsibilities that include helping NSW public buyers ensure they do not buy products of modern slavery. Prior to his appointment, James worked with Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Liechtenstein and the Netherlands to found and lead Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST), developing the FAST Blueprint and training over 15,000 finance professionals in anti-slavery measures. Later, he helped stand up Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking-APAC, now involving investors with more than AUD 8 trillion AUM. James has also advised multilateral development banks, export credit agencies and institutional investors on modern slavery in ESG strategies. James previously spent two decades working in international affairs, serving as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Equity and Social Justice, leading the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York, the US Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on Human Trafficking, the Center for Global Counterterrorism Cooperation’s work in New York and Africa, and the Transnational Crime Unit of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department in Canberra. James grew up in Sydney and is now privileged to live on Bundjalung country in the Northern Rivers.