Kathryn Smith brings 12 years of responsible sourcing leadership to Worldly as the company expands its social impact platform for sourcing, buying, and compliance teams

SAN FRANCISCO: #humanrights--Worldly, the leading sustainability and supply chain intelligence platform for the consumer goods industry, today announced that Kathryn Smith has joined the company as Vice President, Human Rights Risk Solutions, leading its social compliance and human rights strategy. Smith most recently served as Senior Director, Responsible Sourcing – Human Rights & Environment at Walmart, where she spent nearly 12 years building and running programs that set the standard for large-scale supply chain accountability.

Running a responsible global supply chain has always required good data - on the factories a company works with, the labor practices behind the products it sells, and the social risks embedded in every tier of its sourcing network. For most companies, that data has been scattered, inconsistent, and hard to act on. Sourcing directors, supply chain risk managers, and buying teams have had to make high-stakes decisions without the reliable social insights their environmental counterparts have had for years. As sweeping new regulations, including the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and expanding forced labor import restrictions, raise the stakes further, the gap between companies with decision-ready social data and those without it is becoming more consequential.

Worldly is built to close that gap. By centralizing and standardizing social data across the supply chain, Worldly gives sourcing, buying, and sustainability teams the decision-ready insights they need to manage risk, meet regulatory requirements, and source with confidence.

In her new role, Smith will have end-to-end responsibility for Worldly’s social compliance offerings, including the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module - part of Cascale’s Higg Index, developed in collaboration with Worldly - social capabilities within Worldly Axion, and the platform’s expansion into solutions built specifically for sourcing and buying teams. A key pillar of this work is continuing to develop the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module in strategic alignment with the Social & Labor Convergence Program's Converged Assessment Framework, reinforcing Worldly's commitment to industry standardization and helping brands and suppliers reduce audit fatigue by replacing duplicative assessments with a single, recognized standard. Smith will work across product, engineering, sales, marketing, and customer teams to ensure Worldly’s solutions address the real operational challenges her former peers face every day.

“Sourcing and buying teams have been making important purchasing decisions with fragmented, limited social data for too long,” said Smith. “The current and upcoming regulations are forcing the issue, but the companies that get ahead of this will have a real competitive advantage, not just a compliance checkbox. Worldly is uniquely positioned to bring environmental and social data together in a way that actually works for the people who make buying decisions. That’s what drew me here.”

At Walmart, Smith led global standards and controls programs across responsible sourcing, product safety and consumer protection compliance programs, and strengthened governance frameworks across U.S. and international markets. She led the human rights and environment strategies for Walmart's global Responsible Sourcing Program. As part of this role, she focused on centralizing data to give compliance and buying teams real-time access to social and environmental data, enabling them to make the right buying decisions and work with suppliers to improve global supply chains. She also advanced racial equity initiatives within Walmart’s global governance organization, work that reflects the breadth of what modern social compliance leadership demands.

“Kathryn has spent her career sitting exactly where our customers sit - accountable for outcomes across sourcing, risk, and human rights at one of the world’s most complex supply chain operations,” said Kevin Vranes, Chief Product Officer at Worldly. “That experience will directly shape how we build social solutions that work for the teams who need them most.”

Smith’s appointment reflects Worldly’s push to expand beyond sustainability reporting and become the platform of record for anyone who touches supply chain risk in consumer goods. By centralizing environmental, social, and operational data in one place, Worldly gives sustainability, sourcing, and buying teams the solutions to anticipate disruptions, satisfy regulators, and build supply chains that are genuinely more resilient.

About Worldly

Worldly is the leading sustainability and supply chain intelligence platform for the consumer goods industry. The company empowers brands, retailers, and manufacturers to turn verified primary data into insight and action across complex global supply chains.

Trusted by a network of more than 40,000 companies across apparel, footwear, home furnishings, and sporting goods, Worldly provides visibility into environmental and social performance, including carbon, water, chemicals, and labor, at the product, facility, and value-chain levels.

Built on industry-recognized standards, including Cascale’s Higg Index, Worldly translates raw data into actionable intelligence that helps organizations reduce risk, meet evolving regulatory requirements, and drive measurable progress over time.

Fonte: Business Wire