We dedicate this report to Neil Kearney, general secretary of the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers' Federation and a champion of workers' rights. Neil died, at the age of 59, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

For the last 15 years, Neil tirelessly represented labor to Nike on global supply chains. He taught us some of our most valuable lessons, sometimes painfully, but always constructively and with fairness. Neil's career and life will forever reflect the story of globalization and the evolution of corporate social responsibility from unknown practice to mainstream business model redesign.

I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and starving millions? Then you will find your doubt and yourself melting away. - Gandhi

Neil Kearney's Facebook profile tells us this was his favorite quote. We're not surprised. In the 15 years that we knew him, he circled the world perhaps hundreds of times to fight for workers' rights. The nameless, powerless women workers in Bangladesh, Columbia, Egypt, Honduras, Senegal and Turkey. He was their advocate, their champion, their voice. On their behalf he lectured companies and governments, pushed the ILO and the EU, all from a small office in Brussels when he wasn't on a plane. In those early days, when codes of conduct were the debate, the Ethical Trading Initiative a dream, CSR a strange fictional name only a few had started to talk about, and CR Reports almost inexistent, Neil's voice helped shape what we now take for granted.

In those early days, Neil harangued us. But from that rocky beginning, we learned to see that his voice was our mirror. Because of that, his was a voice of a true friend: a friend to the worker, but also to those companies struggling to find solutions to the issues he raised. He knew that what he asked of us was difficult. He always gave us recognition when we'd moved something or made a difference. But he never let us forget that his expectations of us were always greater, always focused on a day when no worker in the world would face injustice or be unable to speak their mind.

This report is dedicated to Neil - with gratitude.