Sam Jones

President

Sam Jones is president and co-founder of Heartland Initiative, where he leads the development of methodologies, tools, and guidance to assist investors in the prevention and mitigation of human rights harms across their portfolios. Sam has more than 25 years of experience in conflict-sensitive research, analysis, and programming, international humanitarian and human rights law, and multi-stakeholder engagement in public and private spheres. Before co-founding Heartland, Sam worked as Associate Director of the Human Rights Program at The Carter Center, where he managed programs in the Middle East and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including those focused on corporate accountability for human rights harms in industrial mining and the protection of human rights defenders. Sam previously served as regional representative for Asia/Near East for Counterpart International, managing humanitarian and development programs in Iraq and Jordan and leading assessment missions to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. 

Sam holds a master’s degree in international peace and conflict resolution from American University’s School of International Service and a Bachelor of Arts Political Science from the University of North Carolina – Asheville.