FINANCIAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director at Critical Resource
- Director Back to Core Team and Leadership Sipke Shaughnessy, Associate
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Ali Ghezelbash is a Director at Critical Resource, focusing primarily on engagements with clients in the energy industry. Ali has spent the past two decades leading teams in developing impactful engagement strategies, advising senior executives and implementing effective issues management in complex jurisdictions. During his time at Critical Resource/ERM, he has led multiple assignment across the ESGESG spectrum, with an increasing focus on strategic advising on climate change risks/opportunities.
Ali has broad international experiences from the Middle East, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, as well as in-depth energy insights. Prior to joining Critical Resource, Ali served as Chief of Staff at the Innogy Innovation Hub and before that, as Head of Communications for Northern Europe, Middle East & Africa (NEMEA) at DNV GL - Energy, with a focus on renewables and the power sector. From 2006 until early 2014, he was at Norwegian energy majors Norsk Hydro and Statoil, where he held several senior leadership positions in communications, people management and strategy, including as head of Statoil's governmental relations in Iran and as Acting Vice President of Communication for Statoil's international business. Ali started his career in one of the Middle East's leading strategic and political consulting firms, heading up a portfolio focused on political advising for the energy sector. He holds a BA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Sussex and an MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is fluent in English, Persian and Swedish.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at Critical Resource
Alvaro is a Senior Associate at Critical Resource. Prior to joining the company, Alvaro worked at CRU Group focused on advising mining firms on M&A and diversification processes, covering several commodities including copper, gold and battery metals.
In Colombia, where Alvaro is originally from, he used to work as an Advisor in the Ministry of Mines and Energy and as a Research Analyst at Control Risks, advising mining and energy clients in the Andean Region.
Alvaro has extensive experience in market entry, stakeholder management and due diligence projects for resource companies across Latin America, with a particular focus in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile.
Alvaro holds a MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and a MSc in International Relations and Political Studies from Universidad del Rosario in Colombia.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Adviser for Global Partnerships at the University of Oregon
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Dr James Lyon, Senior Advisor
- US Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé
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Ambassador Eric Benjaminson served 32 years in the U.S. diplomatic service, retiring in 2013 as the U.S. Ambassador to Gabon and Sao Tome & Principe and to the Central African Economic Community. Previous to that assignment, he was Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy to Canada; Acting U.S. Ambassador to Namibia; and Deputy Head of Mission in Burkina Faso. At various times, he also served in Nigeria, China, Ivory Coast, and Brussels.
Eric currently serves as Senior Adviser for Global Partnerships at the University of Oregon in the U.S., and manages the university's Gabon-Oregon Center for Transnational Research on Sustainable Development. He also works as a consultant to international investors and energy companies entering or doing business in West and Central Africa.
Eric was awarded a Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State and the Grand Cross of the Equatorial Order of Gabon. He was also Melvin Hill Visiting Professor of the Humanities at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York State. He has an honors degree in history from the University of Oregon and certificates from the U.S. Department of State in Chinese language and international economics. He speaks French and Russian.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Bennett Freeman, Senior Advisor
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Andrew Cuthbertson was Executive-Mongolia for the Rio Tinto Group, where he played a critical role establishing Rio Tinto in Mongolia. This included managing external affairs, brand marketing and stakeholder engagement before and during negotiations with the Mongolian Government for an Investment Agreement to develop the Oyu Tolgoi copper project. He was also a founding Director of the Business Council of Mongolia and Chairman of the Mongolian Mining Development Foundation.
More recently, as Vice President Business Sustainability & Improvement with the AngloGold Ashanti Group, Andrew managed and transformed the approach to sustainability and external affairs issues associated with new country entry and priority project developments, across eleven countries on four continents.
Andrew has also been at the forefront of significant copper and gold development projects in Indonesia, PNG, Philippines, and Colombia. He has a M.Sc.(Hons.) degree in Earth Sciences (Geology) from Waikato University, New Zealand, complemented by an MBA degree from the Mt Eliza Business School, Australia.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Expert
- Senior Analyst at the Carbon Tracker Initiative
Andrew Grant, Senior Analyst at the Carbon Tracker Initiative
Bruce Harvey, former head of Communities and Social Performance at Rio Tinto
Andrew Grant is an expert on climate change and transition risks in the natural resources sector. He is a Senior Analyst at the Carbon Tracker Initiative, an independent think tank, where he leads research on oil & gas and mining and has authored several of the organisation's most influential reports for financial stakeholders.
Prior to joining Carbon Tracker in 2014, Andrew was a private equity professional at Barclays Natural Resources Investments, a department of Barclays bank that committed capital across a range of extractive and related industries. There he worked on portfolio companies including in oil & gas exploration, oil product tankers, and metals. He also has previous experience in corporate governance and remuneration practice as a consultant at New Bridge Street LLP.
Andrew has a degree in Chemistry & Law from Bristol University and has passed level I of the Chartered Financial Analyst programme.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Mexican Ambassador to the UK and Advisor to the President of Mexico
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Emmy Bosten, Senior Advisor
Andrés Rozental, former Mexican Ambassador to the UK and advisor to the President of Mexico
John Youle, Lima-based stakeholder relations expert for Latin America
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Andrés Rozental was the founding president of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations and is currently a member ex officio of its governing body. He is a senior policy advisor at Chatham House, member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Council, and sits on the operating board of the Centre for International Governance Innovation. He served as deputy foreign minister of Mexico (1988-94), ambassador to Sweden (1983-88), permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva (1982-83), and ambassador to the United Kingdom (1995-1997), as well as in various responsibilities within the Mexican foreign affairs secretariat and abroad. Since 1994, he has held the lifetime rank of eminent Ambassador of Mexico.
He is an independent board member of Ocean Wilson Holdings and Wilson Sons (Brazil) and HSBC Bank in Mexico. He holds advisory positions with Toyota, Brookfield Asset Management, Ingredion, Almex, and AT&T. He is president of his own consulting firm, Rozental & Asociados, which advises multinational companies on their corporate strategies in Latin America. He is also the author of four books on Mexican foreign policy. Rozental obtained his professional degree in international relations from the Universidad de las Américas in Mexico, and his MA in international economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Managing Director at Goldman Sachs
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Bruce Harvey, Senior Advisor
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Andy Howard was previously a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where he led the bank's GS SUSTAIN research team, integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) with industrial, competitive and financial analysis.
Andy has also worked with McKinsey in New York where he advised financial institutions and was involved in the firm's Business in Society work, with Global Witness, a development focused NGO, and as a mining analyst with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Deutsche Bank, where he was twice voted Europe's leading analyst in the sector.
Andy is currently the Managing Director of Didas Research, an independent research firm focusing on long term equity investing. Didas Research applies objective analysis integrating financial, industrial, competitive and stakeholder measures to identify companies well placed to sustain long term earnings growth and equity market outperformance. At the heart of Didas' research lies a belief that in the long run, stock market outperformance, profitability and competitive advantage are intrinsically linked to companies' abilities to adapt to changing social and environmental pressures.
Andy earned a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and has an MBA from INSEAD.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Chairman of the Advisory Board of Global Witness
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Dr Susie Wood, Senior Advisor
Andrew Grant, Senior Analyst at the Carbon Tracker Initiative
Bruce Harvey, former head of Communities and Social Performance at Rio Tinto
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Bennett Freeman was Senior Vice President for Sustainability Research and Policy at Calvert Investments. There, he led the environmental, social and governance work of the largest family of sustainable and responsible (SRI) mutual funds in the US, with $13-16 billion assets under management.
Bennett now serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of Global Witness, and a member of the Governing Board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). He was also an Advisory Board member of the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) from 2009-15, served on the Board of Oxfam America from 2002-10, and represented Oxfam on the Board of the EITI in 2006-09.
Bennett previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the US State Department. In that role, he led the multi-stakeholder dialogue and negotiations to develop and launch the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. He also previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and chief speechwriter for Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
Prior to Calvert, Bennett led the Global Corporate Responsibility practice at Burson-Marsteller, where he advised multinational corporations on policy development, stakeholder engagement and communications around human rights, labour and sustainable development. Previously, he was the Principal of Sustainable Investment Strategies - and in that capacity, co-authored a human rights impact assessment of BP's Tangguh LNG project in West Papua, the first ever such assessment in the world.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Economist
- Member of the Swiss Re
Bill Emmott is a globally-respected commentator and consultant on international affairs and from 1993 until 2006 was editor-in-chief of The Economist, the world's leading weekly on current affairs. The circulation of The Economist more than doubled to almost 1.1m worldwide during this time.
Bill Emmott held several posts at The Economist prior to becoming editor, including Tokyo correspondent, finance editor and business affairs editor. More recently, his numerous books include ‘Rivals: how the power struggle between China, India and Japan will shape our next decade'" (2008), and his latest, "The Fate of the West: the Battle to Save the World's Most Succssful Political Idea" (2017) - described by the Financial Times as "an important book for the Brexit-Trump era".
Among his current positions, Bill Emmott is a member of the Swiss Re Chairman's Advisory Panel, a member of the Global Advisory Council of the University of Tokyo, a director of InFacts, a trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a visiting professor at Shujitsu University in Okayama Japan, and a visiting fellow at All Souls College in Oxford. He has honorary degrees from Warwick and City universities in Britain and Northwestern University in America, and is an honorary fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Bill Emmott originally studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Jill Shankleman, Senior Advisor
Bocar Thiam has 20 years' experience in managing land tenure, property rights and conflict minerals issues in the natural resource sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. He was chief of party for USAID-funded projects supporting Guinea's Ministry of Mines and Geology (2013-2016) and Liberia's Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy (2010-2012) to strengthen the implementation of the Kimberley Process diamond certification scheme. He also led the environmental and social baseline assessment for Alcoa / Rio Tinto Alcan's US$1bn alumina refinery project in Guinea. A Guinean national, Bocar has extensive experience implementing projects across Africa, including in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at Critical Resource
- Senior Associate Back to Core Team and Leadership Ali Ghezelbash, Director
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Boris Bos is a Senior Associate at Critical Resource. Before joining the company, he worked at the office of the Executive Director for the European Union in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as at the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
Boris holds an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a BA in International Relations and Politics from the University of Sheffield.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at Critical Resource
Brittnee Stein is a Senior Associate at Critical Resource. Before joining the company, she practised law with a major Canadian law firm in Vancouver. She advised mining, oil & gas and other natural resource companies on environmental and regulatory issues, with an emphasis on aboriginal consultation. In addition, Brittnee worked with clients to manage technical and non-technical aspects of environmental assessment processes. Brittnee was also previously with a shareholder advisory firm, where she conducted research on governance and ESG issues.
At Critical Resource, Brittnee has been advising major energy companies on integrating stakeholder engagement best practices into company management systems. Brittnee is also closely involved in CR's work on power and renewables.
Brittnee holds an honours undergraduate degree with distinction and a Juris Doctor from the University of Victoria.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Dr Gwendolyn Wellmann, Senior Advisor
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Bruce Harvey's career has spanned 40 years of worldwide field experience in the mining industry. In his first career as a geologist Bruce developed an affinity for working with land connected peoples and local level agreement-making in economic frontiers. For the last 18 years Bruce has been at the forefront of developing Social Performance as a new professional discipline in the extractive sector. For seven years Bruce was Global Practice Leader - Communities and Social Performance at global mining company Rio Tinto, leading an international team of achievement and distinction. Bruce is currently a consultant specialising in ‘Social Licence' solutions for the extractive sector, an Adjunct Professor at the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland and a Guest Lecturer at the Business School at the University of Otago in NZ. Bruce is widely published and regularly delivers invited Keynote Presentations and Masterclasses at international academies and symposia.
Charles Holliday is former Chairman of Shell. Also former chair of Bank of America and CEO of DuPont, he is a leading advocate of sustainability in business, and has served as chair of WBCSD and a board member of WWF.
Charles Holliday was Chairman of Shell between 2015 and 2021, having previously served as a Non-Executive Director since September 2010. He was an early advocate of sustainability in business and has served on the boards of numerous global environmental organisations, including as former chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, co-chair of the UN's high-level group on Sustainable Energy for All, and a board member of WWF, a leading conservation body.
He previously served as the chairman of the Bank of America Corporation, presiding director of Deere & Company, and a founding member of the International Business Council. He was Chief Executive Officer of DuPont from 1998 to 2009, and Chairman from 1999 to 2009. Under his direction, DuPont established the mission to achieve sustainable growth by increasing shareholder and societal value while decreasing the company's environmental footprint.
Charles Holliday co-authored the book "Walking the Talk", which details the business case for sustainable development and corporate responsibility. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the George Washington Carver Award honouring individuals in the private sector who have made a significant contribution to sustainable economic growth through biotech innovation. In 2009, he was awarded the International Palladium Medal, an award given annually by the Société de Chimie Industrielle to someone who has made outstanding contributions to the chemical industry on an international level.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director at Critical Resource
- Director Back to Core Team and Leadership Penelope Curwen, Associate Director
Charlie Pembroke is a Director at Critical Resource and has worked on client assignments in Latin America and Europe, particularly with mining and private equity clients. Charlie is the lead coordinator of Critical Resource's advisory network and Senior Advisory Panel.
Charlie joined Critical Resource from PGI Intelligence where he worked on political risk and market entry projects for resource companies across Sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on countries in East Africa and the Great Lakes Region. In 2014-15 he spent a year in Uganda where he worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications, providing original research and investigations relating to natural resource management, politics, corruption and infrastructure development.
Charlie holds a MA with distinction in Conflict, Security and Development from King's College London and a BA in History from the same university.
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Job Titles:
- Director
- Director at Critical Resource
- Director Back to Core Team and Leadership Brittnee Stein, Senior Associate
Chris is a Director at Critical Resource where he leads on activities for energy clients. He brings over a decade's experience working with business leaders and governments on a range of issues regarding resource investment and economic development.
Prior to joining Critical Resource, he was an Associate Director at DMA, leading investment promotion activities for sovereign governments and assisting companies with their overseas investment strategies. He previously worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat, as an Economic Affairs consultant, and as an investment journalist, based overseas and reporting on the extractive industries in a number of emerging markets.
Chris holds a BSc. in Politics from the University of Southampton.
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Job Titles:
- Founder of Critical Resource, Senior Advisor to the Executive Committee of ERM
Daniel Litvin is Senior Advisor to the Executive Committee of ERM, the world's largest pure-play sustainability consulting firm. He is also the Founder of Critical Resource, which he grew to be a leading advisor to energy and mining firms and their investors on ‘ESG', license-to-operate, and geo-political risks. Critical Resource was acquired by ERM in 2020. Daniel is currently also a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics Grantham Institute on Climate Change.
Prior to founding Critical Resource, Daniel was a consultant and advisor to leadership at McKinsey & Company on "business in society" issues. He is author of the book ‘Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility', a history of the political challenges facing big corporations, from the East India Company onwards.
Daniel has also been a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, specializing in the geopolitics of energy. Daniel was also policy advisor to Rio Tinto, where he worked with senior management on human rights and other sustainability topics. He started his career at The Economist, where he worked as the magazine's environment and resources correspondent, jointly winning the Wincott Award for young financial journalist of the year.
Daniel holds an MSc in anthropology and development from the LSE, and a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford.
David Rice, former chief of staff for government & public affairs, BP
Jill Shankleman, former Senior Social and Environmental Specialist at the World Bank
Dejan Stojadinovic is a Serbian economist with 20 years' experience in the fields of energy policy, renewable energy and energy efficiency. From 2008 to 2011, he served as Assistant Minister for Renewable Energy Sources in Serbia's Ministry of Mining and Energy. In this role, he was responsible for the establishment of Serbia's national renewable energy policy, including the country's Biomass Action Plan. He was also a member of the Renewable Energy Task Force of the Energy Community, where he was involved in the development of renewable energy policy across south-east Europe, and the process of setting renewable energy targets for Member States leading up to 2020.
Over the last seven years, Dejan has concentrated on international projects funded by the EU, EBRD and UNDP, primarily in the field of renewable energy. Dejan has strong knowledge in the evaluation and formulation of energy policies and action plans across the Balkans. He is currently managing the World Bank-funded project "Sector study on biomass-based heating in the Western Balkans".
Job Titles:
- Commissioner
- Senior Advisor
- Journalist and Communication Expert
- Lusaka - Based Former Advisor to the President of Zambia
Dickson Jere is a lawyer, journalist and communication expert with extensive experience working in the public and private sector. He previously served as senior advisor and spokesman for the Zambian president and also sat on a number of government committees dealing with the economy.
Dickson has served as commissioner appointed by the Zambian president to draft the country's new constitution, which was enacted into law in 2016.
He has held various roles as an official, lawyer and advisor in a range of issues concerning mining in Zambia and other southern African countries. Currently, he is practicing as an attorney with a premier law firm - Mvunga Associates. He has represented a number of mining companies on a wide range of issues that includes energy, taxation, environment and disputes arising from development agreements with governments.
In his journalism career, Dickson worked with world's leading media outlets including the BBC, AFP, Africa Confidential, Radio France International, among others. He features regularly on a number of radio and television stations in Southern Africa as an analyst discussing political and economic developments in the region.
Dickson holds a Degree in Law (LLB), Diploma in Journalism and Public Relations, and is completing a Master's Degree in Intellectual Property (MIP) and another Masters Degree in Law (LLM). He is also a practicing Arbitrator and member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), Advocate of the High Court for Zambia and member of the Law Society of Zambia. He sits on the boards of various companies.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership
- Sustainability Expert
Didier Fohlen is a sustainability expert with over 35 years of experience in geoscience and the commodities industries including management, project development and operations positions in Africa, Europe and Asia. He is non-executive Chairman of Moroccan Minerals and previously served as Executive Vice President of Lydian International and as Vice President Environmental and Social Responsibility of Areva Mines.
Didier further spent thirteen years at the International Finance Corporation, where he carried out technical, environmental and social reviews as well as risk management for investments in the oil, gas, minerals and chemicals sectors. Prior to joining the IFC, he worked with the French Geological and Mining Bureau in West Africa, among others managing a private gold mining company in the exploration and development stages.
Didier holds a Doctorate Degree in Applied Geology & Mining Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie, Nancy.
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Dr Gwendolyn Wellmann is a sociologist who specialises in sustainable community development. She has 23 years' experience in all aspects of community development; stakeholder relations and engagement; corporate social responsibility and social risk. Her experience includes working with artisanal and small-scale miners.
She has evaluated, advised and trained clients within oil & gas, mining, government, and NGOs in East, West and Southern Africa, Peru and the Philippines. Gwendolyn is practiced in identifying where community relations and other aspects of sustainability must sit within a client's strategy, as well as providing guidance on the planning and implementation of policy that complements the strategy. As a Vice President Sustainability for Gold Fields, she designed the company's artisanal mining strategy for Gold Fields West Africa, a first internationally by a gold mining company. She has a firm knowledge of the IFC Performance Standards, the Global Reporting Initiative, the Equator Principles, and the South African Social and Labour Plan requirements.
Gwendolyn is the author of a community development handbook that cover, among others, stakeholder identification, grievance mechanism, local content, social impact and community investment. She has also authored several peer-reviewed publications and has presented papers at several international conferences. Her academic work includes advising Master and PhD students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. She has been a board member of several non-profits both in South Africa and in Ghana.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Nfamara Balde, Senior Advisor
- World Bank Director for West Africa
Dr James Bond is based in Washington, D.C. and specialises in infrastructure, energy and climate change. His positions include Senior Advisor to Centennial Group International; Senior Advisor to African Development Bank; and Non-Executive Director with Helios SE. He is member of the Board of Trustees of the Global Heritage Fund.
Until 2016, James was Senior Advisor to the Green Climate Fund, where he participated in launching the Fund, designing financial instruments, and fund raising. At the African Development Bank James contributed to the launch of the Bank's partial risk guarantee, including for the Kenya Lake Turkana Wind Project.
James's positions in the World Bank Group include Chief Operating Officer of MIGA, where he oversaw the introduction of a range of new products, leading to a more than doubling of business volume. James has been World Bank Country Director in West Africa and for Indian Ocean countries, based in Madagascar. His sector responsibilities at the World Bank have included Director of Energy; Director of Agriculture for Africa, and Sector Manager for telecoms. At IFC James was Director of the Mining Department.
Before joining the World Bank Group, James spent nine years with the oil major Total in Paris, and two with Gold Fields. James has a Doctorate in economics from Pantheon-Sorbonne, a Masters in energy economics from ENSPM, and a Bachelors in chemical engineering from University of Witwatersrand. He holds a Legion d'Honneur from France and an Ordre du Merite from Madagascar.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Expert
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Dejan Stojadinovic, Senior Advisor
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Dr James Lyon is an expert on the Balkans having lived in and studied the region for decades. Dr. Lyon directed Balkan projects for the International Crisis Group for ten years. He has written numerous books, many scholarly articles, dozens of published reports, numerous Op/Eds, and has testified before the US Congress and parliamentary panels of EU member states.He received a Ph.D. in Modern Balkan History at the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.A. in International Relations from Brigham Young University, and a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Brigham Young University.
He has worked primarily in management for international development organizations (USAID, UNDP, EU), the private sector, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), and cooperated with major international organizations (IMF, World Bank, OSCE, UN, etc.). He is an Associate Researcher at the University of Graz in Austria, and a Senior Associate advising the Democratization Policy Council.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Expert
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Andy Howard, Senior Advisor
Dr Magnus Macfarlane is a leading expert in socio-economic impact assessment (SIAs), with extensive on-the-ground experience working with natural resource companies over the last 10 years. He has conducted SIAs and stakeholder consultations for resource projects in numerous countries, including Russia, Slovakia, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone and Sudan. Other client projects have included the development of socio-economic plans for mine closure, sustainable regeneration planning for resource projects in South Asia, a supply chain socio-economic accounting and assurance system for the diamond sector, support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and internal SIA guidelines for a major oil company. Magnus regularly reviews and provides assurance for corporate sustainability reports.
Magnus's academic background includes a PhD in socio-economic impact assessment and an MSc in international development planning. Magnus is also fully accredited as a socio-economic assessor, accountant and assurance provider. He has published widely on sustainability and approaches to SIAs and has worked as a researcher at Oxford and Warwick universities.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Expert on African Politics and Anti - Corruption Issues
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Negbalee Warner, Senior Advisor
Dr Muzong Kodi has over ten years' experience in governance and anti-corruption issues in the mining, oil and gas sectors in Africa. Since 2010 he has served as a member of AngloGold Ashanti's independent expert Sustainability Review Panel. In 2006 he joined the Board of Directors of the Diamond Development Initiative. He has previously held senior management positions at leading international NGOs, including Amnesty International (as Director of International Development, 1994-2002) and Transparency International (as Regional Director for Africa & the Middle East, 2002-05). Since 2010, he has also been a member of the International Academic Advisory Board of the International Anti-Corruption Academy.
Muzong was Anti-Corruption Adviser to the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2011-12, working as a consultant to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He has also undertaken consultancy work for Goldman Sachs, the African Development Bank, the African Legal Support Facility, the UN Development Programme, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the UK Department for International Development, GIZ, NORAD, the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, the European Commission, the African Union Commission, and the African Center for Economic Transformation, as well as a number of leading resource companies.
From 1983 to 1993, Muzong was Director of Publications at the African Centre for Monetary Studies in Dakar, Senegal. He started his professional career as an academic and taught at the University of Lubumbashi in the DRC from 1976 to 1979 and at the University of Nairobi in Kenya from 1979 to 1983. He holds a PhD and an MA in African History from Northwestern University, Illinois.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Expert
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Andrew Cuthbertson, Senior Advisor
Dr Paul Mitchell is an international expert on the interface between environmental and social issues in the mining and oil & gas sectors.
After originally training as a minerals engineer at Camborne School of Mines, Paul moved sideways into the environmental and social fields; his experience now spans 20 years, nearly 50 countries, numerous mineral commodities and projects with industry, regulators, local communities and NGOs in a wide range of regulatory, environmental and social contexts. He continues to work on understanding and analysing the tangible and intangible consequences for projects of complex environmental and social interactions.
He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Camborne, investigating the environmental and social impacts and benefits of strategic metals.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Expert
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Michael Barron, Senior Advisor
Dr Susie Wood is an expert on greenhouse gas mitigation and climate risk management in the extractive industries. An engineer by training, she has 15 years' international experience in a variety of research, advisory and management roles in academia, strategy consulting, and the not-for-profit sectors. Areas of expertise include climate policy and regulation, ‘2 degree' scenario analysis and planning, operational greenhouse gas mitigation, low carbon technology development, climate disclosure compliance, and portfolio climate risk assessment.
Susie was previously senior manager at CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), where her work focused on assessing the climate strategies and performance of major companies against the goals of the Paris Agreement. Prior to that she spent several years working in consulting roles in the energy and resources sectors, including as a managing consultant in Wood Mackenzie's Asia Pacific consulting practice, and as a member of the management team at specialist advisory firm Gas Strategies. She has led a wide variety of strategy consulting, commercial advisory, and transaction support projects for energy, mining and financial sector clients across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Earlier in her career, Susie was as a researcher and tutor in the Laboratory for Sustainable Technology at the University of Sydney. Her research focused on sustainable resource development, in particular greenhouse gas mitigation in the extractive industries, and she also taught courses in ‘Industrial Systems and Sustainability' and ‘Green Engineering', covering topics such as life cycle analysis, energy and resource efficiency, and clean energy technologies.
Susie holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, as well as a PhD, also in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Sydney.
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Job Titles:
- Principal
- Senior Advisor
- Principal Senior Advisor at Critical Resource
- Principal Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Dr Paul Mitchell, Senior Advisor
Edward Bickham is the Principal Senior Advisor at Critical Resource and has led many of the company's projects in Africa, Latin America, Europe and South Asia. He is recognised as a leading advisor on stakeholder relations and governance issues in the mining and energy sectors. Edward also works as an independent adviser to a number of other organisations.
Edward was formerly Executive Vice President, External Affairs for global mining group, Anglo American plc, between 2000 and Autumn 2009. In this role, he was responsible for public policy, government relations and political risk; social development in mining communities; communications; and corporate ethics, including anti-corruption and human rights. He was also involved in the development of a number of multi-stakeholder, developmental partnerships including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (Board Member 2006-9; and currently an Alternate Director), the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the Investment Climate Facility for Africa. He also chaired the CBI International Investment Panel and the International Council on Mining and Metals' working groups on communication and human rights. He was Senior Adviser to the World Gold Council (2010-14) including on the development of the Conflict-Free Gold Standard and on resource nationalism. He has been a Senior Advisor to Critical Resource since 2010.
Between January 1991 and July 1993 he served as Special Adviser to the Foreign Secretary (Rt Hon Douglas Hurd) during the first Gulf War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the start of the transition to democracy in South Africa and the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty. He graduated in Law from St John's College, Oxford in 1977. In 1983 he was awarded the Robert Schuman Silver Medal for services to European unity and attended the inaugural Georgetown University Leadership Seminar. He is a trustee of the Institute of Business Ethics, a member of the Programme Committee of CARE International UK and of the Advisory Board of Engineers Without Borders. He is a Visiting Fellow of Cranfield School of Management and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Energy and Sustainable Development at Cape Breton University in Canada.
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Job Titles:
- Analyst
- Critical Resource As an Analyst
Eliza joined Critical Resource as an analyst, working mostly on client work in energy and mining. Prior to joining Critical Resource, Eliza worked freelance as a policy service designer for public sector clients. She has also been an ESL tutor at a University in Palestine and worked in science communications, largely with schools and community groups.
Eliza holds an MA in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, with integrated semester at Paris Institute of Political Studies. Her thesis was centred around applying concept of environmental racism to climate change discourse. She studied two years of Classical Arabic at sub honours.
Emmy Bosten is a Maputo-based consultant with over 20 years' experience at the forefront of Mozambique's economic development. She has held executive management positions in the country with the IMF, Rio Tinto and BHP. Emmy also has experience working with Mozambique's authorities, including the Ministry of Finance and Tax Authority, Ministry of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Industry and Commerce and Small and Medium Enterprises Institute (IPEME). Emmy has a sound understanding of the opportunities that the Mozambican economy is offering, of formal requirements for in-country business operations and what it takes to transform these into reality. Emmy is the co-founder of EnergyWorks, a majority owned Mozambican company, which provides assistance to firms doing business in Mozambique.
Erick is a Tanzania-based political analyst specialised in political, integrity and security risks across East and Central Africa. He regularly covers the region's politics, trade and extractive industries for leading publications, including The Guardian, Economist Intelligence Unit, The Times and the Africa Report. Erick previously worked as a Senior Communication and Strategy Consultant at the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.
Job Titles:
- Chief Investment Officer of the Natural Resources Equity
- Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Natural Resources Equity Team at Black
Evy Hambro is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Natural Resources Equity Team at BlackRock, and BlackRock's Global Head of Commodities. He is one of the world's most influential resource investors.
Evy Hambro is the Chief Investment Officer of the Natural Resources Equity team within BlackRock's Fundamental Equities Business and the Global Head of Commodities for BlackRock.
He is responsible for the management of the BlackRock Global Funds (BGF) World Mining and BGF World Gold Funds. He is also manager of the BlackRock Gold and General Fund and the BlackRock World Mining Investment Trust. Evy Hambro is co-manager of the BlackRock Natural Resources Hedge Fund and manager of a number of segregated portfolios.
Evy Hambro's service with BlackRock dates back to 1994 including his years with Mercury Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) which merged with BlackRock in 2006. He has worked for the firm in London, Sydney and Toronto. Mr Hambro is an alumna of the BlackRock Enterprise Leadership Program and has served on a number of internal committees including: the BlackRock Global Operating Committee; the Alpha Strategies Partner Group; Fundamental Equities Leadership Group; EMEA Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Hambro earned a BSc degree, with honors, in Agricultural Food Marketing, from Newcastle University in 1994. Mr Hambro is on the court of The Fishmongers Company and a Trustee for the Burdett Trust for Nursing and The Royal Drawing School.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at Critical Resource
Heather Daniel is a Senior Associate at Critical Resource. Before joining the company, she worked for the private sector team at International Crisis Group focusing on international companies in conflict zones. Prior to this, Heather worked as a research assistant to an MP in Westminster and worked in the BBC Radio Nottingham newsroom during the 2017 General Election.
Heather holds an MSc in International Relations Theory from the London School of Economics where she focused on international law, conflict and drone warfare. She also holds an MA in History and Politics from the University of Edinburgh.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Partner
- Managing Director Back to Core Team and Leadership Charlie Pembroke, Director
Henry Hall is an ERM Partner as well as the Managing Director of the Critical Resource team (acquired by ERM in March 2020). Having started from the bottom, Henry took over overall management of the team in 2021, with a particular focus on the mining side of the business.
Henry's career has focused solely on political, stakeholder and reputational challenges facing mining and energy companies. In recent years he has worked on projects across Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia. Client assignments Henry has led have included:
assessments of above ground risk facing mining projects - to help inform multi-million and billion dollar investments decisions,
advisory and coaching to assist clients to design and implement fit-for-purpose ESG strategies (to build resilience against risk and help secure finance,
and development of plans (stakeholder engagement, benefits sharing, communications) to win the support of government, community and civil society stakeholders.
In addition to his expertise in geopolitics, Henry has a deep knowledge of the business environment for mining investors in a wide range of mining jurisdictions in the developing world, particularly in Africa and Latin America. He also has strong networks and connections among mining investors allowing him to reliably advise clients on what it takes to build trust and credibility with that audience. He also has very strong networks within the mining industry, which he frequently calls upon to assist clients.
Henry joined Critical Resource from africapractice where he spent a year working in Guinea on stakeholder engagement and communications at a large mining project. Henry started out as a freelance journalist and political commentator working with specialist publications, primarily focused on mining and energy investment in Africa. Before beginning his consultancy career Henry gained his MSc in in ‘Political Economy of Late Development' at the London School of Economics, and worked on non-traditional security threats in the Indian Ocean region at the prestigious Stimson Centre in Washington DC. For his undergraduate degree, Henry earned a first-class MA in History and Politics at Edinburgh University.
Henry Hall is an ERM Partner as well as the Managing Director of the Critical Resource team (acquired by ERM in March 2020). Having started from the bottom, Henry took over overall management of the team in 2021, with a particular focus on the mining side of the business.
Henry's career has focused solely on political, stakeholder and reputational challenges facing mining and energy companies. In recent years he has worked on projects across Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia.
assessments of above ground risk facing mining projects - to help inform multi-million and billion dollar investments decisions,
advisory and coaching to assist clients to design and implement fit-for-purpose ESG strategies (to build resilience against risk and help secure finance,
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Job Titles:
- Analyst
- Analyst at Critical Resource
Isabella Naughton is an Analyst at Critical Resource. Prior to joining the team, she worked with the British Council as an English Language Assistant, teaching at schools in Spain. She also gained experience as a volunteer researcher for a community-led climate non-profit, supporting businesses and local governments in the UK facing sustainability challenges.
Isabella graduated with a first-class BSc in Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE) and was awarded the Harold Laski Scholarship for the highest performance in the first two years of study. Her final-year dissertation focussed on the politics of natural resource extraction in Latin America.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Steve Botts, Senior Advisor
- Senior Social and Environmental Specialist at the World Bank
Jill Shankleman has thirty years' experience working on understanding the social impacts of private sector investments and exploring the potential of the private sector to avoid or mitigate damaging impacts. She has worked with the private sector, development banks, and non-governmental organizations worldwide, focusing on the social, political, environmental and human rights impacts of oil and gas, mining and power generation. This includes advising on corporate management systems and impact assessment, mitigation, management, monitoring and audit at the project level. She previously set up the social consulting division of international consultancy ERM and since 2000 has worked as an independent consultant.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Lima - Based Stakeholder Relations Expert for Latin America
- Relations Expert
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Dr Muzong Kodi, Senior Advisor
John Youle is a leading Lima-based stakeholder relations expert specializing in the extractive industries and advising clients in Peru, Chile, Colombia, and Panama, among other countries.
Having lived and worked in Peru for more than 25 years, John has extensive experience dealing with the Peruvian business and political sectors. He has worked on many of Peru's largest mining and oil and gas projects. He is the Executive President of Consultandes, S.A., a Lima-based stakeholder relations consultancy, which he founded in 1995. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Institutional Relations for Southern Peru Copper Corporation, then Peru's largest private company. Previously, John was a Foreign Service Officer for the USA. Over the course of a full diplomatic career, he held the positions of Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires of the United States Embassies in Lima, Peru; Quito, Ecuador; and Montevideo, Uruguay. Additional postings included: Medellin, Colombia; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and, Panama City, Panama, where he was the Political Advisor to the Commanding General of the Southern Command.
John is active in Peruvian and international business and non-profit organizations. He was a three-term President of the American Chamber of Commerce of Peru and, three-term Vice-President and Director of the Washington-based Association of Latin American Chambers of Commerce (AACCLA). John has also served as President of the NGO Solidar (capacity building for local governments) and as Director and Member of the Executive and Mining Sector Committees of the National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE). He is currently a Director the Fulbright Commission, the NGO ANIA (Children and the Environment), and the NGO Agualimpia (potable water for rural communities).
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João Carlos de Luca is a leading authority on Brazil's oil and gas sector with decades' experience in senior leadership roles in the industry, including as a Board member of Petrobras, where he was also Managing Director E&P. João Carlos has also previously served as President of Repsol YPF in Brazil and was founder and Executive Chairman of Barra Energia.
João Carlos has held senior positions in a range of industry associations in Brazil, including as President of the Brazilian Institute of Oil, Gas and Biofuels, Chairman of the World Petroleum Congress in Rio and President of the Business Cooperation Committee of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. He participates in numerous other boards of government bodies and private associations related to the energy sector, including as Vice-President of the Industry Federation of Rio de Janeiro State; Board Member of the Energetic Research Enterprise's Advisory Board; VP of Brazilian Association of Infrastructure Development Industry and President of the O&G Committee.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate Back to Core Team and Leadership Kim Park, Senior Associate
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Job Titles:
- Corporate Governance and Sustainable Investment Expert
- Expert
Karina Litvack is a global expert in sustainable investment, having led F&C Investment's SRI activities. She is currently an Independent Non-Executive Director of Italian oil and gas major Eni, and was formerly on the board of the EITI.
Karina Litvack is a leading corporate governance and sustainable investment expert with a 25-year career in finance and sustainable business practice. She currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the board of Italian oil and gas company Eni S.p.A., currently serving on the Control & Risks Committee and the Sustainability & Scenarios Committee, having also previously served on the Compensation Committee.
She is also a member of the Global Advisory Council of Cornerstone Capital Inc., a member of the Advisory Board of Bridges Ventures LLC, a member of the CEO Sustainability Advisory Panel of SAP AG, a Board member of Business for Social Responsibility and of Yachad, and a member of the Advisory Council for Transparency International UK.
Until 2013, Karina Litvack ran the Governance and Sustainable Investment activities of UK asset manager F&C Investments (now BMO Global Asset Management), focusing on shareholder activism and public policy engagement. She was a Member of the Board of Directors at the Natural Resource Governance Institute for over ten years and a member of the Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative from 2003-2009. In 2001 Karina Litvack was selected by Madame Figaro Magazine as one of top 40 influential women.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate
- Senior Associate at Critical Resource
- Senior Associate Back to Core Team and Leadership Heather Daniel, Senior Associate
Kim Park is a Senior Associate at Critical Resource. She has worked on CR projects in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Asia and south-eastern Europe. Before joining the company, Kim worked as a translator and interpreter specialising in international relations, sustainable development and business intelligence. Her experience includes in-house positions at the German Foreign Office and a global NGO based in Paris, as well as freelance assignments in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia.
Kim holds an MA with Distinction in Interpreting from London Metropolitan University and a BA Hons in Modern Languages (French, Spanish & German) from Durham University.
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership John Youle, Senior Advisor
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Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Andrés Rozental, Senior Advisor
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Job Titles:
- US Ambassador to Guinea and Serbia
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor Back to Core Team and Leadership Andrew Grant, Senior Advisor
Phil Carter, Former US ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea
Dickson Jere, Lusaka-based former advisor to the President of Zambia
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Job Titles:
- Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies
Prof Sir Paul Collier is professor of economics and director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University. He is one of the world's leading experts on African and resource-rich economies.
Job Titles:
- Dean of the Fletcher School of Law
Rachel Kyte is Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and previously served as CEO of Sustainable Energy for All, and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director Back to Core Team and Leadership Chris Hindle, Director
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Simon Thompson is former Chairman of Rio Tinto. Among his other previous roles, he was chairman of Tullow Oil, a non-executive director of Newmont Mining, and an executive director of Anglo American.
Job Titles:
- Lima - Based Former VP Sustainability for AngloGold Ashanti Americas