As a collaborative learning network, ICBIS draws on a cross-section of professionals and experts who are active in a variety of fields, developing custom-made teams for each project that is undertaken.

ICBIS Contributors support and participate in initiatives and projects undertaken by ICBIS. These include spectrum of activities, from programs and events that ICBIS initiates through to client-specific projects and undertakings.

Ron Nielsen, P.Eng., PBAS

Senior Director, ICBIS and Executive in Residence, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University

Ron is the Senior Director with ICBIS. In addition, Ron is an Executive in Residence at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, leading the development of the Business Innovation and Sustainability focus. He also holds roles as Senior Associate with the social media and strategic intelligence firm Exvisu, and Senior Associate with the management and sustainability strategy consultancy EEM Inc..

Prior to founding ICBIS, Ron was Director of Sustainability and Strategic Partnerships with Rio Tinto Alcan, working to implement sustainability initiatives across the Company’s business units. He provided strategic advice and developed sustainability-related partnerships that supported and strengthened Rio Tinto Alcan’s efforts to be a leader in sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Before joining Rio Tinto Alcan, Ron worked as Director of the Air Programme for Pollution Probe, a Canadian environmental organization, and had a particular focus on the topics of climate change and emissions trading. Prior to working with Pollution Probe, Ron was Senior Policy Advisor for the Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy, an advisory council to the Premier of Ontario. At the Round Table Ron worked on a range of sustainability issues including two key initiatives: the Sustainable Communities program and the Round Table’s multi-stakeholder effort on climate change – The Transportation and Climate Change Collaborative.

Ron has worked with a range of organizations in the sustainability and corporate responsibility area including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights and the EXCEL Partnership in Canada.  He is a Fellow of Tomorrow’s Company (UK), and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Water Network, the Advisory Committee for the Research Network on Business Sustainability and the Canadian Advisory Committee to the international environmental management system standard ISO 14001.  Ron is chair of both the Canadian Advisory Committee to the international climate change standard ISO 14064 and the Canadian Standards Association Strategic Steering Committee for Business Management and Sustainability.  Ron has a H.BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and is a professional partnership broker accredited by the International Business Leaders’ Forum and Overseas Development Institute (PBAS).

Ron is based in Montreal, Canada.

Grace Barrasso

Grace Barrasso is an independent sustainability entrepreneur based in Montreal, Canada. She is also a lecturer at Concordia University in the Department of Geography, Urban Planning and the Environment where she teaches a course on Environmental Impact Assessment.

Grace has held several positions in the past where she worked for the aluminum industry between 2002 to 2007. She held a position at the Aluminum Association of Canada as Director Sustainable Development, Health and Safety (Montreal), the European Aluminium Association as Environment Manager (Brussels), and as EHS Regulatory Affairs Manager for Alcoa Europe (Brussels). Grace also represented Alcoa at the American Chambers of Commerce (EU Committee) where she was Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee (2002 – 2005).

Prior to the aluminium industry, Grace was Environmental Affairs Manager for Tetra Pak Europe (based in Brussels) where she helped define and drive the company’s environmental strategy, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

Grace first arrived in Brussels in 1996 where she worked as the Assistant to the Trade Counsellor at the Canadian Mission to the European Union. Before leaving Canada, she worked on several projects with the ‘Institute for Research on Environment and Economy’ where she conducted field-analysis in First Nations Communities across Canada. Her role was to compile alternative socio-economic indicators for a methodological study on sustainable development indicators.

Grace has an interdisciplinary education in environmental economics, environmental law and political science, where she studied at Concordia and McGill University in Montreal, The University of Ottawa in Ottawa, and The London School of Economics in London. She has published on a variety of environmental and ecological themes, including “sustainable development indicators for First Nations Communities” and “sustainable development indicators for the European aluminum industry”.

Grace is based in Montreal, Canada.

Anne Copeland

Copeland & Partners Limited

Ms Anne Copeland, founding director of Copeland & Partners Limited, has 20 years of experience in environmental and social due diligence, and sustainability strategy development, management and reporting, as well as stakeholder engagement and training. She has been active in the sustainability field in Hong Kong and Asia for over 12 years, where she has honed her expertise in assisting companies to embed sustainability issues into their operations and to identify and manage environmental and social risks.

As a sustainability advisor, she assists companies such as Swire Pacific, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited (in cooperation with Green Building Services and Cobalt), to integrate sustainability into their overall operations and to report on their performance. Her business also supports financial institutions and potential borrowers to identify and manage environmental and social risks, including projects for the German development bank, DEG, and Citibank that range from environmental management, health and safety, labour issues and supply chain issues, to resettlement and livelihood compensation, community engagement and community health and security issues.

From 2004-8, Anne was the Environment and Social Specialist for the Asia-Pacific region with the International Finance Corporation where she assessed the environmental and social risks of IFC’s investments in region and assisted clients to meet IFC’s Social and Environmental Performance Standards.

As a Principal Consultant at BMT Asia Pacific from 2000-2004, she led the company’s sustainability, stakeholder consultation, management systems and reporting consultancy for clients such as Esquel Group, Swire Pacific Ltd., Swire SITA Waste Services Ltd., Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, STS Microelectronics, Kumagai Gumi Limited, ACCA and the HKSAR Government. From 1996-2000 she also worked on a variety of environmental and sustainability projects, stakeholder engagement and training initiatives as a consultant for ERM Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Productivity Council, and the University of Hong Kong.

Anne was invited to be an initial member of the HKSAR’s Council for Sustainable Development’s Strategy Sub-committee, in recognition of her pioneering work in Hong Kong in designing and implementing multistakeholder engagement initiatives around sustainable planning issues. She was selected to be one of 33 globally to join the Global Reporting Initiative’s Stakeholder Council from its inception in 2002 until 2008, in recognition of her work in sustainability reporting and engagement with stakeholders in Asia. She led the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Sustainable Development Committee for over 7 years and was a founding member of the Hong Kong Business Coalition on the Environment. Ms Copeland also lectured at the University of Hong Kong, and earned a MA in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto and a BA (Hon) in Political Science from McGill University in Montréal, Canada.

Anne is based in Hong Kong.

Peter Desmond MA(Oxon) FCA MBA FRSA

Peter Desmond is an Oxford graduate and Chartered Accountant who is Founder Director of Growth International which was established in 1991. As a niche management consultancy it specialises in sustainability, performance measurement, financial management, leadership and organisational development. As well as corporate projects, Growth International also designs and delivers personal development programmes, such as parenting skills and business coaching.

Peter’s corporate experience has been gained in the UK and South Africa. Having qualified with Price Waterhouse in 1981 he spent four years in Johannesburg and returned to the UK in 1986 where he worked as Senior Finance Executive at Mitchell Cotts Freight, the Cooper Estates Group, and Arcadia. Peter is 54, married with three children and lives in West London.

Growth International was awarded Business in the Community’s “CommunityMark” in 2005 and a “Big Tick” in 2007 & 2008 in recognition of its balanced approach to corporate responsibility, which includes an HIV/AIDS prevention project for 8-14 year olds in Southern Africa.

Peter is an Ambassador of Tomorrow’s Company, a ‘think-do’ tank which seeks to help create a future for business which makes equal sense to staff, shareholders, and society.

Peter is based in Twickenham, United Kingdom.

Mark Hodge

Mark recently became a Director of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, a global business-led project committed to advancing human rights in business around the world. Mark has been working in the area of sustainability and social change for the past 10 years. His work has spanned management consultancy, social entrepreneurship and youth activism. From 2006 to 2009, Mark was closely involved in the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (which concluded its work in March this year). Mark has extensive experience consulting and training on Business and Human Rights in a range of sectors (extractives, FMCG, utilities, finance). He has led work into the role of business leadership and culture in the context of responsible business. Mark is an accomplished facilitator and workshop designer with a passion for working with diverse groups engaging in complex and emotive social challenges. Prior to working in this field, Mark started a youth activist NGO and was a pioneer in the social enterprise sector in the UK – winning multiple awards including from the Royal Society of Arts and the UK Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. In 2004, Mark co-founded The Hub, a unique incubator for social innovation in Central London that is now replicated in cities worldwide. Mark is a member of the Emergent Leaders and European Sustainability groups of the Society for Organizational Learning. He has lectured on corporate responsibility and social innovation to MA students in a handful of UK universities.

Mark is based in New Delhi, India.

Michael Kerr, BA, LL.B, LL.M

Michael has extensive experience in assisting in the development of CSR/sustainability policies, strategies and reporting frameworks. His clients include companies in the financial services, mining and metals, aerospace and transport, and manufacturing sectors. He has also advised industry associations and governments. Michael’s background as a lawyer enables him to provide advice in the context of the increasing number of new laws, regulations and voluntary initiatives that are being introduced to promote good corporate governance and improve the environmental and social performance of the corporate sector. His work with NGOs has also provided him with a unique insight into stakeholder engagement processes. He has considerable experience in drafting codes of conduct for large multinational companies. Michael is also a Lead Counsel with the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at McGill University, focusing on research in the areas of CSR and trade law. Prior to immigrating to Canada, he served as legal advisor to the Australian Conservation Foundation where he led the foundation’s work on environmental law and corporate social responsibility. He commenced his career as a corporate lawyer with the Melbourne based legal firm, Abbott Stillman and Wilson. He is a co-author of the book Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legal Analysis (LexisNexis 2009).

Michael is based in Montreal, Canada.

Stuart Lister, M.A.

Stuart Lister joined ÉEM’s social performance practice in August 2008. Stuart has over a decade of stakeholder engagement experience in municipal politics and environmental consulting. His professional and personal interest is in the communications aspects of sustainable community development, in particular the use of leading edge blogosphere data mining to provide clients with broader and deeper stakeholder understanding.

Stuart is based in Montreal, Canada.

 

Paul MacLean, M.Sc., CEA, EMS (LA)

Paul is President of ÉEM Inc., a management consultancy that provides leadership in environmental and social sustainability to a wide variety of multinational and local industries, as well as to First Nations and public organizations. Paul has been advising clients on embedding sustainable development into business processes, capacity building, integrated management systems and EHS compliance issues for more than 20 years. He has directed projects in three languages across the Americas, as well as in Africa, Asia and Iceland. Paul is co-author of Good to Green: How to Manage Business Risks and Opportunities in the Age of Environmental Awareness (John Wiley & Sons, 2009) and Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems Auditing (LexisNexis Canada, 2002). Paul has been on the editorial advisory board of Canadian Environmental Regulations and Compliance News since 1993 as well as the Environmental Compliance Insider.

Paul is based in Montreal, Canada.

Christian Matossian, M. Urb., PBAS, Cgeog

Christian is Vice-President of Social Performance and Stakeholder Engagement with the Montreal-based consultancy ÉEM Inc. Christian joined ÉEM inc. in 2006 to grow the sustainability strategy and stakeholder engagement arm of the consulting practice. Christian has 10 years of international experience in social performance, community development, stakeholder engagement, and multi-sector partnership building from the energy, water, mining, transportation, and international development sectors. Prior to joining ÉEM, Christian spent several years in London, UK as a corporate responsibility projects manager for Thames Water. He managed large water supply and sanitation infrastructure projects in developing countries, including undertaking stakeholder engagement and building multi-sector partnerships. Also in Europe, Christian spent two years as a projects manager in corporate environmental affairs with RWE AG. He managed renewable energy and carbon offset projects as well as environmental capacity building programmes. Christian is a member of the Canadian Hydropower Association’s Aboriginal Relations Working Group and sits on the Ordre des Urbanistes du Quebec’s Sustainable Development Committee.

Christian is based in Montreal, Canada.

James C. Murphy, Ph.D.

James served as Associate Director of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in Amsterdam from 2004 through 2007 where he played an integral role in the development of the current GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, now the leading standard for corporate responsibility and sustainability reporting for corporations and organizations worldwide. While at the GRI, James developed and implemented a strategic funding strategy and managed investor and partnership relations with Fortune 1000 companies. He developed and managed the G3 Consortium, a group of leading global companies supporting the GRI, as well as the GRI Technology Partnership.

James Murphy most recently directed global external relations at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the world’s leading think tank for international affairs, based in London, UK. He was responsible for global external affairs and programmatic initiatives, including a new initiative in climate change and energy security.

With more than twenty years of experience in sustainability, corporate social responsibility, external relations, business development, communications, and consulting in the nonprofit and private sectors, James has held positions as a senior executive for several universities. He was the founding Vice President of Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, California; served as consultant to a variety of non-profits and emerging companies; and was interim executive director of the International Business Ethics Institute in Washington, DC. He currently consults internationally with a number of companies in the area of sustainability, stakeholder engagement, socially-responsible investing, and global leadership training.

James holds a Ph.D. in political science from Rice University. He studied French literature and culture at the University of Strasbourg, and pursued post-graduate studies and research at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris during his time there as a Chateaubriand Fellow. He has been a faculty member teaching political science, served on numerous boards in education and the arts, and has published articles on sustainability, philanthropy, business development, and knowledge management.

James is based in Toronto, Canada.

Ken Ogilvie

Ken Ogilvie is an independent consultant and has been honoured with the title of Executive Director Emeritus of Pollution Probe, one of Canada’s most distinguished environmental groups. Ken joined Pollution Probe in October 1995 after serving for almost two years as the Executive Coordinator of the Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy. His position previous to that was Manager of Policy Coordination for the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy. He has also worked for Environment Canada and the Manitoba Department of Environment. He became an independent environmental consultant in April 2008 and also works as a Senior Advisor to Deloitte & Touche Inc. Ken has 30 years of experience in government, institutional and not-for-profit organization positions, ranging from project engineering to policy development and public advocacy. He is currently on several Boards, including Sustainable Development Technology Canada, the Institute for Environmental Innovation, and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group. He is a former Vice-Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) and Executive Coordinator of the Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy. Ken is actively involved in environmental standard-setting work, especially work related to the ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards. He has twice served as Head of the Canadian Delegation to Annual Plenary Meetings of TC207.

Ken is based in Toronto, Canada.

Chip Pitts

Chip Pitts is a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, and Professorial Fellow at the SMU Law Institute of the Americas. He has for several years taught courses on ethical globalization, corporate social responsibility, international business and human rights, and sustainable development at Stanford Law School, the Oxford University/GW Human Rights Program, and elsewhere. Formerly an adjunct then full-time professor at Southern Methodist University Law School in Dallas, he has also been a partner at the global law firm Baker & McKenzie, then Chief Legal Officer of Nokia, Inc., and an investor, founding executive, and consultant to various start-up businesses in Austin, Texas and Silicon Valley. He serves on the boards or advisory boards of organizations including the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Accountability, and is former board chair of Amnesty International USA. He is the co-author and editor of the book Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legal Analysis (LexisNexis 2009), is widely published in leading law journals and media outlets, and a frequent keynote speaker on issues of sustainability and corporate social responsiblity. He has served as advisor to the Business Leaders Initiative for Human Rights and other leading global business initiatives, a delegate of the International Business Leaders Forum and other organizations to the United Nations Commission (now Council) on Human Rights, and currently advises the UN Global Compact as leader of the Good Practice Notes and Corporate Culture and Values projects of the Human Rights Working Group.

Chip is based in Dallas, Texas, United States and Palo Alto, California.

John Sherman

John is a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he is working with Prof. John Ruggie on his mandate as Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on business and human rights. Previously, John was deputy general counsel of National Grid, where he was responsible for litigation, environmental law, business ethics, enterprise risk management, and corporate responsibility. John is a co-chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the International Bar Association, and is an Executive Fellow at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. John has written and lectured frequently to international audiences on business ethics and corporate responsibility, and co-authored with Chip Pitts of Stanford Law the Human Rights Corporate Accountability Gide: From Law to Norms to Value, published by BLIHR and the Harvard Kennedy School (2008).

John is based in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States.

Sune Skadegaard Thorsen, LL.M.

Sune Skadegaard Thorsen has supplemented a business career as director and business lawyer with a specialisation in CSR and human rights. SST has built long-term experience in CSR/Human Rights & Business both as consultant and working within companies. He has written extensively on the subject, teaches and participates in numerous CSR initiatives internationally. He is a board member of several human rights organisations.

Sune is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

Nelson Switzer

Nelson Switzer works as a strategic sustainability advisor to Direct Energy, North America’s largest integrated energy solutions company.  As a senior advisor on issues ranging from climate change and carbon management to vulnerable customers, risk management and governance, Nelson is helping Direct Energy understand and abate the impacts of their operations on the environment and the communities in which we live and work.
 
For more than a decade, Nelson has helped international businesses integrate the principles of sustainable management into their operating strategies – reducing risk, identifying opportunities and protecting and enhancing reputation and shareholder returns.  Nelson believes that the best way to affect change is through raising internal and external awareness and forging partnerships.  To this end, he works with business, government, non-governmental organizations, media and other stakeholders to move the sustainability agenda forward.  

Nelson is a member of the International Institute for Sustainable Development Advisory Panel on Climate Change as well as the Strategic Steering Committee on Business Management and Sustainability with the Canadian Standards Association.  Nelson holds a Masters degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Toronto and is a certified presenter of Al Gore’s Climate Project.