Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development

Toward a Framework for Resource Extraction Industries

March 29-31, 2012 | Hotel Omni Mont-Royal
A Conference Open to the Public

This conference is made possible in part by generous funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, as well as Rio Tinto Alcan, SNC-Lavalin and Teck Resources.

The marked growth of the resource extraction industry poses new opportunities and challenges for development. Increasingly, however, the unprecedented rise in commodity prices, independently of their short-term fluctuations, combined with the exhaustion of the most easily accessible sources, means that resource extraction will increasingly be a source of conflict in many developing countries over the distribution of the proceeds and the creation of economic opportunities for local populations, as well as the avoidance of environmental damage. The severity of such conflicts is only exacerbated by the fact that new explorations are often in the poorest regions of developing countries, frequently inhabited by indigenous populations.

For a number of years, private companies engaged in resource extraction have been under increasing pressures from their home country governments and populations, as well as the local communities where exploration and resource extraction take place, to devise more effective policies for community engagement to ensure that local development is enhanced rather than undermined. The dominant response from resource extraction companies is reflected in a range of policies associated with the concept of corporate social responsibility or CSR. Yet we need to move beyond CSR as a guiding concept, recognizing its important achievements, for several reasons. The first is that the public often perceives, rightly or wrongly, the very notion of CSR as being little more than a façade intended to assuage the tarnished image of the companies concerned. Indeed, the growing pressure for change often reflects a widespread perception that corporations have not done enough, and this perception is often fed by the media’s coverage of dramatic examples of local protest and/or environmental calamity. More importantly, the notion of CSR could be perceived as one-sided, particularly in countries that were former colonies. While the extractive industry undoubtedly should play a larger, more constructive role in ensuring that the benefits they earn through their activities be shared with the communities in which they operate and that the inherent risks involved minimized, the idea of “responsibility” often implies a sense of unilateral action that can sidestep the active involvement of the concerned communities. Meeting the requirements of a redefined role will often require new ways of thinking on the part of extractive industries. It will also require that concerned industries acquire the requisite expertise for assessing the successes and limits of past CRS policies and then applying them in practice.

The flipside of this need to go beyond CSR is that communities themselves must be up to the task of playing a more central role in their own future. While the responsibility of corporations is beyond a doubt, one should not lose sight of the responsibilities of communities, and the imperative that both work together to guarantee the viability and long-term sustainability, not only of a particular resource extraction endeavor, but the economic foundations of the community itself. Among other things, this will require ensuring good governance. It will also require that communities have access to the skills and knowledge necessary for enabling them to fulfill this new role in working with the extractive industries. Achieving this, however, will necessitate outside support that is respectful of and knowledgeable about local customs, histories and priorities. In other words, NGOs and donor agencies again must work with communities rather than seek to impose uniform models that are designed externally.

To begin to address these needs and challenges, the conference is intended to start laying out a framework for a new form of public-private sector partnerships for sustainable development in resource extraction industries. Through the participation of industry experts, policymakers, and local and transnational civil society actors, the conference will bring together a myriad of experiences intended to generate a rich but critical discussion of more effective strategies for using for-profit economic activity to generate sustainable economic development. More specifically, the conference and workshop will focus on 3 questions:

What are the challenges faced in trying to establish effective medium and long-term collaborations for promoting sustainable development between extractive industries and the communities they work in?
Are there effective practices or models that can be identified for achieving this goal? and
How can government policies and the activities of relevant non-governmental organizations facilitate such public-private sector partnerships?

Participants have been invited because of their relevant experiences in the public, private and civil society sectors with the expectation that they will address these three questions from the perspective of those experiences.

Thursday, March 29 Setting the Stage

15:30-16:00 Welcome

Prof. Philip Oxhorn, Founding Director, Institute for the Study of International Development
Arnold Steinberg, Chancellor, McGill University

16:00-18:00 Keynote

Stephen Kakfwi, Former Premier of Northwest Territories
Lau Masha, Former Minister of Home Affairs, Tanzania
Ian Smillie, author and Chair, Diamond Development Initiative
Ally Samaje, Commissioner for Minerals, Government of Tanzania

18:00-19:00 Reception

Friday, March 30 The Experience on the Ground

9:00-10:45 The State of the Art I: Successful Private Sector Strategies for Community Engagement

Susan Stocker, Manager, Sustainability and Community Investment, Teck Resources Limited
Etienne Lamy, Rio Tinto Alcan
Valerie Pascale, Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Goldcorp
Jean-François Gascon, SNC-Lavalin

Moderator and Discussant: Milla Craig, Principal of Millani Perspectices and President of Finance & Sustainability Initiative

10:45-11:15 Break

11:15-13:00 The State of the Art II: Successful Community Strategies for Engaging with Resource Extraction Communities

John Mason, Chief Executive Officer, Nature Conservation Research Centre, Accra, Ghana
Jerry Asp, Consultant
Chris Eaton, President, World University Service of Canada

Discussant and Moderator: Wayne Dunn, Wayne Dunn & Associates

13:00-14:00 Break

14:00-15:45 Laws, Institutions and the Challenges of Good Governance

Riccardo Rossi-Ricci, President, Society for International Development, Ottawa-Gatineau Chapter (SID-OG)
Kernaghan Webb, Board Member, Transparency International Canada
Paul Masanja, Chief Executive Officer, Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency

Discussant and Moderator: Prof. Manuel Balan, ISID

15:45-16:00 Break

16:00-17:45 When Capitalism Meets Tradition: Resource Extraction and Indigenous Communities

Willie Littlechild, Expert, UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Natividad Gutiérrez Chong, Universidad Nacional Autónomo de México
Chief Tony James, Guyana

Discussant and Moderator: Philip Oxhorn, Founding Director, ISID

Saturday, March 31 Planning Workshop

By invitation only

The following presentations from the conference are available for download

Jerry Asp, Successful Community Strategies for Engaging with Resource Extraction Companies

Milla Craig, Sustainability: An Investor's Perspective

Jean-François Gascon, Creating Shared Value: Corporate Case Study in Developing Countries

Natividad Gutiérrez Chong, Ethnic Conflict and Natural Resources

Tony James, When Capitalism Meets Tradition: Resource Extraction and Indigenous Communities

Etienne Lamy, Towards New Public-Private Sector Partnerships for Sustainable Development in Resource Extraction Industries. A Private Sector Perspective

Paul M. Masanja, Laws, Institutions and the Challenges of Goood Governance in Tanzania

Lawrence Kego Masha, Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Toward a Framework for Resource Extraction Industries

Riccardo Rossi-Ricci, Laws, Institutions and the Challenges of Good Governance

Ian Smillie, NGOs, CIDA and the Extractives: A Guide for the Perplexed

Susan Stocker, Teck's Approach to Sustainability

Kernaghan Webb, Anti-Corruption, CSR, & the Law in Resource Extraction: Making the Connections

Biographies of Participants

Jerry Asp

Jerry Asp is one of western Canada’s most prominent Aboriginal leaders. He is committed to enhancing the quality of life for Aboriginal people through the creation of new business opportunities and development of skills and capacity in the community. In addition to supporting Aboriginal business development, Jerry has also applied his leadership skills to serve the public. His field experience in the mining industry began in 1965 when he started working on diamond drills. He then went on to work underground for six years in the Tantalus Butte Coal Mine. During this stage in his career, he was president of the only all-native United Steelworker’s Local in North America. Since then, he has become progressively more involved in Canada’s mining industry and in supporting Aboriginal business development across Canada. Jerry was president and founding member of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (1985), the largest native-owned and operated heavy construction company in Western Canada. He is also a founding member of the National Indian Businessman’s Association (1981) as well as the Canadian Aboriginal Minerals Association (CAMA)(1991) where he is currently a Vice President. During his tenure as president, the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation organization and the Tahltan Tribal Council were jointly recognized with the BC Environmental Award. Jerry served on the Whitehorse Mining Initiative for three years, and in 1998, while working with CAMA, Jerry critiqued the Canadian Environmental Act for Natural Resources Canada. He has also served as a member of the International Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development Committee – North American Branch. Jerry is an experienced consultant and negotiator. His success in this area includes negotiating the first native–owned Independent Power Producer contract with BC Hydro, the first significant Impact and Benefits Agreement in BC’s mining industry (Golden Bear Mine) and he successfully negotiated for a new health facility to serve the Dease Lake area. Jerry has shared his knowledge, on mining issues, with Indigenous People in Peru, Chile, Dominica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Argentina, Panama, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Milla Craig

Milla Craig has over 15 years in Institutional Equity Sales with Scotia Capital, RBC and BZW where she was consistently a top tier investment sales person in Canada. Over that time she also built a reputation for anticipating trends and designing and implementing successful investment strategies including the China strategy at Scotia Capital. Milla believes the next generation of investing is Sustainable Investing. Today, she’s regarded as a leading expert in the field and has been interviewed by Les Affaires [Investissement responsable 101, December 5, 2009] and was published in July/August 2010 issue of Water Canada “Walking the Talk – Empowerment Through Investing” and in the Winter 2010/2011 edition of Listed Magazine “New Rules of Engagement”. As a consultant, industry analyst, workshop leader and speaker, Milla is now bringing her unique perspective and practical approaches on Sustainable Investing to corporations, consultants, asset owners and asset managers.

Wayne Dunn

Wayne brings an unparalleled depth and breadth of experience to his role as founding partner of WDA. In the past two decades Wayne has led more than forty social licensing projects in over thirty countries across six continents, helping clients to innovate and succeed in difficult and challenging circumstances. His projects have won prestigious global awards and been developed into lectures and case studies. His innovation and entrepreneurial skills have been demonstrated across dozens of projects and several start‐ups, including one that was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Wayne is an action‐oriented and results‐driven visionary who has consistently demonstrated an ability to generate practical results. He raised $20 million in capital to launch one of his start‐ups, and in the 1990s he helped lead a paradigm‐shifting transition that facilitated exponential increases in indigenous business and economic development throughout the Americas. More recently he has been a practical pathfinder helping businesses to successfully integrate social and economic value creation into their business models. Wayne is a frequent lecturer worldwide on business and economic issues, and also provides volunteer support to numerous local, national and international organizations. Wayne is a founding member of the Leadership Council of McGill University's Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID).

Chris Eaton

Chris Eaton is the Executive Director of World University Service of Canada (WUSC). With a diverse background in international development, Eaton has worked extensively in Canada, Eastern and Southern Africa and South and Central Asia. Prior to WUSC, he was Chief Executive Officer for the Aga Khan Foundation Afghanistan for four years. He has held senior roles at Aga Khan Foundation Canada since 1999. Eaton spent most of the 1990s based in Uganda, working for the Netherlands Development Organization. There he focused on capacity building for local governments and communities. Eaton holds a Bachelors Degree in International Development and a Masters Degree in Political Science, both from the University of Toronto. He came to WUSC in 2009, coming full circle after volunteering in Lesotho for the organization in the late 1980s.

Joanne C. Freeze

Joanne (Joey) C. Freeze is CEO and co-founder of Candente Copper Corp. Since entering the mineral exploration business in 1979, Ms. Freeze has managed exploration programs and evaluated projects for both junior and major international mining companies such as Queenstake Resources Ltd., Arequipa Resources Ltd., Mountain Province Mining Inc., Placer Dome Inc., Dia Met Minerals Corp., Hughes/ Lang Group and Utah Mines Ltd. (BHP). Ms. Freeze lived and worked in Peru from 1994 to 1997 where she carried out both project generation work and property evaluations for Canadian and Peruvian companies. As a result of her experience in Peru, a partnership was formed with Peruvian geologist Ing. Fredy Huanqui (co-discoverer of the Pierina gold mine) and a new mineral exploration company was born. Candente Resource Corp. was established in 1997, which operated privately until going public on May 15, 2000. Ms. Freeze obtained a B.A. in Geography from the University of Western Ontario in 1978 and a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia in 1981. She is a Fellow Member of the Geological Association of Canada and is registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, Canada. In 2011, Ms. Freeze was appointed to the Advisory Council of the McGill Institute of International Development.

Jean-François Gascon

Jean-François Gascon is Vice President, Capacity Building, for the SNC-Lavalin Group, one of the largest Engineering & Construction firm on the globe. He is considered a key international expert in the field of Project Sustainability, a growing field of Sustainable Development addressing the design and implementation of sustainable development strategies on infrastructure and industrial projects in developing countries. Over the last decade, Mr Gascon successfully designed, developed and implemented LRDI^TM programs (Local Resource Development Initiative), SNC-Lavalin’s leading practice in Project Sustainability, on different mega-projects in mining, energy and water infrastructure in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has supported organizations like BHP-Billiton, Barrick Gold, Inmet, Sumitomo, Sherritt International, the African Development Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on the design/implementation of sustainable strategies on projects across the globe. Previously, Mr Gascon served as a Ministerial Advisor for the government of Canada at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). In 2010, he received the annual ARISTA award “Young Leader without Borders” from the Jeune Chambre de Commerce de Montréal. Mr Gascon has a B.A. in International Relations and a B.C.L. from the McGill Faculty of Law..

Natividad Gutiérrez Chong

Natividad Gutiérrez Chong (UNAM, Msc London, PhD London). She is a Senior lecturer and researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, National University of Mexico. She has researched extensively on contemporary indigenous issues related to indigenous intellectuals, political culture and ethnic conflict. Her publications include cases of China, Mexico, Ecuador and Bolivia. She is the founder and coordinator of the database Sistema de Consulta de Organizaciones Políticas y Conflictos Étnicos en las Americas (2011). Recent publications: Conflictos étnicos y nacionalismos en las Americas (2009), Estados y autonomías en democracias contemporáneas. Bolivia, Ecuador, España y México (2008) “Multi - etnicidad y etno - nacionalismo en la República Popular China”, Revista de Estudios de Asia y África, (2011), “Indigenous Political Organizations and the Nation-State. Bolivia, Ecuador, México”, Alternatives Journal (2010), Nationalist Myths and Ethnic Identities. The Indigenous Intellectuals and the Mexican State (1999). At present she is preparing the final edition of two volumes related to ethnic conflicts in Latin America.

Tony James (Kokoi)

Chief Tony James, or Kokoi, meaning Harpy Eagle is of the Wapichan peoples. He was born and has lived all his life in his community. He became a chief of his community, Isharton, in the year 1994 and served until 2006. During this period he became the Chief of all the Chiefs of the Wapichan, Macushi and Wai Wai nations. He is now being considered for the Council of Elders in his community. He became an active Indigenous activist in 1996 and joined the Amerindian Peoples Association, a national NGO, and served as President until May 2011. He is currently the vice President. He also participated in a 2 weeks training programme for Indigenous Peoples in Greenland.

Stephen Kakfwi

During his professional career, Stephen Kakfwi has been and continues to be instrumental in advancing the Aboriginal land and self-government rights of the Northwest Territories (NWT) Dene, Metis and Inuit. He has had a distinguished career in public government promoting NWT political, constitutional and economic development in the north, within Canada and internationally. Mr. Kakfwi’s current focus is on achieving a balanced approach to conservation and development of the north’s resources and promoting community development in NWT Aboriginal settlements. In the early 1970s, part way through completing a teacher’s degree at the University of Alberta, Mr. Kakfwi returned to his home community of Fort Good Hope, NWT, on the Arctic Circle. He became active in the NWT’s Aboriginal rights movement and protecting Aborignal interests in advance of large scale oil and gas development along the Mackenzie Valley. Mr. Kakfwi was instrumental in negotiating an unprecedented agreement for Fort Good Hope’s participation in a $40M oil and gas exploration program near the community. The agreement included Chevron Canada, the Federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Fort Good Hope. As President of the Dene Nation from 1983-1987, Mr. Kakfwi guided discussions on a framework for Dene-Metis comprehensive claims negotiations. During his term he established the Dene Cultural Institute. On the national front, he founded Indigenous Survival International (ISI) with the assistance of national Aboriginal organizations. In 1987, Mr. Kakfwi made the move to public government representing the NWT Legislative Assembly’s Sahtu constituency, located in the Great Bear region of the NWT. Between 1987 and 1999, Mr. Kakfwi held numerous portfolios, including Education, Housing, Justice, Personnel, Safety and Public Services, Aboriginal Affairs, Resource Management and Economic Development. From 1999-2003 he served as Premier for the NWT.

Etienne Lamy

Etienne Lamy is Principal Advisor – Communities & Social Performance in Rio Tinto’s Corporate Communities & Social Performance Global Practice, based in Montreal. Etienne has worked in the area of international development for more than 20 years prior to joining in 2007 the sustainable development/communities relations team of the former Alcan, now Rio Tinto. The Communities & Social Performance Global Practice is responsible for providing thought leadership and guidance to Rio Tinto’s major projects and businesses as well as its suppliers and partners worldwide. His current portfolio of responsibilities leads him to work on public-private partnerships develoment, design and implementation of customized communities engagement strategies for projects, operations and sites closure, agreements making (First Nations (mostly in Canada), communities, etc), permitting and environmental and socio-economic impact assessments, global practice lead for regional economic development and corporate assurance (communities performance reviews, investment reviews, etc).

Prior to joining Alcan, Etienne spent most of his career in the area of international development working as a Development Economist, Senior Project Manager and Director for a leading Canadian International Development NGO (CECI). He worked in more than 20 countries of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Balkans/Central Asia and lived many years in Africa. He was providing strategic and technical advice to internal projects and external clients and performed consulting work for multiple clients including the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the International Affairs Bureau of the City of Montreal (China Program), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, etc. His main areas of responsibilities covered regional economic development, livelihood support & poverty reduction, capacity development of local organizations and national level institutions, good governance/decentralization, human rights, gender equity promotion, monitoring and evaluation, impacts tracking, etc. Etienne has a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Montreal and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. He also studied Environmental Economics at Harvard University.

Paul M. Masanja

Eng. Paul M Masanja received his first degree in Mineral Sciences from University of Zambia, Lusaka - Zambia (1990 - 1994), and took his Masters degree in Mining Engineering at the Dalhousie University - Halifax Canada (1998 - 2000). Since February 2010, he is Chief Executive Officer of the Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency, Ministry of Energy and Minerals. In this role he is overall in-charge of the TMAA, which is responsible for the auditing and monitoring of mining operations (large, medium and small scale mines) for the purpose of maximizing Government revenue from the mining industry, and ensuring sound environmental management in mining areas.

Lawrence Kego Masha

Lawrence Kego Masha is the Partner in charge of Administration at Ishengoma, Karume, Masha and Magai (Advocates), a member of the DLA Piper Group. Mr. Masha also heads the Firm’s Corporate and Commercial Law Department. Previously, Mr. Masha was Tanzania's Minister for Home Affairs, overseeing the Tanzanian Police Force, Prisons Services, Immigration Department, Refugees Services Department and Fire & Rescue Department. In December 2005, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Nyamagana Constituency. In January 2006, he was appointed Deputy Minister for Energy & Minerals and was tasked with undertaking a mineral sector review exercise which led to the report of the Masha Committee, one of two Committee reports which influenced the enactment of Tanzania’s 2010 mining Act. Mr. Masha was Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Home Affairs between 2007 and 2008. He has been Managing Director for Tanzania Oxygen, Board Member of Tanzanite One (T) Limited, and Founding Council Member of the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. Since 2008, he has been a Board Member of Blue Financial Services. He is also Member of Tanganyika Law Society and East Africa Law Society. Masha holds an LLM in International and Corporate Law from Georgetown University in Washington DC. In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Masha is a director and shareholder in Basix East Africa Limited, as well as Eco-protection Tanzania limited, Tanzania's leading waste management company.

John J. Mason

John J. Mason is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) - a leading conservation NGO in West Africa. Having been born and raised in Nigeria, Mason has been based in Ghana for over 25 years and is regarded as one of the leading voices for local community participation in conservation initiatives in West Africa. He was one of the first people to draw attention to the long-term threat of climate change to the economically crucial cocoa sector of the sub-region. An advocate of local ownership of biodiversity conservation processes, he has worked with communities, traditional leadership, governments, civil society and private sector in Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia to develop conservation initiatives that are owned and managed by forest dependent communities. He was one of the pioneers in the development of the highly successful Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) model which is being adapted to address the challenges of delivering community benefits under PES and REDD+ initiatives across the sub-region. In recent years, he has become a highly sought after expert on the impact of climate change on the environment of West Africa. Together with his team at NCRC, he has catalyzed over 10 cutting edge REDD+ and agriculture carbon initiatives across the continent from Sierra Leone to Ethiopia. More recently he has led an international effort to establish the Africa Terrestrial Carbon Centre (ATCC). He is in demand as a speaker at international conferences and a frequent instructor at specialist workshops. He is a member of the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility – Technical Advisory Panel for the REDD Readiness Preparatory Proposal process in African countries and a member of the Independent Experts Panel for the UN-REDD Programme. He regularly provides expert advice to various international development organizations and governments in Africa. He holds three degrees from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, University of Waterloo and University of Guelph in Canada.

Philip Oxhorn

Philip Oxhorn is a Professor of Political Science at McGill University and the Founding Director of McGill’s Institute for the Study of International Development, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Latin American Research Review. A former Associate Dean (Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies) at McGill, his research focuses on the comparative study of civil society and its role in supporting democratic regimes, particularly in Latin America. Professor Oxhorn’s publications include Sustaining Civil Society: Economic Change, Democracy and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Latin America (Penn State University Press, 2011) and Organizing Civil Society: The Popular Sectors and the Struggle for Democracy in Chile (Penn State University Press, 1995), as well as numerous articles and four co-edited volumes: What Kind of Democracy? What Kind of Market? Latin America in the Age of Neoliberlism (with Graciela Ducatenzeiler, Penn State University Press, 1998), The Market and Democracy In Latin America: Convergence or Divergence? (with Pamela Starr, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999), Decentralization, Civil Society, and Democratic Governance: Comparative Perspectives from Latin America, Africa, and Asia (with Joseph Tulchin and Andrew Selee Woodrow Wilson Center Press/the Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), and Beyond Neoliberalism? Patterns, Responses, and New Directions in Latin America and the Caribbean (with Kenneth Roberts and John Burdick, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Professor Oxhorn has lectured extensively in North and South America, Western Europe, Asia and Australia. He has also worked as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada, Department for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Canada, the Ford Foundation, The Carter Center, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and the Canadian Foundation for the Americas. He has a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University.

Valerie Pascale

Valerie Pascale is the manager of corporate social responsibility at Goldcorp Inc. She holds a degree in international development, with a specialization in Latin American studies. Valerie has worked with NGOs, foundations, Aboriginal organizations, community groups and governments, as well as with the mining, infrastructure and energy sectors. In her role at Goldcorp, Valerie is responsible for the continued development of CSR policies, frameworks, strategies and guidelines, and ensuring that these are aligned with global standards and best practices. She also focuses on building meaningful partnerships with various stakeholder groups for effective and sustainable project development.

Riccardo Rossi-Ricci

Since 1974 Riccardo Rossi-Ricci has been assisting governments worldwide in institutional and decentralized development, humanitarian and peacekeeping roles, mainly within the UN system. He has also spent more than 10 years in FAO Representations in Benin, Brazil, Togo, Colombia, Senegal and Cape Verde Islands dealing also with rural development, nutritional, wildlife and drought issues. In the fight against drug, he opened the UN Office in Ecuador and then coordinated the program in Bolivia. For the European Union he managed an Integrated Rural Development project in Costa Rica, and accomplished consultancies in rural development and drug related matters. He played a key role on the Canadian response to Hurricane Mitch in Central America. His post-conflict experience includes 5 years dealing with local interethnic problems in Kosovo and Afghanistan, mainly in youth, health and rural development. He has been lecturing at postgraduate level in some Colombian Universities. His last field assignment was to reorganize a joint venture between CARE and WWF, to preserve nature, while improving the livelihood of local population in 2 archipelagos of Northern Mozambique. Member of different international development circles, he is the President of the only Canadian Chapter of the Society for International Development. He considers himself a Global Citizen, being an Italian, who, after years in Latin America, in Africa and in the Balkans, decided to settle in the multicultural Canada. A part from the native Italian, he is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. He holds a Master on Agricultural Sciences from the Italian University of Perugia, and a Specialization on International Business Management from the Colombian University Jorge Tadeo Lozano.

Ian Smillie

Ian Smillie was a founder of the Canadian NGO, Inter Pares in 1975, and was Executive Director of CUSO from 1979 to 1983. He has worked on projects with the Humanitarianism and War Project at Tufts University (now the Feinstein International Center) since 1997 and was an adjunct professor at Tulane University from 1998 to 2001. As a development consultant he has worked for many Canadian, American and European organizations. His latest books are The Charity of Nations: Humanitarian Action in a Calculating World (with Larry Minear, 2005), Freedom From Want: The Remarkable Story of BRAC (2009) and Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption and War in the Global Diamond Trade (2010). Ian Smillie was a founder-participant in the 50-member ‘Kimberley Process’ (representing more than 75 governments) which has developed and is managing a global certification system to halt the traffic in ‘conflict diamonds’. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2003.

H. Arnold Steinberg

Mr. Steinberg, Chancellor, McGill University, is a distinguished Montrealer and Canadian, and life-long member of the McGill community. His career and volunteer endeavours, including significant involvement and contributions to the life of the McGill community, reflect a deep integrity and commitment to higher education and health care. A graduate of McGill University (BCom 1954) and Harvard University (MBA 1957), Mr. Steinberg is currently a senior officer with Cleman Ludmer Steinberg Inc, an investment holding company. A leading and knowledgeable contributor to the healthcare sector, Mr. Steinberg is Chair of the Board of Canada Health Infoway Inc., a Federal, Provincial and Territorial Governments' initiative with a unique mandate to accelerate the development and adoption of electronic health information systems in Canada. Mr. Steinberg has worked tirelessly for the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH), beginning with a joint project with Dr. Charles Scriver (B.A. 1951, M.D.C.M. 1955), working on the addition of Vitamin D to the milk produced and sold in Quebec and evaluating the childhood bone disorder of rickets. Over the past 40 years, Mr. Steinberg has been involved with numerous charitable, educational and cultural organizations. In 1995, he was elected Chairman of the Interim Board of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), comprising the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal General Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Hospital and the Montreal Children's Hospital. He was the Founding Chairman of the MUHC Board, member of the MUHC Research Institute. In 2005, Mr. Steinberg was appointed by Order-in-Council to the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and is currently Vice-Chair. A member of the Order of Canada and a leading collector of modern art, Mr. Steinberg was awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill University in 2000. He is married to Dr. Blema Steinberg, Professor Emeritus, McGill University, and is the father of Margot, Donna and Adam.

Susan Stocker

Susan Stocker graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1994 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering. She started her career with Teck Resources in July 1994 working as a Process Operator in their research facility in Richmond, and progressed through various technical and management roles while developing a new hydrometallurgical process for the production of copper. Susan moved to Teck’s Head Office in Vancouver in March 2007 and took on the role of managing Teck’s intellectual property portfolio as well as mentoring and developing technical employees across Teck. Over the last two years, Susan has been helping to lead the development and implementation of Teck’s sustainability strategy and embed a culture of sustainability at Teck. Recently, Susan has also taken on overseeing the management of Teck’s community investment program. Susan is a registered Professional Engineer with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining.

Kernaghan Webb

Professor Kernaghan Webb's research and action has focused on the role of innovative non-coercive instruments (codes, standards, certification, voluntary approaches) in support of conventional regulatory approaches (at the national and international level), and the regulation of the voluntary sector. Webb is a co-investigator in the SSHRC-supported Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN). As part of the CBERN initiative, he is developing a pilot collaborative case study project to be carried out by the Institute of the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University. He is also conducting research concerning the application of certification of environmental management systems to both business and non-business organizations. His work on the constitutionality of regulatory offences has been cited and followed by the Supreme Court of Canada. Webb is a special advisor to the United Nations Global Compact on the ISO 26000 Social Responsibility standard, chair of ISO standards concerning voluntary codes and dispute resolution, and is an advisor on revisions to the Ethics Code of the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy/Imagine.

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