21st Annual Investing in African Mining Indaba
 

2011 Mining Indaba – CSR Speaker Bios

Peter Seligmann
Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO
Conservation International

Peter A. SeligmannPeter A. Seligmann has been a leader in creating conservation solutions for the past 34 years. Since he founded the organization in 1987, CI has earned a reputation as an organization on the cutting edge, creating innovative and lasting solutions to the threats facing humanity, biodiversity and the natural systems that sustain us all. He has developed strong partnerships between CI and leaders in science, industry, government, entertainment and communities around the world. He continues to prove that healthy ecosystems are essential for the present and future well-being of humanity and all life on Earth. Mr. Seligmann serves on the advisory councils of the Jackson Hole Land Trust, Ecotrust and other not-for-profit organizations, including the Wild Salmon Center. Peter is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. President Clinton named him a member of the Enterprise for the Americas Board in 2000.

He began his career in 1976 at The Nature Conservancy, serving as the organization’s western region land steward. He later became Director of the California Nature Conservancy. Mr. Seligmann has a Masters of Science in Forestry and Environmental Science from Yale University and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology from Rutgers University and an Honorary Doctorates in Science from Michigan State University and Rutgers University.


David Couldridge
Investment Analyst
Element Investment Managers

David Couldridge Prior to joining Element Investment Managers, David qualified as a Chartered Accountant and has been involved in financial services since 1985. David has undertaken a number of roles including external audit, internal audit, financial management, taxation compliance and planning and senior management. Audit, risk and compliance assignments were undertaken in South Africa, UK and USA.

He completed a Masters programme at the University of Cape Town engineering faculty using his thesis to develop an Inclusive Integrated Governance Framework. The framework is used as one of the inputs to assess the corporate governance of all potential investee companies for Element Investment Managers. David attended the Henley International Governance conference each year from 2003 to 2007 and presented 3 papers covering integrated governance, remuneration and shareholder activism in South Africa. In addition he has presented a number of times internationally at United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment conferences.

David joined Element Investment Managers in April 2006 as an investment analyst with a focus on Responsible Investment. David has been involved in a number of engagements with South African companies to improve Environmental, Social and Corporate governance (ESG) issues, co-ordinates our Independent Advisory Board meetings and leads Element Investment Manager's active participation in the Emerging Market Disclosure Project.


Mark Cutifani
Chief Executive Officer
AngloGold Ashanti

Aidan Davy
Senior Program Director
ICMM

Aidan Davy joined ICMM in June 2007. He is responsible for ICMM's Community and Socio-economic Development Program, including issues relating to Human rights and Indigenous Peoples. He also leads ICMM’s work on sustainability reporting and independent assurance. Aidan has over 23 years of cross-sectoral experience on sustainable development issues, working with a range of private, multi-lateral and not-for-profit organizations. For the past 12 years, his primary focus has been on social responsibility and accountability issues relating to the extractive industries.

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) was established in 2001 to act as a catalyst for performance improvement in the mining and metals industry. Today, the organization brings together 19 mining and metals companies as well as 30 national and regional mining associations and global commodity associations to address the core sustainable development challenges faced by the industry. ICMM’s vision is one of member companies working together and with others to strengthen the contribution of mining, minerals and metals to sustainable development.


Dr. Elaine Doward-King
Managing Director
Richards Bay Minerals

Dr. Elaine Doward-KingDr. Dorward-King has twenty-five years leadership and management experience in strategy and implementation of sustainable development, safety, health and environment in the mining, chemical, and engineering consulting industries. Prior to her recent appointment as Managing Director Richards Bay Minerals, she was global head of Health, Safety and Environment for Rio Tinto, a role she held for eight years following other roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to Rio Tinto, Dr Dorward-King worked for an engineering consulting firm, Ebasco, and for Monsanto Chemical Company, in the agricultural products division.

Personal passions include identifying and developing leaders who are empowered and capable of inspiring and developing others and working with others in different operational and cultural contexts to achieve practical sustainable development delivery.

Dr. Dorward-King graduated from Colorado State University in the USA with a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry and from Maryville College in Tennessee with a B.A. magna cum laude in chemistry, with emphasis in biology and mathematics.

External appointments (current and recent):

  • Board of Directors, Project WET, an educational water non-governmental organ
  • Board of Directors, Rossing Uranium, Namibia
  • President of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) 1999
  • Science Advisory Panel for the Center for Ecological Health, University of California, Davis
  • Board of Scientific Counselors Executive Committee for the Office of Research and Development of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Science Advisory Board, The Institute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University

Nick Holland
Chief Executive Officer
Gold Fields

Bio will be posted soon.


Karin Ireton
Director of Corporate Sustainability Management
Standard Bank

Karin Ireton was appointed Director of Group Sustainability Management at Standard Bank in 2009. A leader in the sustainable development field, Karin was previously at Anglo American for 7,5 years, where she developed Anglo American’s responses to the sustainable development agenda and most recently held the position of Head of Sustainable Development: Markets and Economics.

During her period at Anglo American, Karin was an active participant in the ICMM’s working groups on social and community development and worked on the development of the “Community Development Toolbox” produced by that body. She has also worked with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development for many years, on the development task force, and participated in a number of working groups to enhance the development outcomes of company initiatives.

Karin has worked on sustainable development issues since the 1992 earth summit in Rio de Janeiro and played a major role in the business preparations for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. She managed the Industrial Environmental Forum and was Sustainable Energy Advisor for Eskom’s long term energy planning process.

A leading voice in sustainable development reporting she chairs the Stakeholder Council for the Global Reporting Initiative, and has participated in the independent panel which provides assurance on the Shell International Sustainable Development report. She serves on the Advisory Committee for the JSE’s SRI index and the Board of Management of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. A former journalist for The Star and the Financial Mail, she holds a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from Leeds University.


Valerie Geen
Director: Climate and Energy
National Business Initiative

Valerie is the Director of the National Business Initiative’s Climate and Energy Unit where she has worked for the past 10 years leading various areas of Sustainable Development including setting up South Africa as a Local network to the UN Global Compact . Over the past four years, she has led the NBI’s ground breaking initiatives such as the Voluntary Energy Efficiency Accord and the Carbon Disclosure Project and has introduced the CDP Water Disclosure Programme to South African Corporates. Through these initiatives she has mobilized leading South African companies to improve their level of awareness and escalate action in addressing Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in particular. She has also fostered business and government relationships by facilitating roundtable discussions between CEOs of leading companies and the Political Leaders of the Departments of Environment and Energy. Both mitigation and adaptation of Climate Change are key focus areas for the NBI.

Through this the NBI won the Mail and Guardian’s Greening the Future Awards in 2007 & 2009 under the Energy and Carbon Management Category. Valerie was also runner-up in the 2009 eta Awards – Women in Industry category.

Mokhethi Moshoeshoe
Director
African Institute of Corporate Citizenship

Mokhethi holds a law degree from the National University of Lesotho. A life fellow of The Southern Africa-United States Centre for Leadership and Public Values at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. An alumni of the Cambridge Programme for Industry, University of Cambridge. He is a founder and a non executive Director of the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC), a partner in Feedback Research and Analytics, Co-founder and chairman of Giving and Sharing Foundation, A public foundation to promote and support indigenous African philanthropic and social support systems.

A co-founder and President of CIVA Innovation Management (Pty) Ltd – a company that provides creative public private partnerships for wealth creation and economic justice; sustainability-based development approaches, corporate responsibility strategies for developing country contexts. He coordinates the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ Learning Laboratories in Southern Africa under the auspices of the AHI and the University of Stellenbosch Business School. He has co-authored the groundbreaking report and corporate toolkit on HIV/AIDS – Affected children and the corporate sector in South Africa, for Save the Children Fund (UK).

He is also a co-author of Guidelines for Corporate Strategic Planning Framework for Community Development for the International Council on Mining and Minerals. Mokhethi serves on a number of governing boards and advisory bodies including: the governing boards of PetroSA Development Trust, Desmond Tutu Education Trust, PLANACT. He is a member of the USAID regional advisory committee for Southern African Development Community (Botswana); a member of Intergovernmental Working Group of experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Switzerland); a member of International Advisory Network of Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (UK) and a member of the international advisory council of the Ethos Institute, (Brazil); a former member of BHP Billiton’s Forum for Corporate Responsibility. Mokhethi has worked with the government institutions, private companies and civil society organizations in Southern Africa and elsewhere.

His main research interests include corporate responsibility, public private partnerships for development, sustainable livelihoods, value-based leadership, corporate strategies for poverty eradication and related topics.

Deo Mwanyika
VP Corporate Affairs
African Barrick Gold

Deo Mwanyika is the Vice President Corporate Affairs of African Barrick Gold. He is responsible for managing the Government Relations, Community Relations, and Communications functions for the organization.

He was previously Executive General Manager for Tanzania with Barrick Gold’s Africa regional business unit. He started work with Barrick in 1999 as a Legal Consultant in Dar es Salaam, and has since held several senior roles in the organization. He has had several promotions recognizing his contributions to management of legal matters and government relations in the region. He became Executive General Manager, Tanzania in March of 2008.

Before joining Barrick, he was Principal Counsel and Secretary to the Presidential Commission responsible for privatization of state-owned companies for seven years, and worked as Legal Counsel for the National Development Corporation. He is a Law graduate from the University of Dar es Salaam, and earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Foundation, East African Law Society, and Tanganyika Law Society.


Dan Sonnenberg
Sustainability Strategist & Coal Mining Co-Ordinator
Grasslands Programme

Dan Sonnenberg is the Grasslands Programme's coal mining coordinator. Interested in the land, its people and how they use it, and equipped with an honours degree in ecology and a post-graduate diploma in land and agrarian studies, Dan has almost 18 years experience of the social and environmental issues affecting developing countries. He has worked as a researcher, manager and consultant with and within listed companies, public enterprises, NGOs, governments, bi- and multi-lateral organisations and research institutes and has been involved at the forefront of many initiatives in the sustainability arena in South Africa. He has managed non-financial risk within companies across a range of sectors, and developed strategies for key issues covering biodiversity, community development, stakeholder engagement, land use and land reform.

Hi role as the coal mining coordinator is to test the viability of wetland mitigation banking in the context of coal mining and to facilitate the use of current and relevant biodiversity information by the authorities and mining companies in planning for coal mining.

Aside from his professional interests, he loves spending time in the bush where he watches birds, identifies trees (on occasion) and enjoys seeing elephants.


Andre Wilkens
Chief Executive Officer
African Rainbow Minerals

André Wilkens was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of ARMgold. He was then appointed the Chief Operating Officer of Harmony following the merger of ARMgold with Harmony in 2003. André subsequently served as Chief Executive of ARM Platinum, a division of ARM. André Wilkens was appointed as Chief Executive Officer to ARM in 2004 and appointed to its Board in the same year. The balance of André Wilkens’ 40 years mining experience was gained with Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, where he commenced his career in 1969 and culminated in his appointment as Mine Manager at Vaal Reefs in 1991.