OUR PEOPLE
ICMM has a small team of specialist staff based in London. Their role is to:
- work with members to identify and advocate the use of good practices to address sustainable development issues within the industry
- represent the views and interests of members
- serve as a principal point of engagement with key stakeholders in the international arena.
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Dr. R. Anthony (Tony) Hodge -
Dr. John Groom -
Dr. John Atherton -
Kathryn McPhail -
Christine Copley -
Aidan Davy -
Ben Peachey -
Anne-Marie Fleury -
Dr. Benjamin Davies -
Fernanda Diez -
Benjamin Hedley -
Claire White
Dr. R. Anthony (Tony) Hodge, President
Dr. R. Anthony (Tony) Hodge was appointed ICMM President in May 2008, and will take up the post full-time on 1 October 2008.
Tony is currently Kinross Professor of Mining and Sustainability in the Department of Mining Engineering, and Helen and Arthur Stollery Professor of Mining Engineering and Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He will continue his teaching responsibilities until the end of 2008 – thereafter he will continue his Queen’s professorship, relinquishing payment and using his research grants in support of students.
For the past decade he has been an Associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (Winnipeg) and is Past President of the Mineral Economics and Management Society (MEMS). For the past 35 years, he has practiced as a professional engineer. Since 1997 he has been President of the consultancy that bears his name, Anthony Hodge Consultants Inc.
He received his B. A. Sc. (1972) and M. A. Sc. (1976) degrees from the University of British Columbia (Geological Engineering). He was awarded his Ph. D. (interdisciplinary) in 1995 from McGill University as a result of work that focused on assessing and reporting on progress toward sustainability. Early in his career his work took him to Belize, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, Panama and across Canada and the United States.
From 1989 – 1992, Anthony was President of Friends of the Earth Canada. He served on the Prime Minister’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) from 1992 - 1996. Through 2001 and 2002 he led the North American component of the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD – North America) project.
In 2003 – 2004, he facilitated the Tahltan Mining Initiative which led to publication of the report Out of Respect – the Tahltan, Mining and the Seven Questions to Sustainability. In 2003 he completed a review of best practices of mine closure in North America. From 2003 – 2005 Anthony served as Senior Advisor to Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) which was charged with developing a strategy for long-term management of the used nuclear fuel.
In 2006, he served as a member of the Independent Peer Review Panel for closure of the Yukon’s Faro Mine and subsequently chaired the Faro Closure Assessment Team. He is also currently Chair of the Advisory Panel which is serving in a review capacity for Newmont Mining Corporation’s Community Relationships Review.
Dr. John Groom, Chief Operating Officer
Dr. John Groom accepted an interim role as Chief Operating Officer in May 2008 to help ensure a smooth transition for incoming President Dr. R. Anthony (Tony) Hodge who takes up his post full-time on 1 October 2008. John is on a full-time secondment from ICMM company member Anglo American during this period.
John has, in effect, had two careers with Anglo American. He had a fairly traditional corporate engineering/management career, followed by a very substantial change to develop a co-ordinated approach to Safety, Health and Environment, and then sustainable development within Anglo American. He is a Past President of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, and currently serves on the Eurometaux Council as well as chairing the working group for ICMM’s Resource Endowment initiative.
John was educated in England and obtained a degree and Ph. D. in Metallurgy at Cambridge University. He joined Anglo American in 1972 and worked on gold and uranium operations in South Africa, nickel and chromium operations in Zimbabwe, and finally as Managing Director of Zimbabwe Alloys and Technical Manager for Anglo in Zimbabwe.
He transferred to Minorco in London in 1991 as Group metallurgist and created the new SHE (Safety, Health & Environment) portfolio shortly thereafter. Following the merger of Anglo American and Minorco, he became responsible to the Executive and a main Board Committee of Anglo American plc for Corporate SHE policy and strategy.
Since 1991 he has been heavily involved in international industry activities, most recently through ICMM. John played an active role in the Global Mining Initiative (1998-2002), acting as lead liaison for the Anglo American CEO throughout this process.
This role encompassed leading the company’s engagement in a number of important initiatives including the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review, the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project, and the 2002 Conference “Resourcing the Future” which marked the closure of the Global Mining Initiative and the initiation of ICMM.
Dr. John Atherton, Senior Program Director
John Atherton is a policy manager in the field of regulatory and environmental affairs for metals with experience in both the public and private sector. He is currently a Senior Program Director with responsibility for the ICMM's Materials Stewardship Program, which includes the development of policy on chemicals management, life-cycle assessment, recycling and materials stewardship.
Before joining ICMM, John was Director for Environment (Europe) at the Nickel Development Institute (NiDi). He was responsible for the development of strategies and programmes to improve the environmental profile of the primary nickel industry and facilitated the nickel industry responses to key European legislative initiatives including ambient air and water quality objectives.
Prior to NiDI, John was the Director of the European office of the International Cadmium Association. His responsibilities covered both development and implementation of industry positions on the management of risks associated with the production and use of cadmium.
This involved interaction with governments and intergovernmental organisations to negotiate satisfactory resolution of risk management issues.
He served as the co-chair for an OECD collaborative group established to examine effective mechanisms for the collection and recycling of nickel-cadmium batteries. He was also responsible for membership development and management of the Associations finances.
From 1991 to 1995 John worked within the Environment Department of the UK Government as a metals policy advisor. He represented the Department at the technical negotiations of several European and OECD instruments for metals risk management. He was also responsible for consultation with industry and non-governmental organisations on the fulfilment of environmental objectives and the management of risks associated with the use of hazardous metals.
Kathryn McPhail, Senior Program Director
Kathryn McPhail, Senior Program Director at the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) joined ICMM in 2002 following over 20 years of development work with the World Bank Group in Washington D.C. and four years in the British High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya.
Since 2002, Kathryn has led the development of ICMM’s sustainable development framework. This comprises ten principles, reporting indicators and third party assurance. She leads and oversees ICMM’s successful Resource Endowment Initiative, a policy research project designed to identify good practice and to document the socio-economic contribution of mining investments in poor countries. She managed ICMM’s participation in the World Bank Group’s Extractive Industries Review, the IFC’s Performance Standards review, the successful development of a joint World Bank/ICMM Community Development Toolkit and ICMM’s submissions to the UN Secretary General Special Representative on Business and Human Rights.
At the World Bank, Kathryn designed the monitoring system used to track the compliance of World Bank projects with social and environmental policies. She also developed good practice social assessment guidelines for the Global Environmental Facility. She represented the World Bank Group on the Assurance Group for the Metals, Mining and Sustainable Development project (MMSD).
As program manager at the World Bank and IFC, Kathryn participated in the design, implementation and evaluation of development operations in thirty developing countries. She has authored over 40 articles and publications. In 2008, she won third prize in the Second Annual IFC/FT Essay Competition for a research paper: ‘Sustainable Development in the Mining and Minerals Sector: The Case for Partnership at Local, national and Global levels’. She was born in Nairobi, Kenya and brought up in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Christine Copley, Program Director
Christine Copley joined ICMM in June 2007 from our association member, the World Coal Institute (WCI). She is responsible for ICMM's environment and health and safety work programs.
She spent the previous 5 years as senior manager at WCI, representing the industry at international energy and environment meetings and policy fora. She has authored and contributed to a number of reports on energy and coal, and organized several international workshops.
From 1998 to 2002, she worked as an Environmental Specialist on international development issues in the energy and urban environment sectors at the World Bank in Washington DC, providing input to research, lending and learning activities.
Christine has degrees in Geology and Environmental Science, and started her career at the UK's Coal Research Establishment.
Aidan Davy, Program Director
Aidan Davy joined ICMM in June 2007. He is responsible for ICMM's community and social development program.
Aidan has 20 years cross-sectoral experience on sustainable development issues, working with a range of private, multi-lateral and not-for-profit organizations.
In the past decade, his primary focus has been on social responsibility and accountability issues relating to the extractive industries. During this period, he has worked:
- as an independent consultant for a range of multi-lateral/bilateral and private sector clients on many of the emerging challenges for the sector;
- as senior specialist with the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) in Washington DC, the external accountability office for the two private sector institutions of the World Bank;
- as Director of Corporate Services for the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), where he developed practical CSR engagement strategies for a variety of multinational companies and represented IBLF on the Secretariat for the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights; and
- with the World Bank on the social dimensions of extractives, the value of tri-sector partnerships in delivering social and community development, and the integration of social concerns into privately financed extractives projects.
For the first decade of his career, Aidan primarily worked on environmental issues, in an international consulting company, a multinational manufacturing company, and the World Bank.
His initial focus was on Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) for projects in a variety of sectors, including mining, initially for an environmental consulting practice and later for the World Bank.
In the intervening years, he worked on environmental audits, Environmental Management Systems, and the then emerging sustainable development agenda.
Aidan has an Honours BSc in Environmental Sciences and Technology from the National University of Ireland.
Ben Peachey, Communications Director
Ben Peachey is currently Communications Director at the ICMM, a post he has held since May 2005. He is responsible for the implementation of the ICMM Communications Strategy, and manages ICMM’s Communications team, whose remit includes media relations, producing ICMM publications and editing the ICMM website and newsletter.
Previously he has worked as a communications consultant at the global engineering consultancy Arup, and as an online journalist at the BBC.
Whilst at Arup, Ben advised a senior management board responsible for a global sector of 1,000 staff on communications issues, organizing internal events, producing promotional material, and developing and implementing communications plans for internal and external initiatives.
Ben spent seven years at the BBC, where he launched and edited a daily e-mail newsletter for the BBC’s Newsnight programme, and also delivered interactive content for the Panorama programme where he produced BBC News’ first ever interactive service on digital cable television in 2001.
Anne-Marie Fleury, Associate Program Director
Anne-Marie Fleury is Associate Program Director with ICMM, and is responsible for a number of environmental and community and social development projects. She has been with ICMM since February 2004.
Previously, she was Technical Manager for the International Network for Acid Prevention (INAP) for over three years. She also worked for BHP Billiton at the Tintaya Mine in Peru as well as within the Health, Safety, Environment and Community department in Santiago, Chile.
Anne-Marie was also a research fellow for the landmark Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project. Earlier experience involved an artisanal mining study in Potosi, Bolivia.
She was trained as a Chemical Engineer at Laval University in Quebec City and has a Master's Degree in Mining Engineering from the same university.
Dr. Benjamin Davies, Senior Program Officer
Ben Davies joined ICMM in May 2004 with a background in physical science having obtained his PhD for research in Metallurgy and Materials at The University of Birmingham.
Ben works on ICMM's Integrated Materials Management Program and is actively involved in projects addressing issues such as materials eco-efficiency, chemicals management and metals recycling. The focus of this work is on fostering sustainable development through promoting regulation that is based on sound science.
Prior to joining ICMM, Ben held a joint Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Dublin and The University of Birmingham. His primary research activities concerned the development of sustainable technologies, in particular bulk magnetic alloys and hydrogen storage materials.
Fernanda Diez, Senior Communications Officer
Fernanda Diez joined ICMM in November 2007. She is responsible for liaising with media, and for producing content for ICMM publications, newsletters and website.
With a background in economics and political philosophy, she has worked for eight years in Government and Congress in Argentina, particularly on issues of governance, regulation of privatised utilities, and questions of co-operation between government and business. She was also a free-lance journalist for MERCADO, a prominent business magazine in Argentina, for seven years.
More recently, Fernanda has worked in publications at an Oxford University Foundation dealing with socio-legal issues, and conducted research on Corporate Social Responsibility for the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University’s Said Business School.
Fernanda obtained her BSc. Economics and MSc. Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Benjamin Hedley, Program Officer
Ben Hedley joined ICMM in May 2004. He initially worked on the Socio-economic Programs and has been involved with projects that address issues such as human rights, transparency and using resource endowments to foster sustainable development.
He now manages the Good practice and Tailings websites and the majority of his work is focused on the Materials Management, and Environmental and Social Development Programs.
Ben has a background in Environmental Geology and obtained his BSc at the University of Birmingham (UK) with a dissertation focussed on mine site redevelopment and remediation. He has recently taken a professional development course in Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Claire White, Program Officer
Claire White joined ICMM in October 2007. She works on the Community and Social Development Program and the Sustainable Development Framework.
Prior to joining ICMM, she spent a year at the United Nations in New York where she co-published a report for the Evaluations and Studies Unit before working for a humanitarian aid fund in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Claire has a background in political affairs and obtained her MA in Politics at the University of Edinburgh (UK).
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