ICMM - International Council on Mining & Metals

Dr. John Atherton, Senior Program Director

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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.

Christine Copley, Program Director

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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.

Dr. Benjamin Davies, Senior Program Officer

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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.

Aidan Davy, Senior Program Director

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Aidan Davy joined ICMM in June 2007. He is responsible for ICMM's Community and Socio-economic Development Program, including issues relating to Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, Community Development, Human rights and Indigenous Peoples. He also leads ICMM’s work on sustainability reporting and independent assurance.

Aidan has over 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.

Fernanda Diez, Senior Communications Officer

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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).

Anne-Marie Fleury, Associate Program Director

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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.

Hanna Hindström, Communications Assistant

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Hanna Hindström joined ICMM in September 2008, where she provides support to the Communications team.

Before joining ICMM, she spent six months interning at the external affairs unit of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in London.

She has a degree in Journalism and Contemporary History and completed her MSc in International Public Policy at University College London (UCL).

Dr. R. Anthony (Tony) Hodge, President

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Dr. R. Anthony (Tony) Hodge was appointed ICMM President in May 2008, and took up the post on 1 October 2008.

Tony is also Professor of Mining and Sustainability at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. 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, Tony 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.

Gemma Lee, Team Support Officer/Program Officer

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Gemma joined ICMM in April 2009.  She covers the front desk and supports the ICMM team administratively in addition to working on various projects within the program areas. 

Prior to joining ICMM, Gemma completed an internship at ISEAL (International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling) Alliance where she worked on a stakeholder communications project. 

Gemma obained her BA Geography and MA Environment, Politics and Globalisation, both from King's College London.

Mark Holmes, Program Officer

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Mark Holmes joined ICMM in February 2009 where he works on the Environmental Stewardship and Health & Safety work programs.

Mark has a degree and background in earth and environmental science and has recently obtained his MSc in Environmental Monitoring and Analysis from Aberystwyth University.

Casilda Malagón, Communications Officer

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Casilda joined ICMM in February 2009. She leads the development of new media projects and coordinates ICMM’s participation in international events.

Previously, she worked as a Project Manager and later Communications Manager for a USAID project for Democracy and Governance in Mexico where she spearheaded the Quality Journalism Network and worked on the Presidential government innovation agenda working with the Organization of American States, the United Nations Programme for Development and the World Bank, among other international and local stakeholders.

More recently she collaborated with the Liberal Democrats’ Innovation Department during the London Mayoral campaign and designed new media strategies for Mexican Non-Profit organizations.

Casilda holds an MA in Corporate Communication from The Media School at Bournemouth University and a BA in Communications from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

Kathryn McPhail, Senior Program Director

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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.

Sara Ovuike, Program Officer

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Sara Ovuike joined ICMM in October 2008 where she works on the Materials Stewardship program with emphasis on Life Cycle Management and on the Resource Endowment Initiative.

Before joining ICMM, Sara worked as an environmental consultant at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). She also completed an internship at UNIDO’s Cleaner Production Branch.

Since graduation Sara has worked on a variety of projects including:

• E-waste management in Africa,
• Strategic management of resources and wastes for Least Developed Countries within the framework of the Stockholm Convention,
• Life Cycle Assessment as a tool for determining alternative building materials for low-cost housing,
• Eco-tourism through renewable energy technologies in Tanzanian, Ugandan and Kenyan national parks.

Sara obtained a BEng in Environmental Materials Technology from Queen Mary University and a PGDip in Environmental Diagnostics from Cranfield University. She is also an Associate member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.

Ben Peachey, Communications Director

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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.

Claire White, Program Officer

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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).