Our Board of Directors
Nicole Piggott
President
Canada
Nicole is the Co-Founder and President of Synclusiv and Chief Operating Officer at Women in Governance (WiG) a not-for-profit organization that works to increase the presence of women in decision-making roles in business and politics. She is a seasoned HR Executive who has led HR professionals at Bombardier, RioTinto, Iron Ore Company of Canada, FedEx Canada, and Royal Bank of Canada. During her career, she has implemented and overseen HR policies, engagement programs to improve the workplace, and negotiated the first impact benefit agreements between Iron Ore Company of Canada and various indigenous communities in Labrador. Nicole holds a Board position at Black Academic Scholarship Fund, Women in Governance, National Safety Council and is the co-lead for the Goodman Cancer Research Institute lecture series at McGill University. Nicole is also an advisor to Global Affairs Canada and the CN-Paul Tellier chair of the University of Ottawa on gender issues.
Shivani Kannabhiran
Vice-President
France
Shivani is a senior manager and specialist in OECD risk-based due diligence. She has worked at the OECD since 2012 and currently leads the global programme on responsible agricultural supply chains. She collaborates closely with policymakers and regulators, business, investors, civil society and worker representatives to operationalise global ESG standards to address climate change, food security & nutrition, livelihoods and inclusion. Prior to her leadership of the agri-food supply chain programme, Shivani worked with business and stakeholders on ESG due diligence in the minerals sector with a focus on child labour and gender in high risk environments. Before joining the OECD, Shivani advised companies on corporate strategy and operations with management consultancies Kearney and Business for Social Responsibility; and raised funds for a mid-sized non-profit organisation in Manhattan. She has an MBA from Insead and is based in Paris, France.
Edward Blight
Treasurer
United Kingdom
Allan Ritchie
Canada
Allan is a Partner at Loopstra Nixon, a Toronto-based legal firm, where he leads the Canada-US Cross Border practice and serves on the governing Executive Committee. He previously worked at the Toronto office of a U.S.-based, global law firm. He has particular expertise conducting international transactions on behalf of foreign businesses entering the North American market and domestic businesses seeking global opportunities. He also serves a number of foreign law firms as Canadian agent counsel. Allan is licensed to practice law in Canada (Ontario) and the United States (New York) and manages a global corporate finance and commercial law practice. He is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a Specialist in Corporate and Commercial Law and by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada as a specialist in Corporate Finance. His clients include private and publicly traded corporations, large financial institutions, private equity funds, and high net worth individuals and families.
David Onyalo
Canada
David is the Founding Director of Ujeengo Global Community International (Canada) with partners in Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Ujeengo has programs on extractive industries, women economic development, GBV and union capacity building. He is also the President of Onyxx Energy Solutions Canada Inc., a social enterprise that promotes the use of renewable energy in under served rural communities in Africa. With the Canada-Africa Global Immigration Link he is part of a team that provides information at no cost to migrant workers from African countries to Canada. He has worked in international development in sub-Sahara Africa to promote the ILO Decent Work Agenda, on HIV & AIDS, poverty reduction, human rights, women’s rights & gender equality, and union capacity building. David has held elected and senior management positions with the Canadian Union of Public Employees and senior staffing positions at the Canadian Labour Congress.
Gavin Hilson
United Kingdom
Gavin is Professor and Chair of Sustainability in Business at the University of Surrey. Gavin is a leading global authority on the environmental and social impacts of the small-scale mining sector. Having published over 300 journal articles, book chapters, and reports on the subject, his specialist knowledge widely recognized internationally. He has delivered talks on small-scale mining at United Nations headquarters in New York, the World Bank in Washington DC and several universities worldwide. He has also provided consultancy services on the subject for a range of organizations: the UK Department for International Development, World Bank and EGMONT (Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels); the NGO sector, including the Alliance for Responsible Mining and the WWF Guianas; and corporations such as Newmont Gold Mining and Gold Fields. Gavin is editor-in-chief of The Extractive Industries and Society (Elsevier Science), and is on the editorial boards of The Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier Science), Resources Policy (Elsevier Science), Mineral Economics (Springer) and The International Journal of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Environment (Taylor & Francis). He is also an executive board member of the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI), an NGO established to improve awareness and eliminate circulation of ‘conflict diamonds’.
Ginette Martin
Canada
Originally from New Brunswick, Ginette worked as a translator with Indian and Northern Affairs in Ottawa. After three years, she joined the Canadian Foreign Service at Foreign Affairs, today Global Affairs Canada. At headquarters in Ottawa, she worked on Anglophone Africa, Asia-Pacific, South and Southeast Asia, as well as United Nations files. Ginette was senior advisor during the Canadian UN Security Council mandate in 1998-1999 and worked with the Multilateral Affairs group, notably on health and international security issues, at the Canadian International Development Agency. Abroad, she worked on the Canadian development programme in Tanzania, on political, immigration and consular affairs in Cuba, and on economic and commercial affairs as well as human rights in Indonesia. She was manager of the political, economic and public affairs programme in Guatemala, then Minister-Counsellor responsible for these areas in Mexico, and later Acting Consul general in Monterrey. She was appointed Canadian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo in July 2014 and served in Kinshasa until 2017. She retired in January 2018 to settle in New Brunswick.
Hilary Homes
Canada
Hilary is a longtime human rights activist who currently works for Amnesty International Canada as a crisis and tactical campaigner. As a young leader, they developed youth participation and leadership development programs at the national and international level before shifting to strategic campaigning. Over the years they have focused on a wide range of thematic and country-based files including children affected by armed conflict, the arms trade, international justice, the human rights impact of national security measures, and mass surveillance.
Louise Ouimet
Canada
Louise devoted her entire career to international development. She joined the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 1973. She was posted in West Africa for 10 years, six as Ambassador and Head of Cooperation in Burkina Faso (1995-97), and Mali (2001-05). In 2000-01, she was a Senior Advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister for Africa and international cooperation. Between 2009 and 2022, she specialized in governance of public institutions throughout consultancies in several African countries as well as Pakistan. Louise was President of the Africa Study Group between 2013 and 2016. She is a board member of Oxfam-Quebec (since October 2019) and IMPACT (since July 2022). She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Public Administration School in Quebec, Canada (ENAP) and is a certified Mediator (Third Party Neutral) from the Canadian Institute of Conflict Resolution.
Paulo De Sa
USA
Paulo is a Senior Advisor at the Inter-American Development Bank. Previously, he was a Practice Manager with the Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank. There he coordinated and led oil, gas, and mining lending activities and technical assistance in more than 50 countries. He also headed three global partnership programs in the oil, gas, and mineral sectors including: the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR), and the Extractive Industries Technical Advisory Services (EI-TAF). With the World Bank Paulo also held the positions of Lead Operations Officer for the Latin America region and Lead Industrial Economist. Before joining the World Bank, he worked in Strategy and Operations for Usinor-Sacilor, a leading steel producer in France. He holds a Doctorate in Mineral Economics from the Paris School of Mines.