John Aston - Smart Engagement: Why, What, Who and How

JOHN ASTON has 20 years experience in strategy, and project design, management and communication, in countries including Ireland, UK, France, Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Yemen and Canada. His areas of expertise include natural resources, energy and infrastructure projects for the private sector, World Bank or national governments, and include design, implementation, environmental management, social responsibility and capacity building. He has been an engineering consultant, a vice president of a junior mining company, and a member of the technical committee that created the international stakeholder engagement standard AA1000SES (2011). Since 2006, John manages his own company in project co-creation in support of sustainable results. He is a visiting lecturer at a number of universities. He graduated in civil and environmental engineering in Ireland and France, is a Chartered European Engineer and has a Masters in environmental management from Imperial College, London.

ALAN KNIGHT has over 25 years of experience advising corporations, governments and civil society on sustainability issues, specialising in corporate responsibility, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation, and sustainability assurance. Alan has worked with many major international corporations in the utility, manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, aeronautics, chemical, pulp and paper and financial sectors, and has written extensively on a range of related standards and sustainability subjects. He has been a member of numerous boards and advisory and technical committees related to management systems, auditing and assurance, environmental and social performance evaluation and reporting. Alan has been a Senior Fellow at AccountAbility in London, a Vice President with ICF International in Toronto and Washington DC, and an Assistant Professor at McGill University in Montreal. He has published a number of books, studies, monographs and articles on a wide range of sustainability issues. Alan has a PhD from the University of Alberta, Canada, has qualified as a certified environmental auditor and is an accredited impact investment advisor.