The Global Energy, Minerals and Markets (GEMM) Dialogue Series is committed to the continued growth and evolution of dialogue while providing a collaborative space among an evolving group of partners.
GEMM Team
Glenn Sigurdson, Principal and Founder
Glenn has evolved a significant consultancy practice from a prominent legal career. He has a proven track record dealing with diverse interests – interactions within, between, and among organizations and groups – building relationships, achieving consensus, developing partnerships, and resolving conflict. Since 1994, he has been a Principal in the professional affiliation of independent practitioners known as The CSE Group, who are widely recognized as leaders within the field and its development.
He is internationally recognized for his work with respect to complex multi-party challenges involving environmental, resource, and land use issues, from mining to oil and gas, fish to forests, energy and water, often involving indigenous rights and interests. His work in the field was acknowledged in the publication of the Program Negotiation at Harvard Law School: Public Dispute Mediators: Profiles of 15 Distinguished Careers.
Sustainability has provided a focus within which Glenn has drawn together the many dimensions of his strengths and experiences including co-authoring a widely referenced book, Building Consensus For A Sustainable Future – Putting The Principles Into Practice, a publication of the National Round Table of Canada. Included within a broad range of sustainability related assignments and activities he has served as an adviser to and facilitator for The Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project (MMSD), a major undertaking of research and consultation which focused on how the mining and minerals sector could contribute to the global transition to sustainable development (1999-2002).
Glenn is also associated with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver BC, where he is currently an Executive in Residence and an Adjunct Professor in the Beedie School of Business, and a Senior Dialogue Associate of the Morris J. Wosk Center for Dialogue. He has been delivering executive and management development programs for over 25 years, with the Banff Center (1986 -2000), and now as an instructor in the MBA, and customized programs at the SFU Segal Graduate School of Business. He is the Chair of the Responsible Mineral Sector Initiative, housed at the Beedie School, a collaboration among diverse interests to develop the concepts, tools, and networks to lead and manage responsibly within the mineral sector.
He has written and spoken extensively in the field, and is a former President (1996) of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR), now known as the Association for Conflict Resolution, the pre-eminent international organization in the field, headquartered in Washington, DC. Glenn’s background includes experience as a mediator, facilitator, and negotiator; he also brings with him an extensive adjudicative background as an arbitrator in workplace, commercial, and healthcare disputes, and as the Senior Vice Chair of the Manitoba Labour Relations Board (1980-1989, part time). He is a member of the Board of Directors of RESOLVE Inc, headquartered in Washington D.C., one of the premier, public policy dispute resolution organizations in the United States and internationally.
He received his B.A. (Hons.) Economics from the University of Manitoba (1968); and later attended Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto (1972). He is a former barrister and solicitor called to the Bars of Manitoba (1973), and British Columbia (1989). In 1985 he was appointed Queen’s Counsel. His career, background, and experience are extensively reviewed at www.glennsigurdson.com
Jessica Bratty, Principal
Jessica has more than a decade of experience working with diverse interests helping to build relationships and partnerships, identify common ground and resolve conflicts arising from resource management, governance and sustainability issues in Canada and abroad. She has given leadership and professionalism to a wide range of complex fisheries, water use, mining and oil and gas related projects. Jessica has led the development and management of programs in Aboriginal relationships and sustainable fisheries at a leading Canadian not-for-profit organization.
Jessica is an experienced trainer and lecturer in the field of governance, collaboration and sustainability, conducting strategic planning and implementing capacity building programs on community engagement and Board governance for private sector and civil society organizations in Canada and abroad. She co-leads programs on collaborative governance in fisheries and is a visiting lecturer on negotiation and collaboration strategies in the graduate business diploma and Executive MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership programs at Simon Fraser University. She has lived and worked in this field in South Africa and South-East Asia and holds a Master of Science in Resource Management and Environmental Science. Jessica has worked professionally as a biologist with expertise and publications in fisheries assessment and ecology. In 2008, Jessica became an Associate with The CSE Group, a professional affiliation of independent practitioners well recognized as leaders in the field of sustainability and conflict resolution.
Jim Cooney, Senior Associate and Founder
Jim Cooney has for many years been a thought leader and consensus builder around issues of social responsibility and sustainability in the extractive sector. In 2011, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum recognized his contributions over many years by honoring him with the Syncrude Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development.
Jim is a founding member of the RMSI team, and chaired its inaugural dialogue in January 2011 on the subject of “Business and Human Rights beyond Ruggie”. He is also a Senior Associate with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) on extractive sector strategies for integrating sustainable economic growth, social progress, environmental protection and effective governance. He is also a founding member of the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN), he engages with leading thinkers based in universities, corporations, non-governmental organizations and governments in exploring corporate ethics and best practices related to issues of human rights, socially responsible investing, indigenous peoples, and resource extraction.
Jim retired from Placer Dome, as Vice President, International Government Affairs, when that company was acquired by Barrick Gold in 2006. During his thirty years in the mining industry, he has worked on projects in Canada and in many countries of the developing world. He played a major role in the Mining Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project from 1998 to 2002, which created a new framework for understanding and advancing corporate social responsibility in the global mining industry.
Jim has served on the Boards of Transparency International – Canada, the North South Institute, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Pacific Basin Economic Council. He was a member of the Advisory Group appointed by Foreign Affairs Canada on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Canadian Extractive Sector in Developing Countries, which held hearings across Canada and submitted its report to government in 2007. Over the years, he has served on many advisory panels to Natural Resources Canada, the World Bank, and agencies of the United Nations.
He holds a BA in philosophy and political science from Georgetown University, an MA in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto, and an M. T. S. from the Vancouver School of Theology, for which he wrote a thesis on Christian Ethics and Corporations. He is a frequent writer and speaker on the subjects of mining and sustainability, corporate ethics, and social and political risk management.
Christopher Tucker
Chris is a Senior Consultant at Deloitte, Enterprise Risk. Prior to this, Chris was an Associate at GEMM while he completed his masters degree in Mining Engineering at UBC looking at social risk management, economic development and front-line community engagement with small-scale miners. He sits on the Association for Mineral Exploration’s Land Use Committee and is the former Communications Director for SustainableSFU. He has a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from Simon Fraser University and over a decade of experience as a strategic communications consultant.
Matthew McKernan
Matt currently works at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London. He is part of a team supporting the dialogue and research components of IIED’s Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Knowledge Programme.
Prior to IIED, Matt worked as a volunteer and then as an intern for the Responsible Minerals Sector Initiative and the CSE Group in the Canadian mining and oil and gas sectors. Here, his work focused on responding to sustainability challenges in the mineral sector using multi-stakeholder dialogues and engagement.
Matt graduated from King’s College London in 2014 with an MSc in Emerging Economies and International Development, focusing on natural resources governance. His dissertation examined the corporate social investment and development programmes of mining companies in Peru.