Meet the Plexus team

Key skills/ experience:

Jay is the founder and director of Plexus. He has 25 years’ experience in social and environmental consulting and has held senior appointments with major blue-chip consultancies. He has carried out assignments around the world and specialises in social performance and stakeholder engagement, HSE and social due diligence, socio-economic impact studies, policy analysis and regulatory compliance.

He has managed several major assignments for energy and mining companies, including a global portfolio review on labour influx and social impacts for the World Bank; a social performance audit of Repsol’s upstream operations in South America; a SIA for a mining project in Africa; developing stakeholder engagement plans and managing a socio-economic impact study for an offshore oil project in the South Atlantic. He has carried out over 50 buy and sell-side HSES due diligence assignments in Europe, Latin America and the Far East, and formerly led the environmental practice for Petroconsultants/IHS Energy. For the past three years he has been a senior social advisor to Tengizchevroil in Kazakhstan, focusing on social risk management, stakeholder engagement, social investment and compliance with international lender requirements.

Based in London, he has a MSc in international law and marine resource management from the London School of Economics and a BA in political science from the University of Iowa. He is bilingual in English and German, and fluent in French, Spanish and Norwegian.

Key skills/ experience:

Murray is a director of Plexus. He has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, primarily as a senior advisor in the area of corporate and sustainable development for Shell International. Prior to Shell, he worked for the Canadian and Dutch governments advising on EIA. From 1981 to 1989 he worked for Shell Canada on HSE management issues. He has since been SE Manager at Shell Canada; Senior Environmental Advisor for Shell International in The Hague; and HSE (and Social) Manager at Shell’s greenfield project in Camisea (gas project) Peru. Following this, he was Head of Social Performance for Shell International.

Murray has worked extensively in the area of external engagement and consultation with communities, indigenous peoples, NGOs and government. He has worked on projects in the Philippines, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, and Canada, and advised on projects in Africa and the Middle East focusing on consultation and indigenous peoples. He has worked extensively on the emerging area of FPIC, notably in Peru, and was also Chair of the International Association of Impact Assessment’s Indigenous Peoples Section, which promotes FPIC and expanded dialogue on negotiating agreements with indigenous communities.

Based in Canada, Murray holds an MEng in environmental engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a BEng from Carleton University.

Key skills/ experience:

Susan has 20 years of experience assessing and managing socio-economic issues, community and stakeholder relations, Aboriginal relations, and public and government affairs pertaining to energy sector and infrastructure development projects. She has worked on projects in various sectors including: conventional and unconventional oil and gas E&P; pipelines; power generation and transmission; transportation; and water distribution.

Susan has in-country project experience in Canada, United Kingdom, Thailand, China, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Peru, Ecuador, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. She is familiar with working on assessments in the context of international best practices, including the IFC Performance Standards.

Susan was the socio-economic lead of an integrated assessment and baseline study of a potential in-situ oil development in northern Alberta. She has been involved in regulatory socio-economic assessments of oil sands developments, as well as a strategic socio-economic review of regulatory applications related to a proposed heavy oil development for an Aboriginal community in northern Alberta. She is based in Canada.

Key skills/ experience:

Peter is an exploration geologist with over 35 years of development experience in Canada and internationally. His work has focused on the environmental and social issues related to the extractive and energy sectors. This covers challenges regarding climate change, programme management, environmental assessment, strategic environmental assessment, indigenous peoples’ rights and partnerships, natural resources, capacity building, environmental management, and governance.

Peter’s last position was with the Canadian International Development Agency as Manager of the Environmental Integration Unit. He was also the Chair of the OECD SEA Task Team, which oversaw all issues related to strategic environmental assessments developed and implemented by OECD member states for poverty reduction programmes in developing countries. His direct developing country field experience included the creation and implementation of an award-winning capacity development programme for community engagement for the 14 countries of the SADC region of southern Africa, while based in Namibia.

Peter is now in private practice and provides advisory services to a number of public and private sector institutions. He is based in Ottawa, Canada.

Key skills/ experience:

Rene is a sustainable development specialist with 23 years’ international experience in developing and implementing sustainable development strategies and plans; livelihood analyses; lender compliance; strategic community investment and community development plans.

Rene has worked in both the private (extractive industry) and public sector (South African Departments of Agriculture and Economic Development) on a full-time and consultancy basis. She has been responsible for establishing Community Affairs units within companies (including the associated strategies, policies, procedures and action plans required to support action on the ground) and run stakeholder engagement processes, having successfully achieved FPIC. In government Rene headed the South Africa Agribusiness Unit in the Department of Economic Development where she successfully facilitated the establishment of an agribusiness strategy and implemented a number of pilot projects in support of the strategy. A key skill across all sectors has been social impact and livelihood assessments undertaken to inform strategic community investment strategies and action plans. Rene’s work has required successful integration as a team member in multi-cultural groups, as well as leading and managing teams and projects.

Based in South Africa, Rene has worked across Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Recent projects for Plexus include community development associated with the construction of Total’s Yemen LNG terminal and ExxonMobil’s Papua New Guinea LNG pipeline.

Key skills/ experience:

David has more than 30 years’ experience on international projects and policy, particularly on urban, industrial and water-related challenges in developing countries. He has a rare mix of professional engineering training; qualifications in natural resources economics; on-the-ground experience in more than twenty developing countries; and the ability to use this learning to achieve practical outcomes to complex problems. His current professional activities are focused on developing practical solutions to pollution and health challenges worldwide, working with an international NGO, and on assignments from international agencies, including oversight of a global effort to identify and characterise toxic hot-spots and support for locally-led remediation of contaminated sites in Russia, India, China, and several Central Asian countries.

At the same time, he continues to undertake assignments and research in waste management, water resources and sustainability issues, including review of the impacts of mining in Madagascar and oil development in Kazakhstan.

He is a chartered engineer in the UK and has an MSc in policy analysis from MIT. While working at the World Bank, he was involved in institutional efforts to standardise environmental and social approaches across international institutions, as well as taking a lead on the practical application of strategic environmental assessment to the Bank’s operations. He is currently based in the UK.

Key skills/ experience:

Michael has over 30 years’ experience of project management and consultancy for major oil companies, the EU and government agencies. His key skills areas are risk management, option evaluation, cost benefit analysis, due diligence, consultation and strategic planning. Based in some of the remoter parts of Orkney for 30 years he had the opportunity to observe the socio-economic impacts of oil and gas development in small communities at first hand – from planning to decommissioning. He also has an active portfolio within the renewable energy sector.

Michael started his career with BP as a drilling fluids engineer in the North Sea and then broadened his skills in the environmental sector, with advisory roles within international oil companies, the EU INOGATE programme and the governments of Georgia and Kazakhstan. He has enjoyed a number of roles as an associate consultant for environmental and social impact assessment, that include projects requiring finance from the IFC and EBRD. More recently he was an advisor to the UK Shale Gas Task Force.

His renewable energy portfolio over the last 15 years includes strategic planning (onshore wind developments and grid expansion), concept development (hydrogen, V2G), operations (UK CDM and HSE for marine energy), value assurance (wave and tidal devices) and community energy projects. Michael is based in the UK.

Key skills/ experience:

Lucy Mitchell is a social development specialist with 20+ years’ experience across a range of social development areas within both the corporate and non-profit sectors. She works internationally, has an extensive network and is well regarded as an advisor on community and wider stakeholder relations and CSR issues.

She has worked on programmes related to poverty reduction generally and, in particular, related to health and HIV/AIDS, education, public infrastructure, agriculture, environment, population ageing, workforce and indigenous issues. Her focus on indigenous peoples’ (IP) development issues has emerged from her broader professional experience in social analysis and planning, stakeholder mapping, impact assessment and mitigation, community consultation, engagement and development.

She has worked on a variety of key projects including: working as the Regional Indigenous Peoples Programme focal point in the United Nations Development Programme (Indonesia country office), conducting analysis for private sector (mining and oil and gas); providing input to draft documents on best practices relating to companies’ engagement with indigenous communities; participating as IP sub-committee member in a multi-stakeholder council on mining and the community; presenting and facilitating relevant local and international workshops and conferences. Lucy holds a PhD in anthropology and has also undertaken training in human rights, conflict resolution and other complementary subjects as part of her professional development. She is based in Indonesia.

Key skills/ experience:

Marla is an epidemiologist, the founder of Habitat Health Impact Consulting and an international leader in the field of impact assessment. She has led over 25 health impact assessments, both stand-alone and as part of integrated environmental assessments, on behalf of clients from government, industry, tribal government and community organisations. In 2014, she co-authored a textbook on health impact assessment that was published by Springer, and she also co-authored the guidance document Minimum Elements and Practice Standards for Health Impact Assessment.

In addition, Marla has been heavily involved in the critique, development and refinement of impact assessment theory and practice worldwide. She is currently President of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), and is also Chair of the IAIA’s publications committee. Marla brings a comprehensive understanding of current standards and best practices in impact assessment, including guidelines established by multilateral finance institutions, international agencies and industry organisations.

Based in Canada, Marla has extensive experience in developing toolkits and guidance documents for government audiences both inside and outside Canada.

Key skills/ experience:

Based in Brazil, Izabella is an experienced environmental scientist and biologist by training and is an expert in strategic environmental assessment. She holds a master’s degree in energy planning and a PhD in environmental planning at COPPE/UFRJ.

A civil servant at the Brazilian Environmental Agency since 1984, she has occupied different managing positions at the Agency, as well as at the Ministry of the Environment and at the State Government of Rio de Janeiro. From 2007-2008, Minister Teixeira was the Vice-Secretary of the Environment at the State Government of Rio de Janeiro, until she was nominated for the position of Vice-Minister of the Environment.

From 2010-2016 she was Brazil’s Minister of the Environment.

Key skills/ experience:

Debora has a master’s degree in sea use law economics and policy and 20+ years’ experience in issue management, stakeholder analysis and engagement, process development, and training and capacity development.

As a manager with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Debora led engagements with government and communities on oil and gas development in both the marine and tertiary environments. She has been involved in extensive social and environmental consulting in relation to fisheries and marine development issues in Atlantic Canada. For Chevron she led the development of a rigorous process to identify, rank and address regulatory issues and then deployed it throughout the company’s international operating area.

Debora has recently completed a two-year assignment for Tengizchevroil in Kazakhstan where she directly supported the deployment of an issue management process, development and deployment of stakeholder engagement and social investment plans, and led an intensive training and mentoring programme for Kazakh nationals. She is currently based in Canada.

Key skills/ experience:

Peter holds a Professorship in Coastal Management at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

He has provided technical and management advice on a wide range of resource development and environmental management issues. His work is associated with resources development and management in developing countries, including project formulation, development, monitoring and evaluation; applied research; and training.

He has worked for institutions such as the UN, the World Bank, the IUCN, WWF, and international aid agencies. During 1999-2000 he undertook a major assessment of sectoral and territorial integration used by Member States for the EU Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme. From 2001-2003 he was a consultant to BP for spatial and economic planning, EIA, coastal management, and the empowerment of local businesses for the development of the Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia.

Based in the UK, Peter is currently a senior consultant for integrated coastal management for the Mediterranean Action Plan. He has a PhD in natural resource management from Cornell University and a BA in geography from the University of Connecticut. He speaks Indonesian and French.

Key skills/ experience:

Robert is a recognised figure in international energy relations, having been the Executive Director of the IEA from 1994-2002. Since then he has operated as a consultant with clients in the Far East, Europe and North America. As Executive Director of the IEA, he advised the governments of member countries, developing and co-ordinating the main strands of energy policy across the membership, and was responsible for the executive readiness of the Agency to intervene in global oil markets in the event of a serious oil supply interruption.

Under his leadership, the Agency became an authoritative source of policy advice on energy and climate change and extended the reach of IEA activities in non-member countries, formalising co-operative arrangements between the IEA and Russia, China and India and bringing Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Korea into membership of the Agency. He previously served in the UK administration, working principally on aspects of the relationship between government and industry, covering aerospace, information technology and telecommunications, and all aspects of energy.

From 1989-92, he was a Deputy Secretary and Director General of Energy Resources in the UK Department of Energy and Trade and Industry. He had earlier been responsible for policy in relation to exploitation of the oil and gas resources of the UK Continental Shelf and the creation of the British National Oil Corporation. From 1992-1994, Robert was Head of Consumer and Corporate Affairs at the DTI. He is based in the UK.

Key skills/ experience:

George is an independent consultant and formerly Deputy Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. A recognised authority on geopolitical issues, he engages in academic activities, independent consultancy and journalism, and advises on the political, economic and social affairs of the Middle East and North Africa. He has recently been advising the Kurdistan authorities on geopolitical and security issues.

George has written a study of the contemporary crisis in Algeria, a book on the Qadhafi regime in Libya and an analysis of the Barcelona Process in the Mediterranean. He is Director-of-Studies for the Mediterranean in the Instituto de Estudos Estratégicos e Internacionais in Lisbon, which runs the EuroMeSCo network. He is the founder and co-editor of the Journal of North African Studies and is a research fellow at the Royal United Service Institute for Strategic Studies.

Based in the UK, Professor Joffé advises major energy companies on political and economic risk and has provided independent oversight of several impact assessments of energy policy and oil and gas E&P.

Key skills/ experience:

Sabrina has more than 17 years of experience tackling some of the mining industry’s most challenging sustainability-related issues for multi-billion dollar projects. She works closely with clients around the globe on corporate and site-level sustainability strategies that strengthen business performance and maximise stakeholder support. She leverages her engineering background and extensive experience to develop pragmatic solutions to sustainability challenges.

Sabrina designs environmental and social management systems, stakeholder engagement programmes including grievance mechanisms, and community development strategies. She also develops and conducts training for site and corporate level team members in sustainability. Her global field experience includes projects and operations in Tanzania, Madagascar, Colombia, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia.

Based in Canada, Sabrina is a licensed professional engineer of Ontario with an undergraduate degree in ceramic engineering and society from the McMaster University, a master’s degree in environmental studies from York University, and a graduate diploma in business and environment from Schulich School of Business.

Key skills/ experience:

Pauline has 8 years’ experience in social management and her objective is to help companies attain and maintain their social licence to operate. Pauline specialises in stakeholder engagement, in SIAs and in training on social issues. She has been working in particular on labour and related influx management issues in the oil and gas sector and recently carried out a social baseline and social risk review in relation to an existing labour camp for a major oil and gas project in Kazkahstan.

She works both on the ground with community teams to develop and implement stakeholder engagement programmes, and at headquarters, to develop skills and competencies in community relations issues. Her most noticeable in-country experience includes leading the conception, preparation, and implementation of the stakeholder engagement strategy and programme of Rio Tinto’s Simandou Iron Ore Project’s SEIA in Guinea, West Africa. At corporate level, Pauline developed and delivered training courses on stakeholder engagement and on social impact assessments to reinforce the capabilities and skills of community relations professionals.

Working in the energy and mineral resources sector, mainly in francophone sub-Saharan African countries, Pauline also intervenes in social baselines, social management plans, social due diligence against international standards (IFC Performance Standards, World Bank Operational Policies, Equator Principles) and in resettlement frameworks and action plans. She is based in France.

Key skills/ experience:

An agronomist and communicator by training, Enrique has over 30 years’ experience in stakeholder engagement, community development and social risk management. He has worked as a coordinator for environmental NGOs, a consultant to economic development agencies (including GTZ and USAID), the National Environmental Council of Peru, and was a community liaison officer for the Shell-led Camisea gas project in Peru. He has been a consultant on indigenous peoples’ issues to various groups and was a project manager for a USAID-funded forest management project in Peru (2001-2002). From 2002-2003 he was a consultant to the Camisea consortium gas project.

Enrique was a senior consultant with Social Capital Group from 2004-2015. Assignments included an investigation into artisanal mining in the Peruvian Amazon (together with the International Development Research Centre), the impact of mining on indigenous communities for a mining company, and a major social audit of Repsol’s Peruvian E&P assets. He also managed a social development project for a Canadian mining company in Ecuador and was project director for numerous SIAs for oil and gas projects off the northern coast of Peru.

Based in Peru, he recently collaborated with Plexus on a World Bank-funded project on labour influx in Northern Argentina and in Southern Bolivia.

Key skills/ experience:

Chafika has a legal and finance background, a project management professional certification and a masters degree in community development. She is a corporate governance and sustainability expert focused on compliance, social performance and investment initiatives through a multi-stakeholder approach based on principles, good governance and capacity building.

Chafika has a track record for preparing and implementing strategies, standards and policies; and a vast experience in governance, legal, stakeholder engagement, government relations and environment/social responsibility.

Based in Canada, Chafika is proficient in English, Spanish and Portuguese and has an extensive experience in the mineral exploration industry, both with major and junior companies. She has worked and lived in South, Central, North America and Europe; her experience includes over 80 field trips to different countries managing multi-site projects, from pre-acquisition (due diligence) to closure.

Key skills/ experience:

Jaime is a senior social scientist based in Bolivia, who was URS Bolivian & Andean Region office Socio-environmental Manager from 1999-2013. Prior to this, he was a socio-economics and environmental consultant at Dames & Moore (1993-1999). He is a professional agricultural engineer and holds a MBA in international management.

His expertise includes project management in areas such as environmental and social impact and risk assessment and due diligence audits; stakeholder engagement, trust building, expectations analysis, public consultation and disclosure programmes, and communication plans best practice; management of multidisciplinary social and environmental teams for ESIA in the up- and downstream oil & gas and mining sectors; and social performance reviews for infrastructure and energy related projects.

He brings extensive experience in the design and implementation of social mitigation and compensation framework plans, including indigenous peoples’ development plans and community relations programmes following current national legislations and corresponding IFC social and environmental performance standards. He also has expertise in the preparation of comprehensive socio-economic baseline studies including risk perception and threats and opportunities analysis.

Jaime has worked with communities and indigenous peoples’ organisations throughout Latin America, focusing on environmental and social concerns, NGO activism and collaboration, as well as engagement with local, regional and national government and respective regulations, focused on a project’s social licence to operate.

Key skills/ experience:

Koen is a social, economic and political geographer with more than 10 years of international experience. He has used his expertise in geography, GIS and remote sensing to support: cultural heritage and landscape protection; health surveillance; water and sanitation interventions; food and nutrition interventions; infrastructure analysis; gender-based violence protection; coordinating humanitarian and development interventions; multi-stakeholder consultations in conflict affected areas; analysing socio-economic vulnerabilities to conflict; government strategic planning; and, most recently, environmental impact assessments.

Koen has supported the design and implementation of GIS-based information management systems to facilitate community planning, humanitarian, peacebuilding and development interventions in Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He also has been an active promoter of inter-sectoral information management working groups between the UN, governments and NGOS to standardise and exchange data in order to identify critical data gaps and needs.

Based in Canada, Koen is an experienced trainer with an enthusiasm for designing and organising workshops in cross-cultural settings. He has worked for the World Health Organisation, the Humanitarian Information Centre, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, iMMAP and Save the Children. He is fluent in English, French and Dutch and has a working knowledge of Spanish and German.

Key skills/ experience:

Mahitab Shamseldin worked for 15 years at Shell International as External Relations Manager, Middle East and North Africa Internal Communications Manager and Social Investment / Social Performance (Corporate Social Responsibility) Manager for Shell in Abu Dhabi.

She is a communications specialist with over 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in the Middle East. Her career at Shell International extended to cover communications, social investment & performance and strategic content development. Her track record of development and management of creative solutions for the business is recognized in her management of Social Performance programmes and initiatives in the UAE.

During her career at Shell, she was responsible for the MENA region internal communications during the 2011 Arab spring ensuring strategic messaging during the crisis. She has an in-depth understanding of the Middle East issues and social context.

Mahitab was also the Chief Editor of Shell’s MENA region stakeholder publication, which was distributed to over 4000 stakeholders in the Middle East region.

Key skills/ experience:

Simone Rocha is a Brazilian human rights, international humanitarian aid and mining specialist, with over 20 years of experience in non-profit and corporate sectors. She teaches graduate and undergraduate classes at the International Relations Department of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (since 2009).

Her international experience includes positions at both HQ and fields level such as fact-finding, research, policy-advocacy and project and team management in 19 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Since 2018 Simone has been the Latin America Advisor for the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights. She is also a member of the Business and Human Rights Working Group at the Brazilian chapter of the Global Compact (since 2012) and is a Member of the Advisory Committee – Médecins Sans Frontières Speaking Out Case Studies (2020).

Simone has worked for many years for MSF where she did extensive field work in conflict settings and held inter alia the position of Executive Director for MSF Brazil (2005-2010) and on the Board of Directors of MSF Spain (2010-2012) and MSF Brazil (2015-2018).

From 2012-2015 Simone was Human Rights Manager for Vale S.A.. She has carried out numerous human rights due diligence assignments for other mining and infrastructure companies in Brazil and internationally including for Norsk Hydro, Kinross, Lundin and BHP Billiton (Renova Foundation). She also supported BHP on human rights and socioeconomics for three years in the aftermath of the Samarco mining disaster in Mariana, Brazil.

Simone holds an MA in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; a Political Science Diplôme – Certificat d´Études Politiques Institut d´Études Politiques de Paris – France; and a BA in Social Communications – Journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A native Portuguese speaker she also speaks fluent English, French and Spanish.

Key skills/ experience:

Saskia de Koning is a senior sustainability leader with experience in the profit and non-profit sector. She has had an extensive international career and has lived in Peru, Bangladesh and Switzerland. She is now based in The Netherlands.

She is a former journalist/owner of a press agency. Following her career in the media, she worked for over 20 years in Shell. Saskia was corporate manager for non-technical risk integration with responsibility for the global approach on stakeholder relations. Other roles included social performance manager for an exploration project in Bangladesh, external relations manager for a carbon capture and storage project in The Netherlands, and the external risk manager for a major gas project in Russia. She has built capability with senior leaders across the world.

Saskia has been involved in impact assessments for major projects as well as subsequent plans such as biodiversity action plans and social performance plans. She was seconded to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as business and biodiversity manager.