The Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD) is governed by a group of trustees who are also directors of the company. The Co-Chairs of the board of trustees are Ian Christie and John Lotherington.
The Foundation’s day to day work is led by its Director Halina Ward.
Staff
Halina Ward
Halina Ward joined FDSD as Director in April 2009, having previously served as a trustee from 2006-2009.
Halina has a strong leaning to policy-relevant, action-oriented research. Her interest in links between democracy and sustainable development was framed by periods spent working on projects in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kosovo; by work on the relationship between public policy and responsible private enterprise; by experience as a mediator and facilitator; by extensive work on environmental and social implications of international trade liberalisation and its institutions, and through interactions with public authorities in the UK as an ordinary citizen.
Before joining FDSD, Halina was Director of the Business and Sustainable Development Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London. She has also worked as a Senior Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House); as a Senior Consultant for the consultancy Environmental Resources Management, and as a solicitor practising commercial environment law.
Halina’s first language is English. She also speaks Spanish, French, Russian and Polish. She holds an LLB and an LLM (Law and Development) from the University of London. Halina is a member of the Scientific Committee of Vigeo, a Paris-based social ratings agency.
Joe Short
Joe Short started as FDSD’s part-time Media and Communications Manager in October 2011.
Joe is passionate about using clear, concise communications to forward the aims of sustainable development. Having gained training in news writing with Reuters news agency, he spent 15 years working in creative campaign communications for non-government organisations such as Friends of the Earth.
Joe enjoys working closely with advocates and policy experts, helping to interpret complex information for different audiences. He also gained a Masters in sustainable development with Forum for the Future and takes a keen interest in the need for sustainability issues to be adopted by many different sectors of society.
When not working at FDSD, Joe is a freelance communications consultant for non-profits and social enterprises. Having graduated in Physics/Philosophy and qualified in renewable energy technology, Joe also wears a science and engineering hat. He founded a campaign on new energy technology called Dynamic Demand and is currently helping to grow Demand Logic, an initiative to use new technology to save energy in commercial buildings.
Trustees
Ian Christie (Co-Chair)
Ian Christie is an Associate of the London-based environmentalist think-tank Green Alliance and a visiting Professor of Sustainable Development at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey. He is an independent advisor, researcher, lecturer and writer on sustainability and environmental issues. Previous posts include: Deputy/Acting director of the think-tank Demos; Associate Director at the Henley Centre for Forecasting; Joint Head of Environment and Economy at Surrey County Council; and Senior Fellow of the Policy Studies Institute, London. He is a member of several charity boards and advisory groups and has been a part-time advisor to Ministers and officials on sustainable development and climate policy in the UK. Ian’s publications include Managing Sustainable Development (Earthscan, second edition 2000, with Michael Carley.
John Elkington
John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He has been a trustee of The Environment Foundation (renamed FDSD in 2009) since 1994 and was Chair of its board from 1995-2011.
John is Founding Partner and Director of Volans. Volans, launched in April 2008, aims to find, explore, advise on and build innovative scalable solutions to the great global divides that overshadow the future. John also co-founded the consultancy and think-tank SustainAbility in 1987 and was its Chair from 1995-2005.
Over time, John has authored or co-authored 17 books. His most recent explores the work of leading social and environmental entrepreneurs. Co-authored with Pamela Hartigan, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, was published by Harvard Business School Press in 2008. John’s previous books include 1988’s million-selling Green Consumer Guide and Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (1997). He has also written hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines and journal and has written or co-written some 40 published reports. John speaks regularly at conferences and other events around the world, and contributes regular columns to Nikkei Ecology in Japan, chinadialogue in China, Brazil’s Época Negócios and Director magazine in the UK as well as other media. John is a Visiting Professor at the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at the Cranfield School of Management. He was also a faculty member of the World Economic Forum from 2002-2008.John chairs the Aflatoun Impact and Policy Analysis Steering Group, and is an Honorary Fellow of The Hub and also of the Institute of Green Professionals. John also serves as a member of the strategic advisory boards of, or as an advisor to, over a dozen organisations.
Amisha Ghadiali
Founder of jewellery label amisha elegance rebellion, and of radical think-and-do tank, Think Act Vote, Amisha Ghadiali has also worked as Associate Director of the Ethical Fashion Forum and as Vice-Chair of the Yes-to-a-Fairer-Vote Campaign.
Amisha is an elected member of the Electoral Reform Society Council, and sits on the London City Chapter Board for micro-bartering non-profit Nest. Her social entrepreneurship has been recognised by selection to the Cultural Leadership Programme and the Courvoisier Future 500, a Future 100 Award, and, among other honours, a Fellowship of the Royal Society of the Arts, defining her as a dynamic and emerging leader of the space for social change in the 21st century.
Amisha is a frequent speaker on topics including fashion, political engagement and sustainability at panels and events across the world.
Dr Bronwyn Hayward
Bronwyn Hayward is a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. She specialises in children’s and young people’s issues, environmental politics, public deliberation and citizenship. Her work has a particular focus on youth and democracy in periods of environmental and socio-economic change. Bronwyn has written and lectured internationally on children’s and youth citizenship issues, deliberative politics, and governments’ responsibilities to citizens in environmental change.
A New Zealander and a British citizen Bronwyn is a co-applicant with the Norklima funded project Voices of the Future Values and Visions of Norwegian Youth on Responses to Climate Change at the University of Oslo. She is also a visiting fellow at the University of Surrey (with Resolve and Sustainable lifestyles research groups) and was a visiting fellow with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research 2008-2011. Bronwyn is a member of the NZ Royal society and the University of Canterbury Pacific Working Group. Outside academia Bronwyn works in children’s broadcasting (radio and television production) and has served as the NZ Ministerial appointment to the New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority. Her recent books include The Politics of Climate Change Issues for New Zealand and Small States of the Pacific Dunmore Press/Sage (2008) and Children As Ecological Citizens: Nurturing a democratic imagination in a changing world Earthscan/Taylor Francis (May 2012).
John Lotherington (Co-Chair)
John Lotherington is a Program Director with Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS), where his work continually brings him back to democracy and sustainable development, and their inter-relationship, as key cross-cutting issues for present and future policy-making across the world. The SGS seminars bring together present and prospective leaders, from countries worldwide and from diverse professional backgrounds, including government, business, NGOs, academia, the media and other sectors to challenge each other’s thinking from diverse perspectives, identify the major issues and opportunities facing them and the world in the decades ahead, and better inform their decision-taking and opinion-leading. Sustainable development is a key concern for SGS.
John began his career in history education and maintains an interest in that area. His publications as editor and author include Years of Renewal: European History 1470-1600 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2nd ed. 1999); The Seven Ages of Life (London: Centre for Reform, 2002); The Tudor Years (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2nd ed. 2003); and introductions to The Florentine Histories by Niccolo Machiavelli (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004) and The Book of the Courtier by Baldesar Castiglione (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2005).
Mary Riddell
Mary Riddell is a columnist and political interviewer for the Daily Telegraph. She is a former deputy editor of Today and worked as a columnist and an interviewer for national newspapers including the Daily Mirror, the Guardian, the Daily Mail and the Observer before joining the Daily Telegraph as an assistant editor. She sits on the advisory boards of the poverty inquiry run by Demos and NatCen and of Out of Trouble, the Prison Reform Trust group aimed at reducing the offending and imprisonment of children and young people.
Malcolm Twigger-Ross (Treasurer and Company Secretary)
Malcolm Twigger-Ross joined FDSD’s board in February 2010. After qualifying as a chartered account with KPMG in 1988, Malcolm went onto senior financial roles within US groups – European Financial Controller with UOP Ltd, Group Chief Accountant with Diversified Agency Services Ltd. He has spent the last ten years within the not-for-profit sector as Finance Director for the Energy Saving Trust, Head of Finance for Tearfund and Finance Director at the Cardinal Hume Centre since July 2009. In addition to his role with FDSD, Malcolm has served as treasurer and trustee for a number of other organisations including Guildford YMCA and his local church.
Andrea Westall
Andrea Westall is a Strategy and Policy Consultant, writer and changemaker. She has previously been Deputy Director of the New Economics Foundation, a policy director for entrepreneurship at the London Business School, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Dr János Zlinszky
Dr János Zlinszky is Head Of Department for Strategy and Research, Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations, Budapest. Dr Zlinszky also serves as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), Szentendre, Hungary, and as Associate Professor at the Department for Environmental Law and Competition Law, Faculty of Law, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest. He has also served as Senior Adviser for Environmental Policy to the former President of Hungary, László Sólyom. Dr Zlinszky’s academic qualifications include doctorates in Natural Sciences and Environmental Biology from the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest and a PhD from the University of Ulster, Coleraine, United Kingdom.
