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Adam Leach
Chief Executive Officer
Read Bio
Executive Group
 Adrian Hodges Managing Director read bio |  Graham Baxter Director, Responsible Business Solutions read bio |  Mike Patterson Director, Finance & Administration read bio |  Ros Tennyson Director, The Partnership Team read bio |
Key Contacts
 Olive Boles Director, Global Health Partnerships read bio |  Amanda Bowman Director, Corporate Partner Engagement read bio |  Peter Brew Director, Asia Pacific read bio |  Bridget Cochrane Director of Operations, Digital Partnership read bio |  Steve Farrant Director, International Tourism Partnership read bio |
 Davidson Forster Senior Accountant read bio |  Amanda Gardiner Programme Director, Responsible Business Solutions read bio |  Gillian Gurner Head of Human Resources read bio |  Brook Horowitz Executive Director, Russia Partnership read bio |  Audra Jones Americas Director read bio |
 Jane Nelson Director, Business Leadership & Strategy read bio |  Joe Phelan Manager, Communications Team read bio |  Darian Stibbe Programmes Director, The Partnering Initiative read bio | |
Chief Executive
Adam Leach, Chief Executive Officer
Adam Leach is the new Chief Executive of the International Business Leaders Forum. He heads an organisation of over 50 staff, working with the leaders of more than 100 of the world’s major companies to put business at the heart of sustainable development. An MBA graduate, Adam has a distinguished and varied career in the sustainable development field, at both operational and strategic levels.
He has joined IBLF from a senior position at Oxfam as Regional Director with overarching responsibility for Oxfam’s work in the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe and extensive experience in Africa and Asia. At Oxfam he led a senior management team responsible for over 200 diverse staff in 15 countries, working with over 140 partner organizations and delivering over £12 million annually.
Adam has tackled sensitive, political and complex issues through his wide range of contacts with diverse actors and displayed sound judgement and pragmatism for handling conflicting views to reach agreement to deliver strategic and business interests, and manage risk. Examples of his achievement include promoting civilian protection in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, public advocacy to mobilise action on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and Lebanon, promoting enterprise in Russia, and increasing access to water in Tajikistan.
Adam is an experienced communicator in a wide range of settings and with global/international and national media.
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Biographies - Executive Group
Adrian Hodges, Managing Director
Adrian Hodges specialises in issues of corporate responsibility as they relate to international business strategy and practice. He has managerial experience in business, local government and non-governmental organisations. He joined IBLF in 1998 and before becoming Managing Director held a number of positions, including Director, the Americas and Director, Marketing and Communications.
Prior to IBLF, Adrian was worldwide Head of Corporate Communications for retailer Body Shop International and before that Director of Communications and Marketing for Business in the Community.
He has lived and worked in Latin America and the United States and is currently based in London.
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Graham Baxter, Director, Responsible Business Solutions
Graham is a graduate of Oxford University (MA Geology) and Liverpool University (PhD Oceanography). He worked as a Geologist in the oil and gas exploration industry for 11 years, joining Britoil in Glasgow, Scotland in 1981. In 1986, he transferred to the commercial function in Britoil's Strategic Planning team.
He worked in a number of commercial roles in BP's Exploration and Production and also Gas businesses in the UK, before joining BP Solar in February 1999. Following the Solarex / BP Solar merger he moved to Baltimore, USA in July 1999. There, he was initially Chief of Staff, then Vice-President of Solar Solutions leading a small global team developing large-scale rural infrastructure.
From February 2003, Graham worked for Communications and External Affairs at BP Group HQ in London, developing a corporate responsibility framework for the organisation. He was appointed Vice-President, Corporate Responsibility in October 2003 - where he was accountable for implementing the corporate responsibility framework, managing international NGO and socially-responsible investment relationships as well as shaping community engagement and investment globally.
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Mike Patterson, Director, Finance & Administration
Mike Patterson joined IBLF in 1995, having previously worked with British Petroleum Exploration from 1989 to 1994. At BP, he was Divisional Controller for BP Exploration Frontier and International Company 1992-4, Financial Controller of Exploration Technology 1990-91, Controller of Accounts for Exploration Information Systems 1989-90, BP Oil 1973-89 Marketing planning and control BP OIL UK LPG 1987-89. Prior to the Oil industry Mike had brief experience of UK home civil service and Foreign Office.
He has chaired the Governance and Standards Review Committee of the Prince of Wales Charities, which was tasked with improving and making more consistent goverance and standards across the Group.
Mike is currently chairman of Teach First Finance Committee - a charity launched in 2002 to encourage top graduates to commit three years of their early career to teaching, mainly in deprived areas.
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Ros Tennyson, Director, The Partnership Team
Since 1992, Ros has led IBLF's work in cross-sector partnering. Over the years this has involved partnership promotion and partnership-building activities in more than 30 countries as well as the development and delivery of tailored training programmes for corporations, NGOs, the World Bank and other UN agencies.
Since 2001 she has been co-Director of a Post-Graduate Certificate in Cross-Sector Partnerships, an initiative run as a collaboration between IBLF and the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry. Since 2003 she has been co-Director of the Partnership Brokers Accreditation Scheme which was developed as a collaboration between IBLF and the UK's Overseas Development Institute. She is currently Director of IBLF's The Partnering Initiative which aims to develop the art and science of cross-sector partnerships for sustainable development.
Immediately prior to joining IBLF, she was Chief Executive of the Marylebone Centre Trust, a holistic health care initiative. She also helped create Trigonos, a not-for-profit community-based project in North Wales.
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Biographies - Senior Management Team
Olive Boles, Director of Strategic Relations
Olive Boles is the International Business Leaders Forum's Director of Strategic Relations and chief health advisor. For the past five years her role has involved engaging leading Fortune 500 companies as responsible partners in tackling major public health priorities such malnutrition, diabetes, heart disease, and malaria – by promoting responsible business practices in the marketplace, the workplace and the wider community. Her focus is on the needs of communities in developing countries and emerging markets, and on facilitating partnerships between business, NGO’s, governments and civil society.
Before joining the IBLF Olive was Director of Corporate Affairs with The Prince's Foundation, a non-for-profit focussed on urban regeneration and improving the built environment. Previously she occupied senior management positions within the UK National Health Service (NHS), where she was a Regional Director of Education, an Executive Director of a Primary Health Care Trust, and a public health specialist. She has worked for the government on several major national public health campaigns including those on HIV/AIDS, smoking and coronary heart disease prevention.
Olive is a social science graduate, with post-graduate qualifications in health research, education and management, most recently graduating from Cambridge University’s Programme for Industry. In 2007 she co-authored “A Recipe for Success – how food companies can benefit from consumer health” and is the author of many reports and papers in this field.
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Amanda Bowman, Director, Corporate Partner Engagement
Amanda brings her commercial advertising, marketing and over 15 years’ corporate responsibility experience to her work at IBLF. She joined IBLF from Diageo where she was responsible for helping the Diageo businesses across Europe develop strategies for community involvement and to develop partnerships with NGOs and the public sector.
Amanda is the Director of Corporate Partner Engagement as well as leading the Rio Tinto Alcan Prize for Sustainability and overseeing IBLF‚s programmes on employee engagement, experiential learning and Crossing Borders. She is also a Development Director for the Partnerships Team.Amanda is a Board Member of IAVE an international NGO that celebrates and strengthens volunteerism in more than 80 countries around the world; is a Trustee of the Women of the Year Foundation and a governor at an inner London comprehensive secondary school.
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Peter Brew, Director, Asia Pacific
Peter Brew has been working with IBLF since 1999. Between 2002 and 2007 he led the team working on issues of human rights, governance and anti-corruption, local enterprise development and conflict and more recently has focused on developing IBLF’s in-country initiatives with partner organisations across Asia Pacific.
Before joining IBLF, Peter worked for 37 years in international employee benefit services, 30 of which were at senior executive level. He retired at the end of 1998 as Deputy Chairman of Sedgwick Noble Lowndes where he had previously been Chief Executive in Ireland and in North America.
Peter is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute, an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Fellow of the Life Academy.
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Bridget Cochrane, Director of Operations, Digital Partnership
As Director of Operations, Digital Partnership, Bridget uses her IT and Project Management skills to facilitate initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide.
Bridget joined IBLF from Standard Chartered Bank, where she worked for 9 years in a number of IT management positions. In her most recent role, she was a senior IT project manager, working on multi-million dollar global infrastructure projects across 56 countries. Her project portfolio covered a wide range of disciplines including desktop, telecoms and service delivery.
Bridget studied Business and Finance at university before taking a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Management. She worked in advertising for a number of years before starting her career in IT.
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Stephen Farrant, Director, International Tourism Partnership
Stephen studied French and Spanish at Oxford University, before joining British Airways on their Marketing and Operations graduate training programme, graduating to working in a number of senior front-line roles including Sales and Marketing, Revenue Management, Customer Services and Operations and Strategy and Alliances.
Following this, he began a nine-year stint at VisitBritain, progressing from Business Planning Manager to Head of Partnerships to General Manager, Quality. During his time at VisitBritain Steve also led specific, organisation-wide projects focusing on CRM and branding.
In early 2006 he took up a new role as Director of Membership and Marketing at the RSA, where he was closely involved in the development of the RSA’s “Carbon Limited” project, which tested the potential for encouraging behavioural change through the introduction of an individual carbon cap and trade scheme.
Steve moved on to spend eighteen months working for a tourism consultancy specialising in destination marketing, strategy and sustainable tourism, before joining the IBLF as Director of the International Tourism Partnership in March 2009.
Steve is a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission’s Advisory Panel, and is also studying for a qualification in Executive and Business Coaching. Steve is a governor of a junior school. He is married with two kids and lives in London.
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Davidson Forster, Senior Accountant
Davidson Forster joined IBLF in 1995 from University College London where he worked in various functions of College and Student Union finances from 1989 to 1995. He previously worked for Overseas Telecoms Commission (Sydney) for a brief spell and Cable & Wireless (The Gambia) before that.
Davidson has been responsible for designing and developing IBLF's accounting department and functions from from it early stages to currently managing the finances of major grants and projects funded by The European Union, The World Bank, USAID and DFID amongst many others.
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Amanda leads IBLF’s enterprise development programme. In her 5+ years with IBLF, she has held several roles including Programme Manager, Research Manager and Web Editor. From 2005-2008 she managed the Secretariat for the Voluntary Principles on Security & Human Rights.
Prior to joining IBLF in 2003, Amanda was a consultant to the European Cultural Foundation and the The City Literary Institute, managing projects focused on the role of culture in development. She previously worked at UNESCO on the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, a cross-sector partnership initiative aimed at strengthening cultural industries and enterprises in developing countries.
Amanda has a Master of Arts from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service (Washington, DC, USA), and a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY, USA). She speaks French and German, and performs musical theatre in her spare time.
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Gillian joined IBLF in March 2008. She is an experienced HR professional and although she worked in the commercial sector at the beginning of her career, most of her experience has been gained in the voluntary sector, working with major UK charities in the social care field. Immediately prior to joining IBLF, Gillian was an HR consultant for three years with an Inner London Local Authority, working on a range of change management projects in their social services department and Primary Care Trust.
Outside IBLF, Gillian spends time as a volunteer with a small charity dedicated to helping people who are out of work prepare to re-enter the job market.
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Brook Horowitz, Executive Director, Russia Partnership
A graduate of Cambridge and Harvard Universities, he has had over 15 years’ experience in Russia. As a senior manager with US multinational General Electric during the nineties, he held positions in business development, product management and sales and marketing in Western and Eastern Europe. In 2001, he set up his own management consultancy, Business Interchange (UK) Ltd., which provides strategy and financial advice to Russian companies seeking to attract foreign investment.
Brook has worked extensively with public sector organisations and NGOs in Russia on projects funded by USAid, TACIS and DFID. He regularly appears at international conferences on business in Russia and has had articles in several publications including The Times, Vedomosti and Delovyie Lyudi. He has a strong interest in Russian culture and is a Director of Pushkin House, a Russian cultural association based in London.
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Audra Jones, Americas Director
Audra’s private sector experience includes new product development, strategic planning and financial management within the consumer products, banking & industrial manufacturing industries. Audra has significant expertise developing public-private partnership with a particular focus on tying CSR to core business functions; she has extensive expertise in branding, public relations, communications and advocacy related to CSR. Audra was the Senior Director for Partnership Development at the United Nations Foundation where she worked with the private sector to address global development issues to include climate change, women’s health and eco-tourism. Prior she worked at the Inter-American Foundation, where she negotiated partnerships with corporations to invest in local communities’ social and economic development in countries undergoing significant economic and political transition.
Audra’s international development experience includes heading Louis Berger International’s Peru Office where she oversaw an Inter-American Development Bank assessment of the privatization potential for the country’s water and sewage utility. Audra also worked with the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) on its Farmer-to-Farmer Program, a global agri-business and agricultural assistance program.
Audra holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.
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Jane Nelson, Director, Business Leadership & Strategy
Jane Nelson is a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She serves as a Director at IBLF and is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution.
During 2001 she worked in the office of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, preparing a report for the United Nations General Assembly oncooperation between the UN and the private sector, which supported the first UN resolution on such cooperation. Prior to joining the IBLF, Jane was a Vice President at Citibank and responsible for marketing for the bank's Worldwide Securities Services business in Asia Pacific.
Jane has worked for the Business Council for Sustainable Development in Africa preparing a report for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and for FUNDES (Fundacion para desarrollo sostenible) in Latin America undertaking research on small enterprise development.
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Joe heads IBLF’s communications team, responsible for building the organisation’s brand, raising its profile and reaching its stakeholders. Highlights include a special report on business and development with the Financial Times – reaching 1.6 million readers worldwide – and the World Business and Development Awards – which demonstrate to ways that companies are contributing to development. In 2004 IBLF won the Clarion International Visual Communication Awards for outstanding communication of CSR and sustainable development.
Joe has developed new thinking on sport as a vehicle for companies to engage in sustainable development, producing work with Nike, UK Sport, Standard Chartered, the UN IYSPE and the International Working Group on Sport for Peace and Development.
Prior to joining IBLF Joe worked for the Media Trust, delivering tailor-made media training for senior executives and spokespersons for UK charities including RNID and The Guide Association.
Joe has a degree in communications from Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh. In his spare time he plays and coaches cricket.
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Darian Stibbe, Programmes Director, The Partnering Initiative
Darian Stibbe Ph.D., is responsible for the business management of The Partnering Initiative and leads a variety of programmes, specializing in partnerships with the public sector: governments, donor agencies and the United Nations.
Darian began working in sustainable development in 2000 following a successful academic career. While working on the Johannesburg World Summit in 2002, he became inspired by the potential power of cross-sector partnerships, and co-founded an NGO specifically to promote and support such partnerships, which he ran for five years. During this time, he developed and managed the ‘Seed Initiative’ a partnership between UN agencies, donors and businesses to encourage innovative and entrepreneurial cross-sectoral action in developing countries and provided direct support to ten such projects around the world.
Darian is a professionally accredited partnership broker, with extensive experience working with all sectors to build partnering capacity and develop engagement strategies. He has particular interests in Africa (through his work with the ‘Partnering with Governments’ programme to build capacity within governments and business to partner more effectively), on evaluation, and in building a community of partnership practitioners worldwide.
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