Stephen D'Esposito

Stephen D’Esposito "is President of RESOLVE and the EARTH SOLUTIONS Center... The EARTH SOLUTIONS Center is a new RESOLVE initiative designed to catalyze, incubate and reward solutions to urgent environmental challenges.

"From 1997 through September 2008, Steve was President and CEO of EARTHWORKS. Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Stuart L. Udall in 1998, founded EARTHWORKS as the Mineral Policy Center. Steve positioned the Mineral Policy Center as the leading independent research NGO on mining, oil and gas issues, enhancing its reputation for providing policy and technical support to community groups, expanding to address international issues, strengthening its policy and science capacity, and launching new initiatives to engage directly with leading companies in the sector.

"In 2004, Steve led an effort to re-brand the Mineral Policy Center as EARTHWORKS. This repositioning also joined together the Mineral Policy Center, the Oil and Gas Accountability Project and other NGOs into a new organizational umbrella with Steve at the helm. This merger led to a strategic alliance with the Center for Science in Public Participation—designed to strengthen the scientific and technical base for the programs of EARTHWORKS and its allies. Steve now serves as Chair of the Center for Science in Public Participation.

"Under Steve's leadership, EARTHWORKS (formerly the Mineral Policy Center), promoted reform of the 1872 Mining Law and assisted communities across the West, and around the world, in dealing with the environmental, economic, and social effects of mining. During this time, EARTHWORKS established the "No Dirty Gold" campaign, expanded its mission to address international issues, and launched its "No Dirty Energy" campaign to further increase its reach and impact. A special hallmark of EARTHWORKS activities during Steve's tenure was engagement with corporate leaders to advance responsible mining and oil and gas development practices.

"In 2005, EARTHWORKS along with Tiffany & Co., sponsored a team of independent experts to draft and publish the Framework for Responsible Mining (www.frameworkforresponsiblemining.org). Since 2006, Steve has played a lead role in shepherding an effort by leaders in the mining, NGO and jewelry sectors to recognize social and environmental standards and develop mechanisms to recognize compliance with these standards in the marketplace. This effort is currently called the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA and www.responsiblemining.net).

"In 2007, Steve launched the Madison Dialogue (www.madisondialogue.org) as an independent forum to encourage discussion, collaboration and solutions in the mining and jewelry sectors. Steve was also a lead organizer of the Ethical Jewelry Summit, held in November 2007 in Washington D.C. The Summit, co-sponsored by interests as diverse as BHP-Billiton, Rio Tinto, Tiffany & Co., the World Bank and EARTHWORKS, brought together leaders for all sectors seeking to identify and promote responsible mining, processing, manufacturing in the sector and to create a commonality between the myriad of projects, standards-development initiatives and processes that are underway.

"Before joining EARTHWORKS, Steve was instrumental in building Greenpeace USA into one of the largest environmental groups in the country, from 1986 through 1992. During that time he served as Field Director, Deputy Director and Acting Executive Director. In particular, Steve is credited with building a nationally respected field program and leading a difficult integration of previously independent Greenpeace corporations (i.e., fiefdoms) spread across the U.S., into one, unified Greenpeace in the U.S.

"From 1993 through 1995, Steve was Deputy Director and then head of the Executive Committee of Greenpeace International, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he helped reposition a number of offices and programs to integrate corporate engagement strategies into advocacy campaigns. During his tenure at Greenpeace International, Steve was a central strategist and key decision-maker on the Brent Spar campaign, which many think led to a shift in corporate strategy and response to environmental campaigns as well as lessons-learned for NGOs.

"Steve began his career with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) where he worked on environmental, energy and consumer issues and built the organizations field program. Steve received a bachelor's degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1982. He currently serves on the Advisory Panel, Kinross Professorship and Chair Department of Mining Engineering, Queens University, Kingston. He leads the steering committee of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (www.responsiblemining.net) and he serves on the independent assurance panel for Newmont's Community Relationships Review (CRR)."