Responsible Business Conduct Abroad - Keeping Canadian companies at the forefront
Tuesday March 20, 2018

ASEAN’s commitment to achieving the mutually-reinforcing goals of the ASEAN Vision 2025 Blueprints and UN 2030 Agenda UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) requires responsible business.

You’re invited to join us for insights into the latest developments and issues challenging responsible business conduct in Canada, Singapore and ASEAN with guest speakers from Canada, and guest panelists who are actively engaged in Singapore and the region.

What are the implications for Canadian companies of recent government initiatives to help keep Canadian companies at the forefront of responsible business conduct abroad, a competitive advantage in today's marketplace, and reinforcing Canada's approach to inclusive economic growth?

What are the implications of the evolving and growing interest in CSR of the Canadian financial sector, with non-financial information disclosure, ESG (environmental, social and governance) screening as integral to responsible business conduct?

Guest Speakers:
Robert Coleman, Director, Trade Planning, Coordination and Responsible Business Conduct Division, Global Affairs Canada will present:

Canada’s commitment to CSR, setting a new global benchmark with the recently announced independent Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), and multi-stakeholder Advisory Body on Responsible Business Conduct.

Prior to his current position, Robert was Deputy Director for Commercial Relations with South Asia. A Trade Commissioner since 1999, Robert has been posted as Senior Trade Commissioner in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City, 2003-2006) and in Australia (Canberra 2009-2013) in addition to serving in positions in headquarters in both trade policy and trade promotion as well as in Calgary at what is now the Global Affairs Regional Office (1999-2000). Prior to joining Global Affairs, Robert worked for other Government departments and in the private sector.

Kevin Thomas, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) will delve into:

The global push on non-financial disclosure information and materiality risk, and the ability of investors to leverage corporate behaviour.
SHARE is a Canadian leader in responsible investment services, providing shareholder engagement, proxy voting, research and education, and policy advocacy to a growing network of Canadian institutional investors with more than $22 billion in assets under management. http://share.ca/about
Prior to SHARE, Kevin worked internationally with companies, governments, trade unions & public institutions on policies and practices to improve wages and working conditions in global supply chains, and was involved in developing what became the global Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh.


Guest Panelists:
Peter Nesbitt, Managing Director, Global Trade & Banking, Asia & General Manager, Singapore Branch, BMO Capital markets 
Peter Nesbitt has lived and worked in Asia for more than 25 years and has established an excellent track record in the financial services sector for business origination and managing complex client relationships.

Peter joined BMO Capital Markets in April 2015 as the General Manager of BMO’s Singapore Branch and Managing Director of BMO’s Global Trade & Banking business for Asia. As a member of the Bank’s Asia executive team, Peter’s role is to expand this line of business for BMO in Asia.

Prior to BMO, Peter was the Regional Vice-President, Asia, for Export Development Canada, Canada’s official export-credit agency. With EDC, Peter led a number of teams in China, India and Singapore in providing financing and insurance solutions to Canadian business actively trading and/or investing in Asia.

Esther An, Chief Sustainability Officer, City Developments Limited
Since joining the company in 1995, Esther is instrumental in building up City Developments Limited’s (CDL) sustainability leadership. CDL is the first and only Singapore company listed on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World for 9 consecutive years. It is also included in leading global sustainability benchmarks such as the FTSE4Good Index Series since 2002, MSCI Global Sustainability Indexes since 2009 and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes since 2011.

Esther is a member of the World Green Building Council’s Corporate Advisory Board and the Urban Land Institute Women’s Leadership Initiative Singapore Steering Committee, Esther also sits on board the management committee of the Global Compact Network Singapore, which is the local network of UN Global Compact for CSR.

As founder of the Women4Green network, Esther is committed to engaging and empowering women in the male dominated green building and technology industries to drive the sustainability agenda.

Laura Hwang, Singapore Representative of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC)
Recognised for her leadership in both the financial and social sectors, Laura was appointed as the Singapore Representative of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the rights of Women and Children, in 2014. She also served as 3rd Director of the ASEAN Confederation of Women’s Organisations, until 2014.

Laura’s 17-year career in banking saw her being appointed as the first Singaporean and woman to head an international financial company in Singapore, which made her a role model for many younger women wanting to enter the industry.

Appointed as President of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) from 2010-2014, Laura led the coordinating Council for 57 organisations, with a combined outreach of over 700,000. She has successfully motivated changes to the Women’s Charter and the establishment of improved legal and support systems for divorced women & families with Maintenance Support Central (MSC) and Chairs the committee that oversees the MSC. She was co-chair of BoardAgender, the initiative for promoting the business case for women on boards.

Thomas Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, ASEAN CSR Network (ACN)
Prior to joining ACN, a regional network of national CSR networks established in 2010 to promote and enable responsible business conduct in ASEAN, Thomas was founding Executive Director of the national society, Singapore Compact for CSR (now, Global Compact Network Singapore), and had been active with trade unions, co-operatives, the consumer movement and social enterprises, and also served as a Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore.

Thomas serves on the UN Economic and Social Council for Asia Pacific (ESCAP)’s Business Advisory Council. He was the lead writer to a base line study on CSR in ASEAN Member States for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the development of the Reporting and Assurance Framework Initiative (RAFI) for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and drafting of the ISO26000. He is a Honorary Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility with the Nottingham University Business School in the United Kingdom.

Moderator
Evelyn S Wong, CSR Lead, Executive Committee, CanCham Singapore
Evelyn is an independent consultant, with 40 years of experience in industrial relations, international labour relations, corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

She has held various roles spearheading start-up organisations and projects, including founding director of the Singapore Institute of Labour Studies (now Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute), a non-profit organisation advocating fair and equitable employment policies and practice through research, education, training programmes and consultancy in Singapore, ASEAN and Asia-Pacific; and advisor (research & publications) in the initial years of the then Singapore Compact for CSR. She was appointed Associate Faculty member in the now Singapore University of Social Sciences, to develop the curriculum on CSR and social enterprise for the first masters in community leadership and social development in Singapore. She has a Masters in Industrial Relations, Masters in Business Administration, and BSc (Hons) from University of Toronto, Canada.