Bettercoal Announces Appointment of New Executive Director

Bettercoal is pleased to announce the appointment of Anne-Claire Howard as the new Executive Director. Anne-Claire will take up her post in January 2017 and will lead the Bettercoal Secretariat based in London, the United Kingdom.

Nikolaus Valerius, Chair of the Bettercoal Board of Directors said: “The Board of Directors is delighted to welcome Anne-Claire Howard to Bettercoal to build on the momentum that we have established with this important initiative. Anne-Claire will not only work closely with the Board to ensure we have a growing and sustainable organisation, but also lead our capable team in the Secretariat. The Board believes that Anne-Claire has the right mix of skills and experience to deliver the challenging program and to lead a constructive engagement with a wide-variety of stakeholders. We look forward to working with her.”

Anne-Claire said regarding her appointment: “I am looking forward to the challenge of further developing the Bettercoal initiative and working with stakeholders to deliver pragmatic improvements in the global coal supply chain. Bettercoal now has several years of experience on which we can build. Our immediate priorities will be to continue to engage coal suppliers in the Bettercoal Assessment Program, ensure the Bettercoal Assurance System is robust and transparent for all stakeholders and to grow the organisation, thereby increasing our impact globally.”

Anne-Claire has over 13 years’ experience in the extractive industries having held positions with Royal Dutch Shell, Eurasia Group, the International Finance Corporation. Most recently, she was the Principal Manager in the Extractive Industries Governance team at Adam Smith International, where she worked in developing countries ensuring through sustained stakeholder interaction that the commercial business imperatives are not impacted by regulatory, political, environmental and social risks. Throughout her career, Anne-Claire has focused on the commercially sustainable development of oil, gas & mining projects and extractive sector governance.

Anne-Claire has successfully delivered projects touching on political, social and environmental risk assessment, governance capacity building and non-technical risk management in developing countries. She has been involved in oil, gas and mining projects and businesses in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Nikolaus Valerius went on to thank Martin Christie, the current Executive Director of Bettercoal, for his hard work and commitment to the success of the initiative from its inception. He will continue to execute his role within Bettercoal until the end of this year.