Gwendolyn Wellmann, Community Development and Social Performance Specialist

Gwendolyn Wellmann, Community Development and Social Performance Specialist

About

Dr. Gwendolyn Wellmann is a sociologist who specializes in sustainable community development. She has 23 years’ experience in all aspects of community development; stakeholder relations and engagement; corporate social responsibility and social risk. Her experience includes working with artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM). 

She has evaluated, advised and trained clients within oil & gas, mining, government, and NGOs in East, West and Southern Africa, Peru and the Philippines. Gwendolyn is practiced in identifying where community relations and other aspects of sustainability must sit within a client’s strategy, as well as providing guidance on the planning and implementation of policy that complements the strategy. She is a game changer who designed a successful artisanal mining strategy for Gold Fields West Africa based on empirical research, a first internationally by a gold mining company. Her expertise resulted in a transformed Gold Fields West Africa sustainable development department from worst in group to best in group within nine months; indicating that she is very adept to managing large teams of people successfully.

She has a firm knowledge of the IFC Performance Standards, the Global Reporting Initiative, the Equator Principles, and the South African Social and Labour Plan requirements.

Gwendolyn is the author of a community development handbook that cover, amongst others, stakeholder identification, grievance mechanism, local content, social impact and community investment. Also author of several peer-reviewed publications and has presented papers at several international conferences.

Her academic work includes advising Master and PhD students at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. She is also an adviser to the Green African Youth Organization (GAYO) and a board member of the Leadership for Conservation in Africa (LCA) Ghana.

Information

Industry experience

Education: PhD

Seniority: VP, Exec VP, MD, Dean, General Manager, Business Unit Manager

Years of experience: 20 years or above

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