Empowering people to drive sustainable development.

Philosophy

Empowering people for sustainable development needs to happen inside organisations and outside organisations. The tasks are quite different, but our human needs for sustainable development are universal. At TEH & CO we are committed to society making the best possible decisions for sustainable development. When conflicts arise and emotions drive how we make decisions, it doesn’t deliver the best outcomes. We stand for thinking about potential conflicts ahead of time so we can resolve them sagaciously.

Our Founder’s Perspective

Katherine has advised global corporations to navigate the dynamics of environmental, social and governance risk and opportunity for over thirty years. She has significant experience in enabling corporations to effectively address societal expectations as well as establish positive reputations and brands through culture, competency, systems and structure. With media, government relations and public policy expertise, she has developed and delivered sustainable development innovations that activists, public, government and industry have recognised.

Experienced in working with Ministers and Boards, the C-suite as well as with employees, investors, stakeholders, Indigenous and disadvantaged groups, she is able to engage, evolve and lead new thinking about how to create success in the next era of transparency and accountability. Across her 23-year experience leading multi-national consultancies she has worked in the extractive, energy, retail, media and entertainment, agricultural as well as food, government, banking and finance, infrastructure, transport, chemical, pharmaceutical and technology sectors.

The methodology she developed increases the visibility of emerging issues so that proactive approaches to sustainable development are possible. Her unique methodology helps us understand when the tipping points will occur in society and from there she facilitates extrapolation about the implications for government, business, communities and the environment so that action can be taken.

Her career highlights include:

• Developing the policy for the mining industry’s first transparent environment report in 1995

• Participating in the steering committee that designed the first multi-sectoral engagement process that established the world’s first social and environmental standards for the mining industry in 1996

• Developing the social licence strategy for a $60 billion energy project in 1998 that did not attract activism

• Facilitating the world’s first non-sniffable petrol to reduce harm in Indigenous communities in 2000

• Partnering with Monash University’s Castan Centre for Human Rights Law in 2001-2003 to develop the first guide for the role of business in human rights which informed the UN’s Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (known as the Ruggie Principles)

• Founding the world’s first social licence agency, Futureye, which worked to improve leadership, systems and societal engagement in sustainable development in 2002

• Creating cultural change programs for companies to resolve community conflicts from 2002-2010

• Developing scenarios and engagement process to establish a world first position for a mining company on carbon in 2006

• Developing industry social licence strategies 2010-2020

• Developing the policy for the world’s first carbon-neutral fisheries product 2016

• Engaging communities in the fourth industrial revolution so that they’re ready in 2018-2021

• Designing sustainable development partnership models in 2021.

Katherine is chair of PassivePlace advisory board and on the advisory committee of the Research Unit in Public Cultures at the University of Melbourne. She is Women’s Honour Role Ambassador for the Victorian Government and is a member of the Federal government’s Forest Industry Advisory Council.

Her awards include the Golden Target award from the Public Relations Institute of Australia (1995), Telstra Business Woman of the Year (Victorian private sector 2001) and the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll (2003) for her contribution to women’s rights. She has been listed in Who’s Who of Australian Women from 2007.

Katherine commenced her working life as a journalist for The Age. She became an A-graded journalist at The Australian by 22 years of age. She has appeared as a commentator and expert on several current affairs programs such as Q&A, Tom Switzer’s Sky Business, Mamma Mia and ABC radio. She speaks regularly at conferences and forums on many issues bringing new perspectives on sustainable development and the implications for public affairs, corporate ethics, innovation, social licence to operate and empathy.