Mark Drewell – CEO, GRLI, Brussels, Belgium

Mark was born and educated in the United Kingdom studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University. In 1989 he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa and joined diversified industrial company Barloworld, rising to spend a decade on the group executive committee as head of Corporate Affairs, Investor Relations and Group Marketing. His many achievements in the company included being co-founder of the Middelburg Forum which was the prototype for the South African Peace Committees through which business played a vital role in managing South Africa’s first post apartheid elections; launching the re-naming and re-branding the company across 8 operating divisions and 32 countries; and leading the company’s early adoption of triple bottom line performance measurement. Under his leadership in 2004 Barloworld became a founding partner in the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative. He played a powerful role in the GRLI’s development at both an intellectual and practical level, serving as the first chair of the GRLI Foundation from 2006-2008. He left Barloworld in 2007, moved to Cape Town and co-founded 3 Laws Capital (http://www.3lawscapital.com), a deep sustainability asset management company with a venture capital focus. He is also a director and founder of The Elgin Distilling Company. He has served as Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Citizenship; Chairman of the Endangered Wildlife Trust; Chairman of the board of Imhoff Waldorf School and served twice on the board of San Francisco headquartered International Association of Business Communicators which is the world’s 14 000 member professional association for business communicators.