Dr Gwendolyn Wellmann, Senior Advisor

Dr Gwendolyn Wellmann is a sociologist who specialises 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.

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. As a Vice President Sustainability for Gold Fields, she designed the company’s artisanal mining strategy for Gold Fields West Africa, a first internationally by a gold mining company. 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, among others, stakeholder identification, grievance mechanism, local content, social impact and community investment. She has also authored 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 has been a board member of several non-profits both in South Africa and in Ghana.