Annie Heaton

CEO

Annie has spent the past 30 years working on sustainability across both social and environmental issues. Most recently she spent nine years shaping ArcelorMittal’s sustainability agenda, leading on stakeholder engagement, reporting and investor relations at the corporate level. Prior to this, she worked with the global renewable energy firm RES Group on their zero emissions head office, establishing their environmental education programme, and initiating their sustainability programme as the company developed many GW of large and small-scale wind, solar and biomass projects across the world.

She has also worked with several non-profit organisations, including ActionAid as Head of the Asia Desk, and Save the Children, where she developed several projects with industry. She also serves on the board of GUCE, a community energy company.

Annie graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford. She has numerous CPD courses in renewable energy, corporate social responsibility, human rights, environment and steelmaking. She loves art, cycling and the outdoors.

Ali Lucas

Corporate Affairs Director

Ali has over 30 years of international conservation, campaigning, fundraising, and communications experience with a strong emphasis in public, corporate and major donor fundraising, public affairs, special events, branding and messaging, campaigns, and media strategy, in both the commercial and charitable sectors.

Early projects included working on the launch of the Forest Stewardship Council and leading campaigns against the illegal trade in wildlife. Key achievements include co-founding The Climate Group and growing it from an initial team of three to an international organisation with over 100 staff in offices in the US, Europe, India and China, founding and running a corporate and NGO communications consultancy with clients ranging from the European Climate Foundation to Sainsbury’s, and rising within the WWF network to lead the Fundraising and Marketing Dept for WWF UK responsible for delivering annual income of £70 million. Recently launched the Clean Air Fund, a new initiative pooling philanthropic funds to tackle air pollution globally with initial funds raised of $50 million.

Ali joined ResponsibleSteel^™ to assist with its business development in 2019. Find out more about what led Ali to join ResponsibleSteel on our LinkedIn here.

Shivakumar Kuppuswamy

Development and Innovation Director

Shiva is a metallurgical engineer with over 30 years of international experience in core sector engineering industries. He is interested in the intersection between engineering, energy, and the environment with a focus on decarbonisation. He started his career with steel melting systems for mini steel plants and managed the steel industry and trade business for Lloyds Group in India. Besides steel, he has also worked with exotic metals developing components for aerospace and other niche applications.

Shiva is passionate about finding practical sustainable pathways to mitigate climate change impacts in high carbon intensity industries. He attended the COP21 Paris conference as a UN delegate representing the University of Waterloo and regularly participates in other energy and climate change-related events. As part of his renewable portfolio, he has managed the development of the 110MW project. He has a strong understanding of the steel industry’s decarbonisation challenges and the policy drivers that influence a net zero transition for the industry.

Prior to joining ResponsibleSteel^™, he managed his own consultancy focused on metallurgy and sustainability in engineering and process industries in Canada, India and the GCC region. Currently, he ensures that the ResponsibleSteel^™ Standard delivers impact in line with our mission. H has a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering as well as a master’s degree in Climate Change from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is a recipient of the British Chevening Scholarship and has completed an advanced management course at the Manchester Business School.

Shiva is an avid reader, biker and hiker, and mentors junior engineers in climate change in his spare time. Find out more about Shiv’s expertise and how he views the future of the steel industry on our LinkedIn here.

Rodrigo de Prospero

Senior Assurance Manager

Rodrigo is a Brazilian with over 15 years of experience in promoting responsible sourcing in different sectors. He has worked in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, food and garment sectors playing different roles from different business perspectives (private company, NGO, consultant, and government). He has been able to directly implement and/or oversee several assessments and projects related to human rights and biodiversity conservation in over 20 different countries. He’s dedicated a significant part of his career to assurance, including over 9 years at the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT), where he was responsible for their assurance programme.

He loves travelling, hiking, rollerblading and spending time with his family and friends.

Rodrigo is excited to join ResponsibleSteel and is looking forward to supporting the steel sector on its sustainability journey. Find out more about what attracted Rodrigo to ResponsibleSteel and what he sees as some of the opportunities for the industry here.

Rory Meredith

Standards Manager

Rory graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Geography in 2020, where he focused his studies on the interactions between human and physical systems as well as the history of environmental thought. This included analysing and evaluating sustainable supply chains and global patterns of ESG investment.

He joined the ResponsibleSteel^™ Secretariat in July 2021, having spent the previous year supporting the policy and campaigns work of two charities in the UK.

Savannah Hayes

Communications Manager

Savannah graduated from the University of York in 2016 with an undergraduate degree in History, after which she managed her own blog and worked as a freelance writer.

She then undertook a master’s degree in Conflict, Security, and Development at King’s College London, graduating in 2020. During her studies, she analysed a range of issues most notably the roles which endemic poverty, human rights abuses, and the climate crisis can play in fuelling migration and provoking conflict.

She has worked with several charities in research, communications, and fundraising capacities. Learn more about Savannah’s interests and how she sees communications playing a role in ResponsibleSteel’s work on our LinkedIn here.

Karen Raynor

Operations Executive

Karen has a bachelor’s degree in Financial Services and a Masters in Business Administration. Having grown up living in a number of different places such as Hong Kong, New York and Tanzania, this experience led her to join the UK Ministry of Defence primarily in the budget management and programme management side of things. This led her to work in countries such as Saudi Arabia and more recently Germany. Through her work, she has been involved in projects involving biodiversity conservation and sustainable approaches to military training.

Karen loves reading, and going to the gym, and has numerous craft projects on the go at any one time. She is excited to join ResponsibleSteel and is looking forward to seeing where ResponsibleSteel goes over the next few years. Find out more about why Karen joined ResponsibleSteel here.

Julia Wagner

Assurance and Impact Assistant

Julia graduated from UCL in 2018 with a degree in Environment, Politics and Society building on her undergraduate degree in Sustainable Development. During her studies, she focused heavily on people’s relationship with the environment, as well as human rights issues, such as modern slavery.

Over the years she has volunteered for a variety of conservation and community projects for The Zoological Society of London, the London Wildlife Trust, the South East Rivers Trust and Edible London.

When she is not out exploring the environment, Julia spends her time creating and crafting. Predominantly a fibre artist, she can also be found whittling, metalworking or painting.

She’s looking forward to building on her existing skills and knowledge by growing in her role at ResponsibleSteel.

Holly Patten

Intern

Holly graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2023 with an undergraduate degree in History. During her time at university, she produced online content for the Faculty of Arts to help students navigate the university in her role as a Student Digital Ambassador.

Holly first joined ResponsibleSteel in the summer of 2022 as a Communications Intern to gain some experience in brand management and assist the communications team in the preparations for Forum III and the launch of the updated ResponsibleSteel International Standard V2.0.

She returned to this role in July 2023 following the completion of her degree to develop more skills within communications. Learn more about Holly’s interest in communications and thoughts about ResponsibleSteel’s mission here.

Matthew Wenban-Smith

Consultant

Matthew Wenban-Smith has worked in the area of voluntary sustainability standards and conformity assessment since 1994, when he was taken on by the newly established Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to set up its accreditation programme. He left FSC in 2006 to found the independent consultancy OneWorldStandards, providing services to established and emerging sustainability standards initiatives, their clients and stakeholders.

Matthew completed a variety of projects for OneWorldStandards in the mining, minerals and metals sectors, including work for the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM); on the establishment of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA); a review of standards initiatives in the mining sector for WWF; and more recently as a lead author for the IISD State of Sustainability Initiatives report ‘Standards and the Extractive Economy.’

He was appointed Executive Director of in 2017. Matthew stepped down as Executive Director as of May 2020 to take up the role of Policy & Standards Director before transitioning to become the GHG Lead. He continues to work with ResponsibleSteel as a consultant.

Marnie Bammert

Consultant

Marnie is an independent consultant with 20 years of experience in developing, implementing and communicating sustainability certification and verification programmes.

Marnie started her journey in the field of sustainability with oekom research, a rating agency specialised in sustainable and ethical investments. She then moved to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a certification programme for sustainable fisheries. Between 2005 and 2015 Marnie held various positions with MSC, including Deputy Director Europe.

Since then, Marnie has worked as a consultant on projects ranging from protected areas to nature-based solutions, to infrastructure and mining. Marnie has worked with ResponsibleSteel^™ since early 2018.

She holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Urban and Regional Development from the University of Trier, Germany.