Hon. Prof. Dr. Rodney Irwin
Vita
Rodney Irwin is a 25 year experienced finance director and professionally qualified Chartered Accountant who has gained an international reputation in Non-financial Reporting and Sustainability, financial control, internal auditing, business ethi cs, corporate governance, internal control over financial and non-financial reporting, quality, environmental and health and safety management and has also taught at university level. He is regularly requested to speak and international conferences on mea suring, valuing and reporting on natural and social capital, sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, internal control, auditing and assurance and Risk Management and his recent engagements have included key note addresses in London, Chicago, New Yo rk and Dubai. He has delivered governance and business ethics courses on the MSt Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University, BSc in Business Economics at The Hague University and IIA coursed on business ethics at Nynrode Business University in the Netherlands and has developed Sustainability seminars with A4S and CISL and is the course director of the WBCSD Leadership Programme and Managing Director of all WBCSD education offerings.
Rodney has experience at some of the world’s leading organisations and has a global perspective an d empathy for cultural diversity including 12 years in senior finance roles reporting to the Board and Supervisory Board at TNT. A trained and competent facilitator Rodney has worked with both Boards and Supervisory Boards i n multinational organisations in the private and humanitarian sectors. In 2002 – 2005 Rodney presented the idea of embedding enterprise wide risk management into the UN World Food Programme and was successful in getting a formal risk management programme r olled out in the WFP, the first of any UN organisation to do so. As a result he has facilitated risk management sessions with senior UN staff in India, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Haiti and Washington and at the UN headquarters in New York.
Employment History
October 2012 Present World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Position: Managing Director – Redefining Capital & Education
- Responsible for a newly created focus area on integrated reporting of financial and non-financial data including measuring and valuing social and natural capital externalities.
- Developed a risk management programme in collaboration with COSO and E&Y on integrating sustainable outcomes into Enterprise Risks Management and developed a framework for internal control over non-financial reporting to be piloted by WBCSD member companies.
- Liaison staff member for all and non-financial reporting issues for 186 global companies that make up the membership of WBCSD
- Principle Author of the WBCSD Reporting Matters publication and associated value add services to members regarding reporting effectiveness.
- Supervisor of Master’s Students dissertations at Imperial College London and Cambridge University.
- Supervisor of many WBCSD publications including the recently published SDG Compass (In partnership with UNGC and The GRI).
- Member of the Management Board of WBCSD, Board member of the Carbon Disclosure Standards Board, Member of the Working Group of the International Integrated Reporting Council and Member of the Advisory Council of the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board.
- Course director of the WBCSD Leadership Programme which has doubled in size and ambition in the past 3 years. Course Director of the first ever Global Network of Advanced Management (GNAM) event hold by a non-academic institution in 2015 and this will be held every year going forward to due high student satisfaction.
- Successfully negotiated a US $ 2 million funding grant (the first ever in the WBCSD) to drive 4 new projects in sustainability reporting in partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
December 2000 –November 2012 TNT Express NV (Formerly TNT NV) 2005 - 2012
Position: Group Director of Risk Management, Internal Control & Reporting
- Responsible for a team of 25 staff directly with indirect leadership of 230 staff worldwide.
- Delivered in 15 months Sarbanes - Oxley Compliance in 2006 (SOx) with no material weaknesses or significant deficie ncies. Rolled out SOx compliance beyond minimum legal requirement to 95% of TNT Locations worldwide with material improvements year on year. The Execution of the project was awarded a TNT Masters Award for Excellence in 2007 by the Board of Management for its excellence, cost efficiency and sustainability. Project was delivered with no external support and significantly under budget.
- Design and delivery of TNT’s ERM processes. Le d the project to enhance the ERM process from Risk Compliance to Risk Intellige nce in 2009 and executed global rollout in 2010 to 64 countries.
- Project leader for the implementation of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 across TNT Express facilities, buildings, warehouses and offices.
- Responsible for the drafting and governanc e of all TNT group policies in f inance, procurement, HR, Corporate Responsibility, Health and Safety,
- Professionalised Corporate Responsibility Reporting resulting in zero audit issues from external assurance provider, winner of the NIVRA Best CR Reporting in 2007 in the Netherlands, Submitted Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2010, 2009 and 2008. Recognised as super sect or leader and achieved the highest score in the entire index. Implemented GRI G3 to A+ application level from 2007.
- Implementation of 4 global IT systems for Risk Management (ERM Risk Register, Resolver Ballot), Internal Control (BWise, Invision) and CR Re porting (ENABLON) – all under budget.
- 15 direct reports and 200+ indirect reports in Internal Control, Risk Management and Corporate Responsibility.
- Reports to Executive Board and Supervisory Board (Risk management) and Audit Committee (Internal Control and Corporate Responsibility).
- Chairman of Risk Committee and active member of TNT Express Disclosure Committee and Ethics Committee. Member and technical expert on TNT Express Corporate Responsibility (Chaired by CEO)
- Developed and executed budget plann ing process and monthly management reporting of budget performance. 2000 – 2005 POSITION : Director of Internal Audit (International Audit) London
- Led the audit function of all the International operations of TNT (All entities outside of the Netherlands - TNT Express and Logistics, Freight Management and International Mail). This was a new position. Managed two teams of auditors in Amsterdam and Singapore (26 staff in total). Reported to the Audit Committee and was responsible for the annual audit plan, Control Risk Self Assessment (CRSA), all audit reporting, staff development and motivation. In addition to planned audit activities the department also conducted Due Diligence exercises when required and fraud investigations. The work of the department was global (68 countries worldwide)
- Implemented a fraud investigation capability into the internal audit department reducing reliance on external investigation and significant cost savings. Conducted fraud examinations in China, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain and France and at local and corporate management levels including the board.
- Managed annual budget of Euro 5 Million and won two TNT Masters Awards for Business Excellence (acknowledged by the Board of Management)
- Implemented Enterprise Risk Management in the UN World Food Programme as part of TNT’s innovative relationship. This was the first ever UN organisation to implement a formal risk management programme.
- Conducted risk assessments for WFP in Sudan, Kenya, Haiti, Malawi, Rome, Washington and New York.
1997 – 2000 MOTOROLA UK Limited
POSITION: Internal Control Manager (EMEA Region)
1995 – 1996 ABBEY NATIONAL PLC.
POSITION: Principal Business Auditor (Life Division)
1990 – 1994 ERNST & YOUNG
POSITION: Trainee Chartered Accountant
ACADEMIC EDUCATION
AACSB / CHARTERED ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS
June 2015 Graduate of the Bridge Programme City University
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
2010 - 2012 MSt Sustainability Leadership
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT (Paris)
2005 – 2009 Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Cum Laude
BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY (formerly UCE)
2002 - 2003 M Sc in Audit Management & Consultancy
THE QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
1987 – 1990 B Sc (Econ) – 2:1 Honours (Economics with Accounting)
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
THE INSTITUTE OF RISK MANAGEMENT (UK)
Specialist Membership (SIRM) – 2009
THE SOCIETY OF COMPLIANCE AND ETHICS (USA)
Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional – 2009
THE ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED FRAUD EXAMINERS (USA)
CFE – 2003
THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS IN IRELAND
FCA (Fellowship) 1996
Publications
Irwin, R (2012) - An investigation into how the transport suppliers employed by multinational companies contributes to the spread of HIV in Sub - Saharan Africa. Camebridge University. Link
WBCSD Publications (Supervisory or Principal Author):
All studies and publications conducted using WBCSD sourced data are required to be published as WBCSD per my contract of employment.
Social Capital in Decision Making (October 2015)
SDG Compass – Guide for Business on the Sustainable Development Goals (September 2015)
Towards a Social Capital Protocol – A call for collaboration (June 2015)
Reporting Matters 2014 – Improving the Effectiveness of Reporting one year on. (November 2014)
Reporting Matters 2013 – Improving the Effectiveness of Reporting - A baseline report (November 2013)
WBCSD Publications (supervised as Course Director of the WBCSD Leadership Programme):
Integrated Reporting in South Africa - From Concept to Practice (November 2014)
Unravelling the Business Value Landscape (Noveember 2014)
Integrated Performance Management (November 2014) (Joint study and Publication with Accenture)
The Journey to Materiality (November 2014)
Sustainability – A new competence for finance leaders (November 2014)
Controlling Non - Financial Reporting (November 2013)
Getting Sustainability Risks onto Management ’ s Agenda (November 2013)
WBCSD PUBLICATION (SUPERVISORY OR PRINCIPAL AUTHOR)
All studies and publications conducted using WBCSD sourced data are required to be published as WBCSD per my contract of employment.
- Social Capital in Decision Making (October 2015)
- SDG Compass – Guide for Business on the Sustainable Development Goals (September 2015)
- Towards a Social Capital Protocol – A call for collaboration (June 2015)
- Reporting Matters 2014 – Improving the Effectiveness of Reporting one year on. (November 2014)
- Reporting Matters 2013 – Improving the Effectiveness of Reporting - A baseline report (November 2013)
WBCSD PUBLICATIONS (SUPERVISED AS COURSE DIRECTOR OF THE WBCSD LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME)
- Integrated Reporting in South Africa - From Concept to Practice (November 2014)
- Unravelling the Business Value Landscape (Noveember 2014)
- Integrated Performance Management (November 2014) (Joint study and Publication with Accenture)
- The Journey to Materiality (November 2014)
- Sustainability – A new competence for finance leaders (November 2014)
- Controlling Non - Financial Reporting (November 2013)
- Getting Sustainability Risks onto Management ’ s Agenda (November 2013)