Guest speaker biographies:
Nadia Younes is the Group Advisor, Diversity & Inclusion for Rio Tinto and is charged with further integrating cross-cultural competency, equity and fairness into business practices, policies and systems worldwide. Passionate about influencing positive changes that bring about greater performance for business and serve the greater good for employees and communities, Nadia has led D&I efforts across many sectors for the last 15 years.
Prior to joining Rio Tinto, Nadia led D&I efforts in the financial, consumer product, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. She has also taught conflict prevention and management and cross-cultural communication in universities and in the public sector. These sessions have included training doctors and nurses in culturally competent healthcare and working with policemen, gang units and military personnel on culturally competent conflict prevention.
Nadia sits on the board of several D&I think tanks and has been an active volunteer in many community programs working with women, immigrants, at-risk youth, elderly, interfaith and GLBT groups. Born in Canada to an American mother and Egyptian father and raised as a ”Canyptian” in a multicultural family spanning continents, cultures and religions, she has a personal drive and mission toward improving both organizational and interpersonal relations across cultures.
Janeth Warden-Fernandez is the Director of the Distance Learning Programme at the Graduate School of Natural Resources Law, Policy and Management at the University of Dundee; and the Co-Director of the CEPMLP Mining Programme.
Janeth is a qualified lawyer from Colombia, who holds a Diploma in Public Law (Colombia), an LLM in Resources Law and Policy with Distinction (CEPMLP, Dundee); and is at present pursuing studies towards a PhD on the topic of interplay between the industrial mining sector and indigenous communities. Her academic career spans more than ten years, and includes her role as co-editor of the major study of mining law, ‘International and Comparative Mineral Law and Policy’; a work that is widely utilised on academic courses, and regularly cited by international organisations. In addition, Janeth also heads the CEPMLP Scholarship Programme for Mining, in which capacity she liaises with mining companies and civil society groups. She frequently represents the University of Dundee as a facilitator for inter-institutional collaboration between higher academic institutions, particularly in Latin America.
Her research interests include Mineral Law and Policy; Community, Indigenous Peoples, and Human Rights issues related to the development of natural resources and International Business.
Catherine Raw Catherine Raw, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager is a member of the Natural Resources Equity team within BlackRock’s EMEA Fundamental Equity division of Alpha Strategies Group. She covers the gold and mining sectors and is co-manager of several portfolios including the BGF World Mining Fund, BlackRock World Mining Trust and BlackRock World Gold Fund.
Mrs. Raw’s service with the firm dates back to 2003, including her years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), which merged with BlackRock in 2006. At MLIM, she worked on both the gold and mining funds.
Mrs. Raw earned a MA degree, with honors, in Natural Sciences from Downing College, Cambridge University in 2002, and an MSc degree in Mineral Project Appraisal from Imperial College, London in 2003.
In 2012, Catherine joined the board of WIM (UK) an organisation which aims to promote and progress the development of women in the mining industry.