About Us

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The principal consultant, Simon Wake, is an anthropologist with over 20 years experience in the extractives sector.  

Through his career with Rio Tinto, Simon has held a range of community relations (or, communities and social performance  -  'CSP') roles, including site-based roles at mines and refineries in Australia, with the exploration division in Africa and corporate roles in the UK.

Some of Simon's work includes:

• response and recovery of the community relations function at an asset in South Africa following an internal investigation and community violence
• lead communities & human rights planning and execution of an exploration project in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• authored 'CSP Roadmap for Projects', which gives details on CSP requirements through the stages of evaluation / pre-operations projects
• oversight of communities for global exploration & evaluation project portfolio
• significant contribution to the integration of community relations management processes into Rio Tinto's HSE Management System, initially within the exploration division and subsequently group-wide
• strategy, implementation,  monitoring and external reporting of group-wide targets
• group-wide implementation and training on complaint and incident management

Simon is a trained Future Search facilitator, and has lived and worked globally including country experience in:  Papua New Guinea, Laos, China, Australia, Iran, South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Serbia, USA and Canada.  

Simon K Wake and Associates offers its clients a unique combination of:

• highly developed analytical capabilities, coupled with the ability to turn analysis into outcomes
• grounded practical solutions that are effective in the given operating and organisational context 
• a personal commitment to clients to empower and enable their ability to manage complex social risks successfully