Who we are

Ana Maria is founder of Community Insights Group. Her expertise lies in working out how energy, extractives and infrastructure projects can avoid harm and provide equitable benefits to local communities while respecting human rights.

Ana Maria is driven by helping social performance professionals raise the bar in standards of practice and improve their influence within organisations. She works as a practitioner, executive coach and educator. Ana Maria has led the development of a competency framework for social practitioners on behalf of the Social Practice Forum, and CIG’s competency development assessment tool, SPGrow360. She is a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde. She established SIAhub (an online platform for the social impact assessment community of practice) and co-author of the International Association for Impact Assessment’s Guidance (IAIA) for Social Impact Assessment. She is also past President of the board of the IAIA (2016-17) and current member of the Editorial Board for the Association’s Journal, Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal.

Ana Maria is an INSEAD-certified Executive Coach and graduate of the Company Directors Course of the Australian Institute for Company Directors. She holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School and PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Ana Maria is a native Portuguese speaker and has basic Dutch, Spanish and Afrikaans. Mozambique-born, she is now based in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Victoria is a development professional based in Stuttgart with over 25 years of experience in consulting for both the public and private sectors, advising how to navigate and balance community, rights and stakeholder expectations with business imperatives.

Victoria is the COO of Community insights Group where she is responsible for human resource, contractual and financial management as well as for continuous quality improvement through the implementation of its QA system in line with CIG’s ISO 9001 certification.

As a Senior Consultant of CIG, Victoria provides advisory services to clients on a variety of social performance issues. She assists companies in responding to community needs, government regulations, meeting international best practices (IFC Performance Standards, WB Safeguards, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights) and addressing corporate accountability issues. Her assignments have included: feasibility studies, due diligence, social impact assessments, social investment strategy, new country entry, programme design and sustainability reviews, economic analysis, community consultation, stakeholder engagement and performance monitoring and evaluation.

Prior to joining CIG, Victoria was a Managing Director at Cardno Emerging Markets (formerly Emerging Markets Group) in Washington DC where she led a global Social and Environmental Impact Management (SEIM) team based in US, UK, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya, Ecuador, Peru and Namibia.

Victoria has worked in over 30 countries around the globe.

She has a MA degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a BA in Diplomatic History at the University of Pennsylvania. Victoria is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. She is a native English speaker, speaks German and French and basic Italian. Victoria currently resides in Germany.

Suelen is the Financial Manager of CIG, with over 10 years’ experience in project administration, financial functions and coordination of training courses. 

Suelen has previous experience with two educational institutions in Brazil – Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) and Universidade Federal de Santa (UFSC) Catarina, which included the coordination of a group of Instructional Designers for a distance learning project.  She also worked as a tutor and teacher, conducting the instruction using a distance learning platform. The courses she taught were related to accounting and financial administration. She worked as tutor of distance education in the field of accountancy; and as an online teacher, teaching: Financial Administration Applied to Performance Assessment; Financial Viability Analysis and Auditing.

With a Master’s degree in Accounting, Suelen has a good understanding of financial management, taxation and project administration. In her Master’s Thesis, she worked with performance evaluation (using multi-criteria decision analysis) applied to distance learning courses. She has recently obtained a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) badge from the Institute of Management Accountants, IMA.

Suelen is a native speaker of Portuguese, is fluent in English and speaks intermediate Dutch and Spanish.

Vera Is a Senior Consultant with over 15 years of experience in social performance assessment, management and monitoring for international financing institutions, energy and extractive companies and public utilities.

Her specific experience includes:

• Planning and management of stakeholder engagement, community investment, local content and CSR activities around energy, industrial and extractive projects;

• Social risk assessment and due diligence against international standards, e.g. IFC, EBRD for various investment projects;

• Human rights assessment;

• Development and delivery of training courses on sustainability and social risk management of investment projects.

Vera’s particular interest is in assisting investment projects create tangible benefits for local communities. In addition to her extensive field work, she co-authored IPIECA’s Local Content Guidance document, IPIECA’s Discussion Paper on Social Investment in Enterprise Development and Skills Building, and the World Bank’s study on the constraints and opportunities for Central Asian enterprises to engage with the mining sector supply chains.

Previously, as a development specialist for Cardno Emerging Markets UK, Vera undertook assignments for the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). As part of the Government and Public Relations team of Chevron in Russia, she worked with key local stakeholders in Kazakhstan and Russia in support of upstream and downstream projects.

A graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vera received an MSc in Development Studies with special reference to Central Asia. She additionally holds a graduate diploma in International Economics from Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University. She is fluent in Russian and English and a native of Kyrgyzstan. Vera is currently based in Dallas, Texas.

Sérgio Moreira is a psychologist with extensive experience in applying Social Psychology to improve Social Performance and Project-Community relations.

He as worked in new development projects in the energy production, transportation, and extractive industries. He co-developed CIG’s social performance competency development instrument SPGrow360. He is an invited assistant professor at Nova SBE where he teaches Research Methods and Data Analysis applied to social sciences.

He has published his work in outlets as Frontiers in Psychology, Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, and The Extractive Industries and Society, with the most recent work resulting from collaborations with Frank Vanclay and Ana Maria Esteves. Sergio is from Portugal and currently lives in a small village close to Lisbon.

Luciana is a human rights expert with 14 years of experience. She has extensive experience in implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and other international standards and principles of social responsibility in the natural resources sector.

Luciana has coordinated sustainability and human rights projects across Latin America from planning to delivery, including human rights due diligence, impact assessments (HRIAs), policies and strategic plans for social risk management for clients in various sectors (e.g.: extractives, energy, agribusiness).

She has specific expertise in areas of human rights, responsible sourcing and grievance mechanisms. Luciana has been responsible for the implementation and operation of non-judicial complaints mechanisms for impacted communities in a disaster context in Brazil.

She also delivered workshops and conducted training for various clients, including recent facilitation of workshops on “Human Rights Due Diligence” and “Sustainable Development Goals – SDG Compass” for UN Global Compact – Brazil Network.

At the start of her career, Luciana spent many years developing and implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives in Latin America and Africa. In particular, addressing labour, security risks, relationships with indigenous communities, and resettlement activities in Mozambique, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, among other issues.

Luciana has a LLM in International Legal Studies from Newcastle University/UK and a bachelor degree in International Relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro/Brazil.

She is a native Portuguese speaker, fluent in English and Spanish, and has basic French.

Alexandra is a social practitioner driven by solving the challenges brought about by climate and social change. She has 15 years of experience in designing and implementing socioeconomic development plans, and her expertise is land acquisition and livelihood restoration planning.

Alexandra initiated her professional career working for Rio Tinto and Vale, managing local community relations and implementing a resettlement plan and livelihood restoration plan for a greenfield project in The Andes, South America. Since 2013 she has undertaken consulting assignments in the Southern Africa region to develop and monitor impact assessments, stakeholder engagement, social investment, human rights assessments, livelihood restoration plans and involuntary resettlement plans following IFC Standards. At CIG, Alexandra has significantly supported projects all over the world for different industries and clients. Her most recent work has involved developing monitoring frameworks for livelihood restoration and has participated in several due diligence processes driven by the international financial sector.

As a livelihood restoration specialist, she has implemented a community-centered approach to planning with a strong emphasis on human rights. Alexandra has sought to improve the development and monitoring of World Bank/IFC-compliant livelihood restoration plans.

Currently, Alexandra is based in Durban, South Africa where she is also a volunteer at the local Kloof Conservancy assisting the Molweni River health program. She is a native Spanish speaker, fluent in English and Portuguese, and has basic French.

Paige is an environmental and social consultant with over 8 years of experience.  Environmental Manager and Scientist by training, Paige has found a deep passion for the fundamental link between environmental and social sciences.

At CIG, she has been applying her skills and expertise to the management of social aspects of industrial projects. Her experience includes socioeconomic impact assessments, human rights risk assessments, E&S due diligence, livelihood restoration and resettlement plans and stakeholder engagement. She has worked for mining, energy, telecommunications, and agricultural sector clients in Southern Africa and internationally.

Paige is an experienced data manager with exposure to small and large datasets involving human rights indicators, social investment initiatives, qualitative and quantitative data sets from key informant interviews and large data sets from socioeconomic and livelihood information at the household level for projects ranging from 40 to 700 households. She is a competent user of survey software such as Fulcrum to design and organize data collection exercises. She has trained field enumerators and managed the entire process from real-time supervision of data collection teams, to reviewing data quality, analysing data, reporting, and visualizing the findings.

Prior to CIG, she was responsible for the methodology and implementation of a national public participation process in Namibia for a telecommunication ESIA. She conducted stakeholder analysis and social issues scoping studies to identify opportunities within communities to ensure the achievement of benefits and proactive measures to avoid conflict and build positive long-term relationships between the company and the community.

In recent years, she has been responsible for data management and analysis of large sets of household-level socioeconomic data for LRP monitoring, and evaluation against IFC PS5, and trained clients on data management platforms and field tools for a renewable energy project in Malawi.

She is a team member for the development of INGA, an online platform for country social and human rights context reports. Paige also enjoys developing and managing the communications and marketing of CIG on various social platforms with a keen eye for opportunity and creativity.

Paige has an Honors Degree in Environmental Management from the University of South Africa (UNISA). She holds a Postgraduate Certificate of Education in Senior and FET Phase. Paige has a passion for the outdoors. Based in Durban, South Africa she is a native English speaker and speaks some Afrikaans.

Francesco is is a legal practitioner with a specialization in international human rights law and Business and Human Rights.

After graduating in law from the University of Milan and passing the Italian bar exam, Francesco pursued a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law at Nottingham University, UK.
In his LLM thesis, he focused on Indigenous Peoples’ rights and the implementation of the FPIC principle within the extractive sector from the perspective of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

He also supported his supervising professor in a submission to the European Commission relating to the proposed legislation on mandatory human rights due diligence for businesses and a study on the applicability of human rights obligations to non-state actors in a context of conflict and humanitarian crisis.

Before joining CIG, Francesco worked as a policy intern for a Brussels-based NGO operating in disability rights within the framework of European policies.
His specific areas of interest include Indigenous Peoples’ rights, community and environment, diversity and inclusion, security and human rights.

As a consultant at CIG, he has worked on human rights impact assessments, corporate interactions with Indigenous and Land Connected Peoples in the mining and renewable sector, researching national ESIA regulatory system, and contributed to the drafting of a practical guidance for stakeholder engagement and community consultation.

He is a native Italian speaker and is fluent in English and Spanish.

Ben is a social consultant who works for CIG following an internship as a research assistant in 2021.

At CIG, Ben has worked on social & human rights impact assessments, evaluations of project stakeholder engagement (including with Indigenous & Land-Connected Peoples), and a livelihood restoration plan for economic displacement impacts. In addition, he has conducted research into social development program best practice, and supported the development & delivery of CIG’s Social Impact Assessment online course.

Prior to joining CIG, Ben worked as a caseworker and researcher in the Parliamentary & Constituency Offices of a British Member of Parliament and Shadow Paymaster General (Cabinet Office), Fleur Anderson.

Ben also works in the charity sector as Charity Development Officer for InterClimate Network, a charity focused on youth climate & environmental sustainability engagement. Previous charity work includes the Safe Passage Project, a non-profit legal services organization for refugee & immigrant children, and the Marmalade Trust, a loneliness awareness charity.

Ben holds a First-Class Politics & International Relations BSc from the University of Bristol. This degree was oriented towards human rights-related issues, largely focused on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Jacqueline applies her international business politics and human rights experience to support global companies across industries in meeting their responsibilities to respect human rights in alignment with the UN Guiding Principles for Human Rights. 

Jacqueline has supported companies on a range of human rights consulting projects and has built experience in embedding human rights into companies’ core business functions. Jacqueline’s engagements include developing human rights policies and strategies; conducting human rights impact assessments and human rights and social due diligences; capacity building and awareness raising on human rights topics; and developing internal human rights management systems. 

Recent projects have included carrying out human rights impact assessments in Brazil, Portugal, Peru, Mozambique, Sweden and the United States, along with developing strategies for ongoing management and monitoring. 

She also researches and develops guidance in the area of Business and Human Rights, including human rights and impact assessment, human rights indicators and participatory approaches to stakeholder engagement. She is a member of the multi-disciplinary group, GREEN-SORT, which aims to develop research on best practice in impact management of local communities in renewable energy, agro-industry, mining for green-tech minerals and other extractive activities in the green transition. Prior to joining CIG, she worked at the Danish Institute for Human Rights as an intern and was one of the developers of the Human Rights Impact Assessment Toolbox. 

Her specific areas of interest include labour rights, equality, diversity and inclusion, governance, stakeholder engagement and security and human rights.

Jacqueline holds an MSc in International Business and Politics with a specialization in International Political Economy from Copenhagen Business School, and a BA in Political Science from Hofstra University in New York. She is a native English speaker, fluent in Danish and Spanish and with a basic understanding of Portuguese.

Cecilia is a Peruvian economist with hands-on experience in the design and implementation of local supplier development programs and local content strategies for mining companies.

Cecilia started working in this field with Swisscontact Peru at Yanacocha, and later on, she joined the IFC working with Newmont in Ghana.

She currently provides advice to clients in South and North America.

Frank is professor and Head of the Department of Cultural Geography and Director of the Urban & Regional Studies Institute in the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. He works at the University of Groningen and partners with CIG on some projects.

An internationally acclaimed expert in the field of Social Impact Assessment, Frank specializes in the areas of: the management of social issues associated with large projects (i.e. social performance); social licence to operate; business and human rights; social aspects of resource extraction; social aspects of project-induced displacement and resettlement; and avoiding the resource curse. He also has interests in the social impacts of tourism; social understandings of place; and the social aspects of natural resource management, farming and agriculture. 

On behalf of IAIA, he facilitated the process that led to the drafting of the International Principles for SIA in 2003 and the International Guidance for SIA in 2015. Both of these are landmark documents that are widely cited by United Nations agencies, International Financial Institutions, regulatory bodies, consultants, community representatives, academics and students. He co-edited New Directions in Social Impact Assessment together with Ana Maria Esteves. 

Originally from Australia, now living in The Netherlands.