Who We Are

At ESG Connect, we bring senior-level expertise to help companies and/or lenders determine and prioritize corporate ESG performance.

We are a collective with years of experience as:

  • Environmental leaders

  • Social experts

  • Governance advisors

We are connected with top-tier financial, legal, environmental, and HR professionals from around the world. We draw upon our network for the latest in ESG-related legislation and regulatory frameworks such as:

  • IFC Performance Standards / Equator Principles

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals

  • EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy

  • Governmental Sustainability Legislation

  • GRI Standards

 

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Brian Cleator, MSc. P.Biol,

Principal

Brian Cleator is an ESG professional with over 25 years of experience in helping clients manage risk.

Brian has extensive experience in advising multinational companies and major capital project funding organizations on ESG issues. He has worked in over 12 countries world-wide including projects in Canada, the EU, Middle East, Central Asia, South East Asia and Africa, focusing mainly in the energy, mining, infrastructure development and manufacturing sectors. During his career he has worked in senior positions in both environment and safety.

Learn more about Brian →

 
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Andrew Hunt

Andrew trained in environmental studies and has focused his career on working with investors and industry, globally, to understand and mitigate environmental and social risks, providing organizations with risk insights and management frameworks to improve the sustainability of their operations. 25 years of operational experience, 500+ projects have equipped Andrew with a granular & practical understanding of environmental and social risk across multiple sectors including oil and gas, power, mining, chemicals and refining, transport & infrastructure, heavy manufacturing, agriculture, finance & banking.

 
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Rob Evans

Focus Areas: Sustainability, Project Due Diligence and Capacity Building

Rob is a recognized ESG specialist with over 25 years of experience supporting financial institutions around the world. Having been the former head of PwC Indonesia’s sustainability and climate change team, Rob has designed and delivered major Environmental, Sustainability and Climate change programs and projects. Locations include countries such as; Tanzania, Egypt, Djibouti, Nigeria, Panama, Russia and Uzbekistan. Rob has worked extensively with development and commercial banks and has led internal capacity building initiatives for both the World Bank and the Equator Principles Association.

 

Meet Our Principal:

Brian Cleator, MSc. P.Biol

Brian Cleator is an ESG professional with over 25 years of experience in helping clients manage risk.

Brian has extensive experience in advising multinational companies and major capital project funding organizations on ESG issues. Brian has worked in over 12 countries world-wide including projects in Canada, the EU, Middle East, Central Asia, South East Asia and Africa, focusing mainly in the energy, mining, infrastructure development and manufacturing sectors. During his career he has worked in senior positions in both environment and safety.

Brian’s key recent experience has been gained working directly as an embedded team member within multinational companies delivering HSE management actions. He has gained significant exposure to the real-life challenges of execution and management of ESG programs within globally significant projects such as the Tengizchevroil Future Growth Project in Kazakhstan, Yamal LNG in Russia, Kitimat LNG in Canada and Angola LNG.

He has undertaken numerous studies of corporate ESG/HSE performance and provided evidenced based guidance and leadership to senior management. He understands how to integrate and deliver ESG management principles that have value for the client, with a goal of reducing their risk exposure and optimizing opportunities, all in a pragmatic, business focused way.

Brian is a strong team player and believes in doing good work with and for good people. He is recognized as a technical expert in his field and has served as an expert witness. He has provided support and guidance for several major oil and gas companies (BP, Chevron, Shell, Total) and consultancies (most recently ERM and Arcadis).

 

Areas of Expertise Include:

  • Community and workforce safety

  • Development, implementation and auditing of environmental management systems for a range of clients

  • ISO14001 lead auditor

  • Data gathering and monitoring of ESG data

  • Advisor on Equator Principles, designing and managing the implementation of HSE risk mitigation programs and management plans for major capital projects

  • IFC Performance Standards champion, working directly for clients and lender’s on due diligence teams

  • Emergency and Oil spill response preparedness (Planning Section Chief Tengiz Level 2 EMT)

  • ESG due diligence auditing for equity finance, mergers and acquisitions

  • ESHIA and EIA management for major capital projects

  • HSE risk assessment for up-stream and down-stream oil and gas facilities, competency development, monitoring, data gathering and environmental surveying  

  • Incident investigation (lead facilitator)

  • Safety management systems

  • Social impact assessment and stakeholder engagement

  • Regulatory compliance programs

  • Waste and waste-water management