SDSG

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of SDSG is the organization’s governing body, with an international and geographically diverse group with expertise in natural resources law and policy, non-profit management, and international development work. Our Directors volunteer their time and expertise to serve as Board members and support the mission and vision of SDSG.

Tutu Alicante is founder and executive director of EG Justice, a nonprofit organizations that promotes human rights and the rule of law, transparency, and civic participation in Equatorial Guinea. Prior to that, Tutu worked as a legal consultant with international NGOs, promoting legal accountability and transparency in the extractive industry. He also worked as an employment attorney with the Southern Migrant Legal Services, where he represented migrant farm-workers. Tutu holds a Masters in Law degree from Columbia Law School and a law degree from the University of Tennessee. Tutu lives in Tampa, Florida.

James Cress is a partner with the global law firm of Bryan Cave HRO,  www.bryancave.com/offices/denver/. His natural resources practice emphasizes international and U.S. mining and oil and gas law transactions, including financing. Jim has negotiated and documented complex acquisitions, asset dispositions and financings for coal, uranium, gold, copper, molybdenum, oil and gas and other mineral-producing clients. He has experience in private and U.S. federal mineral royalty matters, and has testified before Congress as a royalty expert. He has advised clients on the development, implementation and interpretation of mining law and regulation in the U.S., Asia, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. His general corporate practice includes development, implementation and documentation of derivatives trading programs for corporate end-users of derivative products, including oil & gas, precious metals, interest rate and currency hedging programs, as well as debt instruments with derivatives components. James lives in Denver, Colorado.

Cecilia Dalupan, SDSG co-founder, is a policy specialist and attorney licensed in the Philippines and Colorado, focusing on sustainability issues, climate change, natural resources, and immigration law. In her work with and for governments, international organizations, NGOs, and industry, she has negotiated agreements, provided training and capacity building, developed policies and projects, drafted regulations, conducted sector assessments, designed and managed projects, and developed manuals and guidebooks.  She has worked on a wide range of projects in the Philippines, United States, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Uruguay, Argentina, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Korea, Egypt, United Kingdom, Germany, and Malaysia.  In addition to her legal background, Ms. Dalupan has training in conflict resolution and consensus building.  She has served as a senior policy and development assistance specialist with the US Agency for International Development and was most recently an Associate Director of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law where she teaches a series of courses on the Sustainable Development of Natural Resources. Cecilia lives in Denver, Colorado 

Luke Danielson is a lawyer, researcher and professor who has directed substantial research programs in the fields of sustainable development and mining and minerals policy. In the last two years he has taught all or part of courses in those areas at Tulane University, Simon Fraser University, Denver University and Western State College. He is a President of SDSG and lives in Gunnison, Colorado. Luke Danielson Curriculum Vitae.

 

Frank Erisman is a trustee at the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and has a long history with the Foundation. He currently works with the American Arbitration Association, and also serves as an independent consultant on a range of natural resources issues. Frank focuses his consulting practice on basic industries and the representation primarily of mining and other extractive industry clients.  He has served on numerous occasions as a neutral arbitrator in cases involving the extractive industries. Frank has extensive experience in mining law, including mineral financing, natural resources, and public lands law. His experience includes work regarding most minerals, including coal, uranium, precious and base metals and industrial minerals. Mr. Erisman has decades of experience in government leases, acquisition and sale of mining properties, financing credit and security of mining properties and mining claims.  He has mining legal experience in Russia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Indonesia, Union of Myanmar, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Suriname. He has advised the Republic of Suriname on the form of its mining code and mining agreements. Frank is a graduate of the University of Denver College of Law, which appointed him the Distinguished Natural Resources Practitioner-in-Residence for 1995. He was an editor of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation American Law of Mining, 2d Edition. Frank is internationally recognized in his field and is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law and the past president of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. Frank also served for five years as President of the Board of Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines. Frank resides in Denver, Colorado.

Leah D. Hair lives in Seattle, Washington, where she is active in a number of conservation causes. She is a graduate of the Yale Forestry School, and currently serves on the Board of the Wild Salmon Center.

 

 

 

David Payne is a sustainable business consultant for Point 380, LLC and an instructor at the Center for Education on Social Responsibility (CESR) at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business. David has provided strategic guidance, research, and tools development for clients in the beverage, building, communications, education, energy, pharmaceutical, publishing, retail and technology industries. In 1994, David began his ongoing consulting practice, completing strategic IT and sustainable business projects for companies such as AutoDesk, Coke, Harvard Business School Publishing, IKEA, Shell, State Street Bank, and musician/artist David Bowie. At CESR, David teaches MBA courses such as Topics in Sustainable Business and Socially Responsible Enterprise. He also has an Ed.M. from Harvard University, specializing in system dynamics and organizational learning, and a B.A. in Public Policy Studies with a concentration in Environmental Policy from Trinity College. David lives in Boulder, Colorado.

David Phillips served as the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (RMMLF) for forty-two years. RMMLF focuses on a range of natural resource issues, including oil and gas, hardrock mining, public land, water, and renewable energy resources on local and international levels. David grew up in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and received a B.S. in geological engineering from Princeton University, graduating with honors. He has a master’s degree in geology from the University of Wyoming. After obtaining his master’s degree, he worked in oil and gas before deciding to enroll in law school at the University of Colorado in Boulder.  David worked for RMMLF as a law clerk during law school, and after graduating with his JD in 1966, worked as in-house counsel for industrial minerals companies for four years before taking on the position of Executive Director of RMMLF. While at RMMLF, David build the foundation’s assets from $100,000 to its current $14 million to fund its mission, increasing its activity geographically and with a range of new programs and members from over 40 countries. David has recently retired from the foundation, leaving a long path of success for others to carry on. David currently resides in Denver, Colorado.

Heather Ryan works for the Open Society Justice Initiative in a monitoring and advocacy role on issues related to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia. She has worked in the field of international criminal and human rights law for the last 12 years. Heather’s prior work experience also includes directing programs for the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, acting as a liaison for the Coalition for International Justice at The Hague, and serving as a Rule of Law Liaison for the American Bar Association Central and East Europe Law Initiative. She practiced law with Hutchinson, Black and Cook in Boulder for 17 years before focusing on international law issues. Heather lives in Boulder, Colorado.  

Chet Tchozewski is the founder and President Emeritus of the Global Greengrants Fund — an international environmental foundation that makes small grants to grassroots environmental groups in 128 developing nations around the globe.  Since 1993 Greengrants has made nearly 8000 grants totaling nearly $50M to community groups around the world. He co-founded Grantmakers without Borders (now EDGE Funders) in 2000 and that same year was on the initiating committee of the Global Philanthropy Forum.  He also serves on the Board of Director of the Council on Foundations, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, and CDR Associates. Chet is active with more than a dozen activist, donor and scholarly groups and he has served as a cross-sector bridge by participating in global events as diverse as the World Social Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the World Economic Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Prior to founding the Global Greengrants Fund in 1993, Chet served as the Executive Director of Greenpeace – Pacific Southwest regional office in San Francisco from 1989 to 1993.  He served on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee – Rocky Flats Project from 1979 to 1983 and co-founded the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in 1984.  Chet is featured in American Environmental Leaders: from Colonial Times to the Present, and a collection of his papers is in the Western History Archives – Collection on the Atomic West – at Norlin Library at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He serves on the editorial board of Alliance Magazine and has been a frequent contributor to this London-based journal of global philanthropy and social investment. Chet received the Council on Foundation prestigious Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Philanthropy – an award that honors grantmakers who “possess a combination of vision, principle and personal commitment to making a difference in a creative way through grantmaking.” Chet lives in Boulder, Colorado.