HELPING TO PROTECT PEOPLE
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Our People
Leadership
Chief Executive Officer
Ed Toms
Ed Toms is a senior executive in mining and critical infrastructure with over 40 years of experience, and a career centred on leadership, growth, and governance in global markets. He brings extensive experience building and leading teams, developing client relationships, and expanding services across regions – translating complex technical and operational risk into clear strategy, practical programmes, and measurable outcomes. His work spans stakeholder engagement, organisational alignment, and assurance-oriented governance for high-consequence assets, with an emphasis on transparent decision-making and accountable performance.
When Ed was Senior Vice President and Global Mining Director at AECOM, he supported mine auditing and independent review activities in Brazil, helping to shape approaches that connect standards to field execution and credible reporting. He is recognised for collaborative leadership and for helping organisations establish durable partnerships across industry, regulators, investors, and civil society.
As CEO of the Global Tailings Management Institute (GTMI), Ed’s focus is on scaling global capability: strengthening competence and conformance systems, protecting independence, and enabling credible practice aligned with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). His leadership emphasis is execution – building trusted systems that improve safety and confidence for communities, operators, and stakeholders worldwide.
Board Of Directors
The Global Tailings Management Institute is governed by a multi-stakeholder Board comprised of people who have experience with or are potentially affected by tailings facilities.
It has nine members, including one chair and one deputy chair. It reflects a diverse mix of gender, geography and stakeholder interests, including the mining industry, technical and academic communities, potentially affected communities, Indigenous Peoples, the mining workforce, environmental experts, regulators, and the finance sectors.
Chair
Mark Cutifani
Former CEO of Anglo American
Australia
Mark Cutifani is a mining engineer by training who began his career in deep underground coal mining in Australia in 1976. In his five decades of experience, he has had line and support responsibilities across all forms of mining, processing, and product marketing, having worked across six continents, 20 countries and with more than 30 minerals and metals. Mark served as Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American for more than nine years, revitalising and delivering industry leading shareholder returns. He recently chaired Vale Base Metals for two years, leading a major business revitalisation and rebuilding of its executive leadership team.
Deputy Chair
Vicente Mello
Senior Vice President, AECOM
Brazil
Vicente Mello is a technical and environmental expert and executive with over 30 years of experience leading complex projects in Brazil, Latin America, and Africa. He has worked across the mining, infrastructure, and consulting sectors, holding senior roles including CEO, Director of Strategy, Director of Operations, and Senior Consultant. His expertise lies in environmental risk management, strategic planning, and the implementation of high-complexity projects.
Chair
Mark Cutifani
Former CEO of Anglo American
Australia
Mark Cutifani is a mining engineer by training who began his career in deep underground coal mining in Australia in 1976. In his five decades of experience, he has had line and support responsibilities across all forms of mining, processing, and product marketing, having worked across six continents, 20 countries and with more than 30 minerals and metals. Mark served as Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American for more than nine years, revitalising and delivering industry leading shareholder returns. He recently chaired Vale Base Metals for two years, leading a major business revitalisation and rebuilding of its executive leadership team.
Deputy Chair
Vicente Mello
Senior Vice President, AECOM
Brazil
Vicente Mello is a technical and environmental expert and executive with over 30 years of experience leading complex projects in Brazil, Latin America, and Africa. He has worked across the mining, infrastructure, and consulting sectors, holding senior roles including CEO, Director of Strategy, Director of Operations, and Senior Consultant. His expertise lies in environmental risk management, strategic planning, and the implementation of high-complexity projects.
Board Members
Dr. Janis Shandro is the owner and Managing Director of Arrowsmith Gold Inc., a community health and safety consultancy in Canada. Her co-specialty in mining engineering and population health, from The University of British Columbia, has allowed Dr. Shandro to work on complex, large-scale, extractive and development projects globally. She focuses on evaluating and mitigating risks and impacts to people and communities.
With over 25 years of experience across mining, petro-chemical and large infrastructure projects, she is a trusted advisor to Canadian Indigenous communities, governments, international organisations, multilateral development banks, and private sector clients globally.
Dr. Shandro was the technical lead for a Health Impact Assessment (commissioned by an Indigenous Health Authority) on the Mount Polley tailings dam failure in Canada. As an Associate with Priscu and Associates Consulting Engineers Inc., she has undertaken independent GISTM conformance verifications for over 30 tailings facilities in the Americas. She also serves as an Independent Director and Chair of the Health, Safety, Environment and Social Performance committee with Artemis Gold Inc.
Jacqui Hex began her career as an Environmental Scientist in 2007 and joined Jones & Wagener in 2011, where she progressed to Associate and Technical Director and now heads up the Environmental Management team. Jacqui leads a team that provides environmental advice and cradle-to-grave solutions for clients in the mining, petrochemical, power, and industrial sectors. She coordinates teams of engineers and specialists to provide pragmatic solutions to developmental and environmental challenges.
Jacqui Hex holds a BSc in Natural and Environmental Sciences from Rand Afrikaans University and an MSc in Environmental Management from the University of Johannesburg. She has served as Director on the Board of Jones & Wagener International Limited since 2020, and Jones & Wagener UK since 2024. Jacqui is also Vice-Chairperson of the EAPASA Board, serving on EXCO and chairing key committees. Her expertise includes environmental impact assessments, mining permits, water and waste licensing, mine closure, and public participation. Jacqui is a Registered Scientist with SACNASP, a Registered EAP, and a long-standing member of IAIAsa.
Edson Krenak is an Indigenous scholar and advocate for the rights of the Krenak people in Brazil. He is a member of the SIRGE Coalition, which works to secure Indigenous rights within the context of the global green economy. Edson serves on the advocacy team at Cultural Survival, a US-based nonprofit that supports Indigenous communities worldwide. He also coordinates Cultural Survival’s programs in Brazil, focusing on community advocacy, capacity building, and community funding.
With a background in philosophy and legal anthropology, Edson’s work focuses on the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems, environmental justice, and decolonial governance.
Co-Founders
ICMM
ICMM is an international organisation dedicated to a safe, just and sustainable world enabled by responsibly produced minerals and metals. ICMM’s company members represent one-third of the global mining and metals industry and commit to upholding ICMM’s Mining Principles as a condition of membership. These principles are dynamic, evolving to set the highest standards for responsible mining and sustainable materials.
Principles for Responsible Investment
The UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment. It works:
- to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors;
- to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions.
The PRI acts in the long-term interests:
- of its signatories;
- of the financial markets and economies in which they operate;
- and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole.
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the world’s leading authority on the environment. UNEP works globally to address the triple planetary crisis—climate change, nature loss, and pollution—by supporting nations in building low-carbon, nature-positive, and resource-efficient economies.