Download Steve Voien’s Resume

KEY QUALIFICATIONS
Steve Voien
Founding Principal, VoienConsulting
Sustainability Strategy, Communications & Engagement

Steve Voien brings to his work a unique integration of sustainability strengths: (1) deep knowledge of strategy and implementation, (2) powerful communications skills that range from GRI reports to sustainability websites to credible marketing collateral, and (3) a track record of productive stakeholder engagement initiatives.

Steve launched and led to profitability two sustainability practices at large communications firms, and spent five years at the nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), where he led consulting projects and served as director of the Global Resource Center. Steve’s client list includes more than 15 Fortune 500 corporations, nonprofits, and public agencies such as USAID and IFC/World Bank. Steve is a certified GRI trainer for BrownFlynn.

In addition to almost 15 years experience as a sustainability consultant, Steve has six years experience as a U.S. diplomat with environmental, human rights, and community economic development responsibilities in West Africa, the Balkans and Washington, D.C. He has published two political-environmental thrillers to excellent reviews in publications that include the New York Times and People magazine.

Steve is a relationship builder and persuasive communicator with a broad network and a passion for achieving positive change in the world.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2008-2011: Principal, VoienConsulting

• Strategized, developed content for and wrote first GRI report for an $8B corporation, establishing clear industry leadership
• For an industry-leading tech company, developed sustainability communications strategy and a set of core sustainability communications documents in multiple formats that were compelling, consistent and credible.
• Advised on key environmental strategy and stakeholder issues for a global consumer-facing corporation
• Wrote and placed a two-part article (Eleven Sustainability Reporting Tips for Reputationally-Challenged Companies) in Sustainable Life Media
• Wrote and placed an article (Where Are All the Energy Star Slot Machines?) in the influential online environmental publication GreenBiz.com
• Clients include: Salesforce.com, Caesars Entertainment, Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (pro bono)

2007-2008: Vice President Global Corporate Citizenship, Waggener Edstrom Communications

• Created launch strategy and business plan for building a profitable and sustainable sustainability practice, and persuaded the board to make a substantial two-year investment in the practice
• Co-developed sustainability strategy for and co-led a pitch to a highly scrutinized Fortune 10 company under intense pressure for its climate change and supply chain performance, beating out competitor agencies to win a $3 million community development and communications account
• Drafted a senior level corporate speech on what are arguably the most urgent global sustainability challenges we face — climate change, access to clean water, and poverty — and potential approaches to address them through innovation in business models, collaboration, and technology

2007: Principal, VoienConsulting

• Led consulting initiatives such as developing a comprehensive, global stakeholder engagement program and articulating corporate values for the International Financial Corporation (IFC)/World Bank, and sustainability communications for a global poverty reduction nonproft
• Clients included: IFC, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Grassroots Business Fund, SFWorks

2003-2006: Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Edelman Public Relations

• Launched/brought to profitability Edelman’s CSR consulting practice in the western half of the United States, developing senior level strategy and transparency communications, and leading stakeholder engagement initiatives for large corporations
• Projects included developing candid communications on child labor challenges for a global food and beverage company, leading successful engagements with environmental stakeholders around climate change emissions and water pollution, and creating transparency communications that include four CSR reports and other CSR collateral. Also led CSR training, human rights, and strategic philanthropy projects
• Clients included: Ford, Kraft, Nissan, Oracle, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Southern Company, Total

1998-2003: Manager/Director, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

• At BSR, the largest and most influential U.S. nonprofit in the CSR field, led the Global Resource Center, which provided CSR research and best practices through a widely used website, and wrote/edited research and best practice papers on environment, supply chain, and community economic development among others
• Led consulting initiatives such as helping a highly criticized consumer products company develop CSR vision and strategy, crafting global CSR strategy and internal structures for a telecom, and creating an anti-corruption strategy for a global energy company
• Clients included BP, Chevron, Levi’s, Philip Morris (now Altria), Verizon

1997: (Project) Working with Management Systems International (MSI), co-led an evaluation of USAID democracy-building programs in Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Ukraine that was singled out by USAID as one of the most useful it had ever received

1995-1998: Self-employed Writer

• Drafted communications in the areas of energy and health care
• Completed and published second novel

1989-1994: Foreign Service Officer, U.S. State Department - Bulgaria, Cote d’Ivoire, Washington DC, visits to Liberia during 1989 civil war

• Managed an extreme conflict situation in Liberia, working with then rebel leader Charles Taylor to negotiate detainee release, and providing analysis/strategy recommendations to senior U.S. political and military officials
• Influenced U.S. and global nonprofit decision making through analysis and recommendations on HIV/AIDS, NGOs, biodiversity, ethnic minorities, labor, and broader political, economic, commercial issues
• Wrote four country human rights reports cited by senior State Department officials for comprehensiveness and insight. Wrote a report on the economic impacts of HIV/AIDS that was widely read at senior levels at the World Bank, CIA, and other global institutions for taking a fresh, data driven approach to the pandemic
• Built relationships with a range of nascent and established political parties and NGOs, including environmental groups
• Led and strengthened project guidelines for a $100,000 small grants program in Cote d’Ivoire, traveling widely to meet with local people in villages and towns throughout the country

GEOGRAPHIC PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Professional experience in Albania, Benin, Bulgaria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Lithuania, Ukraine
• Travel and research in East Africa, Japan, South Asia, former Soviet Union

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Visiting Senior Fellow at Ethics Resource Center

HONORS/AWARDS

• Multiple reporting and crisis management awards at the State Department

SELECTED REFERENCES

• BSR, Center for the Study of Democracy (Bulgaria), Management Systems International, Edelman Public Relations, Ford, IFC/World Bank, Oracle, Rainforest Action Network, SFWorks, Shell, Southern Company, State Department, Sustainable Conservation, USAID

EDUCATION

• Certificate: Mediation and Conflict Resolution
• Certificate: Managing Ethics in Organizations
• Coursework: Corporate finance and economics
• Degree: Bachelor, World Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara

PUBLICATIONS

• 1998-2003: Wrote and edited multiple online “Issue Briefs” providing comprehensive treatment of CSR issues, including these titles: Environment, Supply Chain, Community Economic Development, Business Ethics, Diversity
• Black Leopard, 1997, Knopf. Political-environmental thriller set in West Africa that received good reviews in the New York Times and People magazine among others
• In a High and Lonely Place, 1992, HarperCollins. Political-environmental thriller set in Nepal that received good reviews in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio among others, and was translated into three languages