Senior Program Manager, CANZA
Shelley is a committed sustainability professional with over twenty years of partnership working experience, effectively bringing different sectors together to deliver social, environmental and commercial outcomes, often for those furthest behind. A skilled strategist and project / programme manager with a strong focus on implementation, assessing and delivering demonstrable lasting impact. The last 7 years has seen Shelley grow her knowledge and expertise in the agri-food space, working internationally and nationally establishing climate smart and regenerative agriculture programmes.
Shelley’s early career saw her work in the public and not for profit sectors developing and delivering government funded urban regeneration programmes in some of the UK’s most deprived communities. These programmes delivered at community level addressed equitable and inclusive social and economic development through partnership working. From here she moved into academia, working as a researcher looking into the role of sustainability and CSR in the global development and human security arenas.
Following this, she moved into consultancy in the sustainability arena, where she worked with a wide range of businesses, developing strategies, policies, reports and engagement programs, as well as building the capability of executives, teams, and individuals, all while volunteering for grassroots organizations focused on building community resilience.
Following this Shelley joined the United Nations World Food Programme, where she built strategic supply chain focused partnerships aimed at addressing issues faced by rural communities in the Global South, co-creating capacity-building programs to support producers and growers’ transition to regenerative and climate-smart agricultural systems.
From there she moved to Canada and back into a consultancy role working with Indigenous Communities to develop the Comprehensive Community Development Plans, as well as mid-stream oil companies, supporting them with their sustainability and ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategies, reports and programmes.
Missing the agri-food space, Shelley intentionally moved back into this world, working as part of the global sustainable agriculture team for PepsiCo, with a focus on partnership building to advance the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices on farms and establishing farmer-centric regenerative agriculture programs in several countries. She was also responsible for co-developing the livelihoods strategy, aimed at supporting PepsiCo adopt more smallholder oriented procurement practices, as well as establishing the learning agenda, with a view to building the capability of the Agro and Procurement teams around regenerative agriculture and empowering them to lead projects.
Latterly, Shelley has been working in Alberta developing and managing a social innovation lab specifically focused on accelerating the widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture practices, through the engagement of actors up and down stream. This has involved developing and standing up key projects and building key partnerships across the sector.