Andrew MacLeod Speaker Biography
Leadership & Partnership Expert, Author, Humanitarian Lawyer, and Former Aid Worker
MacLeod is an expereinced board director and chairman across three continents. He currently chairs Griffin Law (UK and US) and co-founded its award-winning Ethical Litigation and Brexit Advisory Services business lines. He sits on the board of Risk Advisory Group including a number of board committees. Previously he sat on the board of Cornerstone Capital (US), including its Finance Committee and Audit and Risk Committee.
Activist
MacLeod is one of the founders of HearTheirCries.org, a Swiss based association aimed at eliminated child exploitation and abuse in the aid industry. In that role he has been advising several governments and been outspoken on international media.
Charities
MacLeod advises or advised numerous other businesses, governments and charities including International Lawyer for Africa. At ILFA his focus was on improving legal services and advice on Chinese-African trade contracts.
Professor
Academically MacLeod is a Visiting Professor at Kings College London (War and Security Studies), a Vice Chancellor’s distinguished Fellow at Deakin University in Australia and previously a Senior visiting lecturer at Tasmania University Law School. At Kings, he contributes to counter-extremism thinking and previously he led the ‘Beyond Shared Value Commission’ looking at ways to measure, in financial terms, external risks to corporations.
Affiliations
MacLeod also sits on the Advisory Board of the Global Thinkers Forum and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce.
Humanitarian
His humanitarian activities included time as Chief of Operations of the United Nations Emergency Coordination Centre in Pakistan, where MacLeod negotiated a complex series of relationships that saw the Pakistan military, international NGOs, UN agencies, US military, UK military and non-state militant groups all playing a role in delivering a successful operation without casualties or conflict.
Aid Worker
At the International Committee of the Red Cross MacLeod served in the Balkans and Rwanda during the 1990s. He set up and ran Law of Armed Conflict training with military units in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia.
Advisor
Professor MacLeod advises a number of companies on their stakeholder relations and external risks, is a member of the Chatham House/ICRC Expert Panel on Humanitarian Negotiations with Non-State Armed Groups, was an Affiliate Senior Associate to the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington DC, served on the Advisory Boards of the World Economic Forum’s Future of Civil Society Project Advisory Board, Kings College Humanitarian Futures Project and the UN Expert Group on Responsible Business and Investment in High-Risk Areas.
Author and Speaker
MacLeod is a strong communicator having appeared as an expert on television and radio programs. He has been published in journals and newspapers internationally on areas of corporate reform and profitability, stakeholder management, leadership, negotiations, global affairs, security and terrorism. He is the author of the book A Life Half Lived (New Holland Press). He is a sought after corporate speaker internationally.
Education
Macleod holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Tasmania University, a Master of Laws from Southampton University, a Graduate Diploma in International Law from Melbourne University and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Honors and Awards
Andrew received the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal by Australia for work in the Balkans and was awarded a second time for work in Rwanda. He received the Australian Defence Medal for service as an officer in the Australian Infantry. He was awarded the Silver Medal for Humanity from the Montenegrin Red Cross and was recognised by the Australian Government for his work in East Timor. MacLeod was awarded as a Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow at Deakin University in 2016, the 2014 University of Tasmania Foundation distinguished Graduate Award, the 2013 Young Britons Foundation Global Leadership for Freedom Award and the 2008 Australian Davos Connection Leadership Award, amongst others.
Sports
Philanthropy Keynote Speaker Andrew MacLeod was also a world-class swimmer having won a silver medal for the 200 metres Butterfly at the 2002 World Masters Games. He regularly volunteered to help national swimming teams in the developing countries. He is a keen diver and underwater photographer.
Andrew MacLeod Speaking Topics
FINANCE
MacLeod brings a unique knowledge set as a provider of capital through the superannuation fund he manages and the US based bank he is a director of, combined with his past experience as an aid and community worker. MacLeod like few others is well placed to chart a course through the delicate path of profitability and license to operate. The world of finance is changing. Increased transparency both by community advocacy groups and the providers of capital put more and more pressure on companies to understand and adjust their business practices for greater external expectations around community behavior and social risk. As an experienced business adviser, former member of the Shared Value leadership council at Harvard University, a Visiting Professor at Kings College London and a provider of capital MacLeod can give direction to companies on how to maximize both community performance and profitability.
LEADERSHIP AND LIFE
Six wars and numerous natural disasters – Andrew MacLeod has had to deal with them all. Form negotiating with terrorists, to coordinating with military dictators, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Rwanda, East Timor. MacLeod has faced life and death situation for him and for many thousands of people. How did he deal with the circumstances and what lessons can be applied to business and to life?
CORPORATE AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS FOR PROFIT AND PURPOSE
Leadership or economic development partnership between private sector and not for profit collaboration will be key opportunities into the future. MacLeod explains how corporaations can re-imagine the relationship with local communities to lower risk, imporve profits and get better outcomes for the people in those communities. It is the win-win that he seeks.
GLOBAL EVENTS AND TERRORISM - THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE
What is happening to the world today? Risk confront us from war to terrorism with Islamic State now managing to reach deep into the suburbs of Australia to recruit their new front line. Andrew Macleod, having negotiated with terrorists and generals understands the motivation, methodology and modus operandi of these groups. He also understands the threats and ways for us to defeat that threat. IF you want to understand the where the world is at and how to map a path forward, MacLeod is your man.
Andrew MacLeod Books
