Ms Nelson has a 30-year career researching and advocating for business practices and was the founding Director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Corporate Responsibility Initiative in 2004, where she is now a senior research fellow. She has co-authored seven books and more than 100 publications on the role of the private sector and multistakeholder partnerships in supporting sustainable development. She is a non-resident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings and a former senior associate of Cambridge University's Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Since 1992, Ms Nelson has served on advisory councils for over 45 corporations, non-governmental organisations, and government bodies. These have included ExxonMobil's External Sustainability Advisory Panel, the Independent Advisory Panel to the ICMM's Resource Endowment Initiative, GE's Sustainability Advisory Council, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Future Councils on Good Governance and on Transparency and Anti-Corruption, co-chair of the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality, and advisory councils for other companies, the World Bank Group and the United Nations. She also worked for The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum in the UK, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in Africa, FUNDES in Latin America and as a Vice President at Citibank working in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In December 2023, Ms Nelson was appointed a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) in the UK's Overseas and International Honours List, for services to business and to sustainability. Ms Nelson is a Non-Executive Director of NYSE, ASX and TSX-listed Newmont Mining Corporation (since 2011) and Chair of its Safety and Sustainability Committee. She is a Co-Chair of the WEF's Global Future Council on the Energy Nexus, a member of WBCSD's Imperatives Advisory Board, and an Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Forum on Corporate Climate Governance, a Cambridge University Press publication. She serves on the Board of Chevron's Niger Delta Partnership Initiative foundation and on sustainability-related advisory councils for Bank of America, Abbott Laboratories and Griffith Foods. Her career comprises a portfolio of roles across academia, international policy, business leadership groups and not-for-profit organisations. She has experience in sustainable development including in human rights, cultural heritage and Indigenous issues, and understanding of climate change and biodiversity issues. She is member of Governance Committee and Sustainability Committee.
