Donald is the founder of Chalkstone Limited. He is an expert in stabilisation, micro-social networks, local political dynamics and behavioural change with 15 years of experience working in conflict zones and transition states developing and applying tools and approaches to understanding complex socio-political dynamics in transition states and emerging economies, and designing accompanying programs to effect change.
He has been responsible for the delivery of high value complex programs, provided technical advice to Ministers of State, Ambassadors, and Senior Military leaders in his areas of expertise including the political economy of natural resource extraction. He has been an invited lecturer at the ISAF Counterinsurgency Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan where he delivered a lecture series on “nudge” tactics and strategies based on behavioral analysis and has contributed a number of articles and chapters to commissioned reports. He is a Civilian Expert with the UK’s Stabilisation Unit, specializing in Strategic Communications, Stabilisation, and Political Affairs.
Donald is a political anthropologist and member of Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, from which he holds two masters degrees, and is currently completing his doctoral studies (expected 2018). Additional studies in social science methods and big data analytics were undertaken at Harvard University. He has worked in the Middle East, Africa, Southern Africa, Central Asia, South Asia.
Digital Transformation and Community Risks in Mining
Urbanisation, access to energy, infrastructure development and poverty reduction policies will soon result in an unprecedented strain on our planet’s natural resources and environment. This increased need for what comes out of the earth coupled with a decreased need for people to do the digging create the foundations for deeper and more profound social and political risks and community conflict in the world’s under-developed, frontier regions. Already 50% of all risks and 73% of project delays faced by extractives companies are due to non-technical risks.
Now, more than ever before in our collective history, extractive companies need to develop stronger, sustainable, trust-based relationships with their local communities and host countries.