Andrew, Andy and Grace teamed up in 2008 to work together on various projects and their different skills have created an enthusiastic and entertaining team. Other partners are also brought on board for various projects when required.
Andy Le May – Managing Director
Andy is a strategist and motivator in sustainability. A creative, out of the box, thinker with passion & pragmatism who is able to inspire and communicate sustainability to a wide variety of people. His approach is empower. To drive change by helping us to understand and feel that “What we each do matters. We are the solution”.
With business experience at director and board level in Plc and Ltd companies he is able to make business sense of sustainability. He is also able to work effectively with people from different cultures and backgrounds having travelled and worked in many countries. Andy has extensive communication, management, training and technical experience gained within the UK corporate market place and NGO environment.
Andrew Bennett – Education & Training Director
Andrew is an experienced facilitator and educator who takes charge of the design and development of icologie’s quality learning resources and processes for implementing organizational sustainability.
A high school Head of Geography, English teacher and sports coach for many years, Andrew left teaching to work as a freelance facilitator. He then joined Woolworths as a Customer Relations Manager where he was also responsible for in-store training and service development, and part of the Woolworth’s Good Business Journey team. Andrew is a born teacher with a passion for facilitating high-quality experiential learning to wide-ranging audiences. He’s equally effective teaching the CEO in the boardroom, or the staff in the canteen.
Andrew enjoyed playing club cricket for many years, but now swims (with Robben Island STILL firmly in his sights) and plays the odd round of golf to keep his eye in. Spending quality time with family and friends is important to him – he’s recently been blessed with his first child, a beautiful bouncy boy, Luke!
Grace Stead – Sustainability Strategist
The balance between people and the environment has always been a driving force for Grace in her professional career. Trained as a town planner she spent twelve years working for local government, during which time she gained experience at grassroots level in the townships, as well as international exposure. While co-ordinating the Cape Town Aachen partnership for sustainability she gained experience in project management, business development, training and facilitation to ensure implementation in a practical and professional manner.
She established Steadfast Greening in 2007, which expanded as the need for awareness around sustainability grew. The focus of the business was on cleaner production, resource management and event greening supported by training and resource development. During 2009 Grace teamed up with Andrew and Andy to establish icologie as a joint venture for actively promoting sustainable living.
Grace currently lives in Cape Town and enjoys travelling. She likes to live on the edge with activities such as paragliding and motorcycling. When she slows down she enjoys reading, photography, camping and just being outdoors with family or friends.
Lisa Parkes – Project Manager
Lisa hails from the “Friendly City” of PE. She has a Masters degree in town planning and bachelors in architecture, however also migrated across to the environmental field early in her career working as a Senior Environmental Practitioner at Ninham Shand, where she enjoyed being out in the bush or on construction sites getting her hands dirty. She also did a year’s stint at Rennie Property in facilities management and later joined the Green Building Council of SA in 2008 as their Marketing, Membership and Events Manager.
In October 2010 she joined the icologie team, as she was keen to have more practical interaction around training and awareness and all things green, which is her passion. She is a great task master and makes sure that things get done, while still having a passion for teaching and interaction at different levels.
Karin Diederichs – Operations Manager
Karin studied Public Relations and started off her career doing PR and communication in Pretoria and video-production in Johannesburg. Later she moved more into the realm of event organizing, with a specific focus on conferences. In 1994 she was the CSIR Conference Centre, Customer Relations and Sales Manager, but decided to move down to Cape Town and work as a freelance conference co-ordinator.
In 2006 she became involved with event greening and the importance of sustainability within the events sector. She has since then joined the icologie team to provide public relations, marketing and event management support. She has extensive skills in project management and works well under pressure with tight deadlines.
Agripa Munyai – Training Support
Agripa is passionate about the natural environment and enjoys outdoor life. He holds an honours degree in Development and Environment Studies from the University of Stellenbosch majoring in Sustainable Development. After completing his studies, he worked as a Project Coordinator at the Foundation for Contemporary Research (FCR) in 2009 and then joined Metropolitan Health Group as a Call Center Agent in 2010. A strong, personable communicator – he speaks all local African languages – Agripa’s particular interest is in teaching all people the concepts and practices of sustainable living and its daily significance.
Ruth Massey – Project Co-ordinator
Ruth has been involved in the environmental field for the past 6 years. She has worked for a number of different groups including Corporates, NGOs, local and Provincial Government Departments. She has a BA honors and MSc in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and is currently in the 2nd year of her PhD at the University of Stellenbosch. She has a particular interest in Urban Sustainability and Environmental Education.
Geneveve Walker – Administrative Support
All too many things happen behind the scenes by our undercover agent also known as 007. She provides logistical and administrative support to ensure that the icologie team can focus on what they do best!
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