Sean Southey has over 30 years of experience in the international development and communications field. With a multi-sectorial background, Sean started his career with 5 years in the Canadian Ministry of Environment, followed by 12 years working with United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) environment team. His NGO experience was enriched through work with ICLEI (Secretary General), Rare (Vice-President) and 10 years as President of IUCN NGO member PCI Media. He the past decade he has led the development of over 80 campaigns world-wide; won over 100 awards for impactful campaigns; and, reached literally billions of people with life and planet-saving information. Sean has extensive experience speaking around the world on the importance of communications and regularly runs creative design, capacity building and strategy workshops.
In 2016, Sean was elected as Chair for the International Union for the Conservation on Nature’s (IUCN) Commission on Education and Communication (CEC). In this role, he has worked tirelessly to enhance IUCN’s use of creative communications for social change. This has included a lead role in designing and implementing IUCN’s #NatureForAll campaign and helping grow and support the work of the CEC and its over 1,600 members.
Sean is a dual Canadian and South African citizen and has lived, worked and travelled in over 100 countries. He holds a MSC from the London School of Economics and a BA in Economics from University of British Columbia, and has a wonderful daughter, Safia.