Estelle Levin Ltd. has a core staff based in Cambridge (UK), Hanover(Germany) and Vancouver (Canada). Our versatile staff works with a network of world-class experts to deliver the best possible advice our clients on a project-by-project basis.

Estelle Levin, Director

Estelle Levin is director of Estelle Levin Limited. With more than 10 years working on the political economy, management and sustainability of oil & minerals supply chains for the purposes of corporate social responsibility and international development, Estelle’s expertise draws on diverse experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Estelle is a recognised global expert in artisanal and small scale mining and transforming mineral capital into sustainable development for resilient ecosystems and societies. With experience developing, evaluating, and integrating into corporate management systems and mining communities over seventeen standards and certification initiatives for responsible mineral trading chains (e.g. conflict-free minerals; fair trade), she is accomplished at building sustainable mineral economies and supply chains.

Estelle has a mixed physical and social science training that brings much to her work at the human-environment interface in the world of natural resources management. A natural problem-solver, systems thinker, and strategist, she has a Masters degree with Honours in Human Geography from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and a Geography Masters from the University of British Columbia in Canada, where she specialised in the theory and praxis of Sustainability in natural resources management and regional development. Ms. Levin can work in English, French and Spanish. 

Estelle is back part time following her maternity leave and is currently working Wednesday to Friday.

Caren Holzman, Director

Caren Holzman has more than 15 years experience helping NGOs and companies confront and overcome social, environmental and economic challenges and embrace globalisation by helping them to address sustainability, development, and resilience.  Caren has extensive experience and strategic insight into standards and certification systems including their efficacy and impact, labelling and ethical market development, and sustainable supply chains and ethical sourcing.  Her experience stems from her senior management roles Fair Trade USA and Fairtrade International where she led commodity strategy and new product development, and through leading client projects at the think tank and strategy advisory company SustainAbility Ltd.  Working closely with Estelle, Caren leads client projects, new project and partner development, and organisational strategy at Estelle Levin Ltd.

Caren has a Bachelors degree from Tufts University in International Relations with a focus on economic and environmental development and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.  She has led large scale projects such as the scoping and delivery of Fair Trade USA’s Feasibility Study for the Development of a Fair Trade Diamond Standard and Certification System and development of the Fair Trade apparel pilot program.  Caren can work in both English and Spanish.  

Gisa Roesen, Manager and Senior Analyst

Gisa Roesen’s specialism is working to capitalise on the sustainable opportunities natural resources can create for local communities. With a background in bi-lateral development cooperation projects for the German Government, Gisa had a central role in developing a certification system to manage the issue of conflict minerals in the Great Lakes Region through the encouragement of formalised, traceable, and responsible mining and trading practices. As an experienced practitioner having worked for 8 years in supply chain management, impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and strategising for development programmes in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Gisa is accomplished at participatory methodologies, community engagement, and all aspects of development programme design, implementation, and evaluation.

Gisa has a Masters degree from the University of Muenster Westfälische (Wilhelms-Universität) in Political Science and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex in England. Further, she is trained in Capacity WORKS. Currently, she is undertaking a two-year course in organisational development . Gisa is fluent in German, English and Spanish, and has basic French and Vietnamese. She is currently based in Germany. 

Gisa is currently absent from the business, she will be returning March 2013.

Cristina M. Villegas, Manager and Senior Analyst

Cristina Villegas is a Manager and Senior Analyst specializing in ASM management & engagement, corporate social responsibility strategies with the extractive industries, social and operational standards within the industrial mining sector, governance aspects of the extractive industries, and socio-economic analysis. She also serves as Technical Director of the ASM-PACE, a joint program with WWF and other strategic partners to manage the issue of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in protected areas and critical ecosystems (PACE) around the world. She has experience in field-based ASM baselines, participatory research methods, designing and testing survey tools, ASM engagement and management planning, program design for public and private sector clients, and managing simultaneous multi-country field studies. She is a frequent speaker on ASM and industrial mining topics at forums including the Smithsonian, the World Bank, and the London School of Economics.

Cristina previously worked with WWF Uganda on issues of petroleum development in the Albertine Rift, with the Fund for Global Human Rights and the World Bank. She earned a Masters degree in Human Rights with a focus on natural resources and civil conflict from the London School of Economics and has direct field experience in Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and in many Latin American contexts. Cristina can work in English and Spanish, has beginner French and some Luganda, and in her spare time is pursuing a post-graduate certificate in Environmental Management from the School of Oriental and African Studies.  

Ruby Weinberg, Researcher and Analyst

Ruby Weinberg is a talented writer, researcher and robust critical thinker. Her expertise spans from peace and conflict, the management of mineral supply chains in the Great Lakes Region, and the formalisation and development of artisanal mining sectors around the world. Ruby works on a variety of projects for ELL, including providing ASM expert input into Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs); leading field-based studies on artisanal and small-scale mining communities; carrying out feasibility studies of ethical artisanal mineral supply chains in conflict country contexts; integrating conflict minerals management systems into corporate management practices and designing rights-based field methodologies for ASM baseline studies in numerous francophone African country contexts. She is the manager of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) programme for the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in Protected Areas and Critical Ecosystems (ASM-PACE), a partnership between WWF and ELL’s that seeks to manage the issue of ASM in Protected Areas and Critical Ecosystems.

Prior to joining ELL, Ruby assisted Human Rights Watch’s Great Lakes team in researching campaign topics in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi. Ruby holds an MSc in Global Economic History from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom and an MA in Global Studies from the University of Leipzig in Germany. Her BA with honours from the University of King’s College and the Dalhousie University in Canada is in International Development Studies with French. She has field experience in Gabon, Senegal, Thailand and Indonesia, and desk experience studying artisanal mining in over 30 countries around the world. Ruby can work in English and French, is proficient in German, and is learning Indonesian.  She is currently based in Vancouver, Canada 

Amy Sandhu, Programme Manager and Marketing Associate

Amy Sandhu is an experienced programme manager with international experience at the UN and NGO level, both in the field and at HQ. She has most recently worked for nearly 2 years at UNDP in Liberia under the Pro-Poor Growth Pillar managing a nation-wide community based recovery and development programme. Among her skills are designing M&E frameworks and conducting M&E field missions, participatory research methodologies, capacity-building of local civil society and small-scale businesses; livelihood programming; infrastructure rehabilitation (roads, bridges, culverts, schools, clinics, agro-processing facilities); food security & nutrition (swamp-rice rehabilitation, vegetable and tuber production, livestock production); water and sanitation education; and gender mainstreaming.

Amy holds a BA in Political Science from Queen’s University, a French diploma of Political Studies from Jean Moulin University in Lyon, and an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics. Amy has co-published work for the Crisis States Research Centre in London with extensive desk research on DRC and has field research experience in India.

Amy is the programme manager for the ASM-PACE programme (www.asm-pace.org) The aim of ASM-PACE is to address the environmental impacts of Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) whilst building on its economic, social, and empowerment potential in some of the world’s most important ecosystems.

Jane Barnett, Executive Assistant & Office Manager 

Jane Barnett coordinates the company’s operations in Cambridge and provides backstopping support on all projects. An experienced administrator, Jane has more than 25 years of experience in private sector operations, including 20 years with an international bank.  Jane has deep expertise in contract management, implementing financial controls, change management and implementing effective operational systems.  Currently, she is undertaking a Diploma in Office Management with Pitman Training in her spare time. 

Gary Beynon, Cartography & GIS

A cartographer, web developer, and IT support for Estelle Levin Limited. Through his company, Probability One Geospatial Services, Gary provides mapping, remote sensing and GIS consultancy and products to Estelle Levin Limited and its clients, as well as ASM-PACE. Gary previously worked in networks and IT for a well-known bank whilst reading for his BSc (Hons) Geography and MSc in Conservation and GIS.