Current Board of Directors - Executive

Simon Miles, M.A., F.R.S.A., Secretary

Simon Miles is a consultant on public policy and international development, focusing on institutional analysis and capacity development, policy making, planning, development, and administration. He has worked in over 50 countries for governmental, non-governmental, local, national, and international agencies. He has advised on environmental, natural resource, socio-economic, and technological policies and programmes, with an emphasis on their integration. This work has assisted countries to move towards sustainable development and to adapt their human resources and labour markets to respond to rapid global changes.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Simon founded and served as Executive Director of INTERMET, a world-wide NGO which utilized multi-interest team approaches for moving from research to action in resolving problems confronting large urban regions.

With respect to environmental assessment, when President of the Conservation Council of Ontario, he led its strategic EA of the Province of Ontario’s conservation and development policies and programmes, that was conducted using multi-interest teams, in collaboration with the Province; he also chaired a CCO committee on regulations for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. He has worked to improve institutional capacity for environmental assessment in a number of developing countries; has conducted SEAs of international development programmes; and, has developed a number of environmental guides and management tools for such international organizations as the World Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency.

As a Director and Secretary of OAIA since 2004, Simon is taking a particular interest in understanding and responding to members' needs and encouraging interest in Strategic Environmental Assessment, Cumulative Effects Assessment and the use of EA techniques in ecosystem-based planning. Prior to joining the Board, he organized and chaired an OAIA workshop on EA and biodiversity in 1998 and co-led a survey of OAIA's members in 2003.

He has served as Chair of the Toronto Population Group, and co-founded and served as President of the Lake of Bays Heritage Foundation. As a graduate of the University of Edinburgh he has also been a co-founder and President of EDUCT – the Edinburgh University Club of Toronto.