At the Coalface
At the Coalface is a series of conversations hosted by Philippe Rose.
Philippe's guests share stories about their life beyond the headlines of international affairs. They look for lessons learned about making an impact in the world as practitioners in diplomacy, international organisations, NGOs, journalism and the private sector.
Many of Philippe's guests are connected by their common experience of taking time away from work to attend Fletcher School's Global Master of Arts Programme.
At the Coalface
Steve Schmida - Partnerships with Purpose: an entrepreneur's story of helping companies navigate sustainability
In this episode, Siri and I co-host a conversation with Steve Schmida. Siri is also launching her own podcast called the Corporate Activist. So we thought of releasing this episode on both our podcasts because this conversation has great crossovers. Siri and Steve have known each other for almost 20 years. The three of us share the common link of having graduated from the Fletcher School's GMAP programme in international affairs. I'm excited about this conversation because I want to hear Steve''s perspective on how he's helping companies with their sustainability, climate and ESG commitments through projects in rural communities and in emerging markets and how he's making sense of stakeholder needs and local dynamics in designing programmes that create value in difficult places.
Steve is the co-founder and the Chief Innovation Officer of Resonance, which is a frontier markets solutions firm. Steve was working out of his spare bedroom together with his wife Nazgul and bootstrapped Resonance into an award-winning, global consulting firm with more than 100 staff today. Resonance's clients include Fortune 500 and international donor agencies along with non profits and foundations. Steve has worked in more than 40 countries. Prior to founding Resonance, Steve worked in Russia and Central Asia where he established and led programmes for the Eurasia Foundation and the National Democratic Institute. Recently, Steve published the book Partner with Purpose, a step-by-step guide to planning, launching and maintaining cross-sector partnerships.
Recorded on 20 February 2023.
Steve's book is Partner with Purpose: Solving 21st-Century Business Problems Through Cross-Sector Collaboration, published in June 2020 by Rivertowns Books and available at major bookstores including on Amazon.
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/steve-schmida-57823a10.
Siri launched her new podcast, the Corporate Activist, where this episode was also published on 24 March 2023. It's available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instagram: @corpactivist.
Instagram: @at.the.coalface
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