Estelle Levin-Nally is the Founder and CEO of Levin Sources. She founded the company in 2010 as a catalyst to deliver more sustainable futures and protect human rights through better business and good governance in the mineral sector. Estelle has convened a team of experts and partners who work with clients to solve complex problems and add value for communities, stakeholders and shareholders around the world.
Estelle is an internationally recognised leader in sustainability and responsible sourcing of minerals. She regularly speaks at or moderates high profile events, conferences and webinars. She is frequently invited to serve on boards and committees of organisations and initiatives seeking to advance the sustainable production and consumption of raw materials, with a focus on human rights, environmental management and SME inclusion especially artisanal and small-scale miners and small jewellers. Partners appreciate her 360 degree perspective, lateral thinking and solutions orientation.
Estelle leads the company’s Better Business and Environment Divisions. With more than 17 years’ experience in strategic advisory, standards and certification system development and alignment, risk management by mining companies and conservation authorities, product stewardship, supply chain due diligence and responsible sourcing from fragile states and conflict-affected and high risk areas, and SME formalisation, especially artisanal and small-scale mining, she is well-positioned to deliver bespoke, discrete and innovative solutions to some of the world’s most high-profile brands and social enterprises.
As a Team Lead, Estelle oversees projects with a focus on excellence in problem and solution definition, rigorous methodological approaches, opportunity identification and quality control. Her solutions are both context-sensitive and commercially astute.
Estelle is a keen ambassador of advancing women in the mining and minerals sector and elevating the protection of the environment as a priority for all stakeholders. In 2020 she is leading Levin Sources’ review of its diversity & inclusion performance and potential and proud to be serving as a mentor in the international Women in Mining’s International Women in Resources Mentorship Programme.
Pioneering projects
Estelle has been instrumental in the founding and technical implementation of a series of programmes that develop innovative strategies and toolkits to address issues surrounding artisanal and small-scale mining. In 2016, Estelle developed The GIFF Project: an initiative to deepen the understanding of illicit financial flows linked to artisanal and small-scale gold mining, in collaboration with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. The tools developed by the initiative have been applied in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mongolia and the Philippines.
In 2010, Estelle developed the ASM-PACE initiative in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) to address artisanal and small-scale mining in protected areas and critical ecosystems. The resulting programme focused on building stakeholder knowledge and capacity for tackling issues with a focus on human rights, corruption, security and governance. The tools developed are now part of another Levin Sources-pioneered project: BEST-ASM.
Estelle has a Master’s degree in Geography, with a focus on sustainable development, natural resources, conflict minerals, climate change, feminism, and CSR, from the University of British Columbia where she was a Commonwealth Scholar. She also holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Geography from the University of Edinburgh and has completed a range of management training courses at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. She most recently completed a professional certificate in Landscape Finance: Investing in Innovation for Sustainable Landscapes.
Leading change in global and local communities and supply chains
Estelle commits a lot of time to supporting responsible minerals initiatives on a voluntary basis.
She is presently
- member for the Sustainability Advisory Board for Africa’s biggest mining conference, the Investing in African Mining Indaba (2021-2);
- member, Verra Sustainable Development Advisory Group;
- Judge for the Global Good Awards (2021);
- Advisory Board member for Ethical Metalsmiths serving on the Responsible Sourcing committee (2018 onwards);
- Member of the International Advisory Panel on Geoethics for the Task Group on Responsible Mining (2020 onwards);
- Member of the Working Group for the Refresh Process for the New York Declaration on Forests (2020-21);
- Member of the Working Group on Human Rights and Child Labour for the Battery Passport of the Global Battery Alliance (2020) and now serving as convenor of the group in a paid capacity (2021 onwards).
She has previously served
- as an Advisory Board member for the CRAFT Standard (Alliance for Responsible Mining);
- as Mentor in the international Women in Mining’s International Women in Resources Mentoring Programme (2020);
- as Founding Member of the Better Business Committee of the UK’s National Association of Jewellers);
- as Advisory Council Member of the East and Southern African Coloured Gemstones Alumni Forum;
- as the Ethical Sourcing Ambassador for the Women’s Jewellery Association, UK;
- for over 10 years sat on the Standards Committee of the Responsible Jewellery Council until May 2019 where she was co-Chair for 2 years;
- on the Technical Advisory Group for Fairtrade Gold (2015-2017);
- was a founder member of the British Ethical Jewellers Association (2007-2009);
- was founding Co-Chair of the Ethical Diamonds Group of the Madison Dialogue (2007), which evolved into the Maendeleo Diamonds Standards of the Diamond Development Initiative;
- was Advisory Board member for an Horizon 2020 Project, RE SOURCE.
Estelle was named #48 Top 100 Modern Slavery Influencers 2018; #15 Top 100 Conflict Minerals Influencers 2017 and #52 in 2016. She was also selected as one of 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining by Women in Mining UK in 2020. Estelle works in English, French, and Spanish. She is based at Levin Sources, Cambridge, UK.
Case Studies
Selected Publications
