ICSD-ESG
Background of ICSD
International Chamber of Sustainable Development (ICSD) is a government-registered not-for-profit organisation (registration number: 0063358) based in Hong Kong. ICSD also has the Chapters at Geneva, and London (not-for-profit company number: 14301906). Currently, ICSD has over 4,000 members who are Certified ESG Planners CEP® from different industries.
Purpose of the Board
The Board is set up to ensure that ICSD’s courses or programs meet international academic and professional quality standards, for examples, AdeQuaT&E 10015+ and others.
Mode of operation of the Board
- The Board will review the course syllabuses of ICSD’s Certified ESG Planner CEP®, Certified ESG Manager CEM® and other new programs to certify that they meet international academic and professional quality standards, e.g., AQTE 10015+ or others.
Quality
Structure of the Board
The Board will comprise of seven members: Chair, two Vice Chairs, and four ordinary members.
- Prof. Raymond Saner (Chair)
- Prof. Manuela Tortora (Vice Chair)
- Prof. Peter K.W. Fong (Vice Chair)
- Prof. Lichia Saner-Yiu
- Mr. Kari Tapiola
- Prof. Gerard Postiglione
- Prof. Ram Kumar Mishra
Background of the Board members
Prof. Raymond Saner (Chair)
Raymond is renown internationally for his expertise and training effectiveness in international negotiations in business, trade, and international relations. He is the co- developer of the theory of Business and Multi-Stakeholder Diplomacy for sustainable future. In recent years, he has been in the forefront of assessing business opportunities through integrating the CSR and ESG with SDGs through strategic planning and matrixes. He was a member of Expert Groups which drafted scientific contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), member of Editing Teams that drafted the Global Sustainable Development Report, and is reviewer of management journals, author of books and scientific journals and served as Officer in professional organizations such as the Academy of Management.
As the Swiss Representative to the ISO Technical Committees (TCs) since 1990, Raymond has been engaged in the ISO/TC 176 on Quality management and quality assurance that leads in the development of standards in the field of quality management systems and tools since 1979 and currently in the ISO/TC 314 establish in December 2017. ISO/TC 314 aims to provide a way of setting out the principles for delivering new products, services and solutions that will meet the future needs of the ageing societies in a new environment.
Prof. Manuela Tortora (Vice Chair)
Manuela held Visiting Professorships at several universities in Latin America. For the last 25 years she has been Visiting Professor at the Master Programmes of International Relations, and International Cooperation and Development, Catholic University of Milan (Italy) till 2025.
In addition, she was a Senior Consultant of the Swiss Economic Cooperation (SECO) and a Member of the Board at CUTS International Geneva; Vice-President of the Association of Former International Civil Servants, Greycells; Mentor of the Kofi Annan Foundation – Changemakers Programme, and the University of Geneva. Her research activities focused mainly on international economic issues and her publications included UN reports and documents.
Prof. Peter K.W. Fong (Vice Chair)
He is currently President of Hong Kong Public Administration Association and Editor-in-Chief of PAP Journal. He teaches strategic management and supervises DBA students’ dissertations of the University of Wales TSD. He also serves as Principal Consultant of the International Chamber of Sustainable Development (ICSD) and holds memberships of HK Institute of Planners & Planning Institute Australia. He was a Teaching Fellow of Judge Business School, University of Cambridge; Visiting Scholar, MIT; Founding Director of EMBA programme, HKU Business School; Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Urban Design, HKU; Executive Vice President of City University of Macau; Honorary Professor, China Training Centre for Senior Civil Servants in Beijing; Studies Director, Civil Service Training & Development Institute, HKSAR Government. He was appointed as Advisory/Visiting Professors by Tongji, Tsinghua, Renmin, and Tianjin universities in Mainland China, Chinese University of HK and HK Polytechnic University. He was former Consultants of the World Bank and Delta Asia Bank.
He has published numerous book chapters and articles in international academic journals. He has extensive work experience in public, business, academic and international organizations. He is an expert in programme development and management. He partnered with world renowned universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, London, Harvard, and Columbia to offer master’s degrees and executive programmes in the Greater China Region.
Prof. Lichia Saner-Yiu
Lichia, EdD (Indiana University) and post-doc fellow (Columbia University), specializes in transformative technology and institutional development and has designed institutional development mechanisms to enable public sector reforms in e.g., China, Slovenia, Russia and Bolivia. She developed a QMS certification scheme for Learning & Development (L&D) based on the ISO 10015:1999. and co- developed the theory of Business and Multi-Stakeholder Diplomacy for sustainable future. She was member of the Executive Board of the Management Education and Development Division of the Academy of Management. Presently, she curated and moderated the Executive Training Course for the Policy Makers on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on behalf of the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) from 2019-2024. She deploys a whole of society approach in ensuring sustained prosperity with positive ESG and CSR impact.
Lichia serves on the IIAS ICAPA Accreditation Committee of Higher Education on Public Administration. She acted as a member of the accreditation review team to the Ghant University, Belgium.
Mr. Kari Tapiola
Mr. Tapiola was Deputy Director-General and Executive Director, International Labour Office, Geneva, among other things responsible for the design and management of the Action Programme for the implementation of the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Later he was, and Special Adviser to the Director-General for the ILO’s of the ILO, Century Project, Geneva. During, 2011-2016, he headed the annual ILO mission to Israel, West Bank, Gaza and Golan for a report for the International Labour Conference on the situation of workers in the occupied Palestinian territories. In
2010-2014, he was an Adviser for the labour rights programme of the ILO in Georgia. In 2011, he led an ILO advisory mission on freedom of association in the Russian Federation (only mission of this kind on the invitation of the Russian Government).
In 2012 – 2018, he worked as consultants on negotiation and advice on the ILO/World Bank programme for the abolition of child and forced labour in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan. Ins and during 2018 – 2022, he worked on the publications for the ILO on the 1998 Declaration methodology, the history of the ILO’s Workers’ Group, the ILO and health and other crises and the experiences on abolishing forced labour in Uzbekistan. In 2021 he wrote an analytical report for the ILO on improving tripartite cooperation in the West Bank and Gaza, and in 2023 he prepared ILO strategy proposals on forced labour in Turkmenistan.
Prof. Gerard A. Postiglione
His awards include: Outstanding Research Supervisor Award (HKU); Humanities and Social Science Prestigious Fellowship (RGC); Lifetime Contribution Award for Studies in Higher Education; two Best Book Awards. Professor Postiglione’s autobiography is published in Leaders in the Sociology of Education. He has been a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNESCO, OECD, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank. He was a senior consultant to the Ford Foundation in China. His policy reports were received by China’s National Reform and Development Commission, State Education Commission, and Ministry of Education. He appeared on CNN and China’s CCTV, wrote for The New York Times and The Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and other Hong Kong’s English and Chinese language press. He was invited to the White House Rose Garden, and is a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations.
Gerard held visiting appointments at the Yale University, Columbia University, Stanford University, New York University, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Peking University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University. He is an Independent Non-Executive Director of China Education Group Holdings Limited.
Prof. Ram Kumar Mishra
He was Vice-President, ASIA, Brussels and the Chairman of the Working Group on Public-Private-Partnership. He has handled assignments for the Indian Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade and Commerce. He was a researcher for the Planning Commission, Indian Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, OECD, and United Nations University. He was a member of the cultural exchange and research programs sponsored by the Government of India for Russia and France. He was on the panels of presenters at the BRICS conference in India and Brazil and was on the panel of experts for South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF).
He is on the editorial boards of many international journals. He is on the Board of Global Foundation for Research in Corporate Governance and the panel of the Union Public Service Commission, India. He has been a member of the committees to select top management personnel appointed by state governments, public sector enterprises, and private sector organizations. He was a part of the Department of Training and Personnel, the Government of India’s drive to train civil service personnel through vertical and horizontal programs organized in India and overseas. He has published his research in international journals and books in Springer, Routledge, Elsevier, and United Nations. His interests include ESG, CSR, corporate governance, leadership development, and management education.