A Message from the PotashCorp Sustainability Committee
At PotashCorp, we recognize that sustainability encompasses much more than measured progress toward specific goals. It is also about the core values, policies and practices deeply embedded in our culture and in how we conduct ourselves on a daily basis. Of course, the data we gather to track our performance help us develop strategic directions to ensure our long-term sustainability. But it takes vision, creativity and honesty to use that data to initiate positive change and ensure long-term growth.
This Sustainability Committee is responsible for overseeing and managing PotashCorp's overall sustainability program. In 2007, the committee took steps to drive sustainability deeper into the corporation by creating a management structure that included:
- Increasing the size of the committee. In addition to the Chief Operating Officer, the Senior Vice President of Administration and the Vice President of Safety, Health and Environment, the committee now benefits from the participation of the Chief Financial Officer, the General Counsel, the President of PCS Sales, the Senior Director of Corporate and Government Relations and the Director of Investor Relations. These new members have broadened the committee's strategic vision.
- Appointing a full-time Manager of Sustainability who is facilitating the implementation of the objectives and projects initiated by the committee.
- Establishing a team of plant site-based Sustainability Coordinators to help advance sustainability initiatives throughout the company.
- Creating a Climate Change Subcommittee, which has established a basic strategy for addressing the issues around climate change. This subcommittee has set a five-year target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent on a per-tonne-of-product basis.
A major initiative of the committee has been to develop goals and targets that more directly equate to measurable improvements in sustainability. To accomplish this, we have established general performance goals tied to measurable targets. The targets are broad in nature and can be measured year after year to accurately show our progress. As in the past, these goals and targets are subject to further revision and refinement as we focus on improving various aspects of PotashCorp's sustainability performance.
For example, we recognized a need for a measurable donations target tied to PotashCorp's overall financial performance. Accordingly, the committee proposed and the PotashCorp Board of Directors' Governance Committee approved an annual philanthropic donations target of 1 percent of after-tax earnings on a five-year rolling average. We are also seeking to raise individual participation in the company's matching gift program by 10 percent and increase total donations by 20 percent year over year.
In this, our sixth Sustainability Report, you will find more evidence of how our committee is learning from yesterday, managing sustainability today and establishing a strategic direction toward even greater sustainability tomorrow.
Wayne R. Brownlee
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
As the head of PotashCorp's expansion and development efforts in the 1990s, Wayne Brownlee was instrumental in the acquisition of more than US$ 4 billion in assets. The company now has the world's largest integrated production capacity for the three primary nutrients.
Mr. Brownlee was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of PotashCorp in 2006 after serving as Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer since 1999. Prior to that, he held the titles of Senior Vice President, Expansion and Development, Vice President, Expansion and Development and Director, Business Development. He also coordinated the privatization of PotashCorp in 1988, which transformed the company from a provincial Crown corporation to a publicly traded entity.
Before joining PotashCorp, Mr. Brownlee served in the Department of Finance for the Government of Saskatchewan, including three years as Associate Deputy Minister of the Treasury Board Division. He earned a bachelor's degree in Science and a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Saskatchewan.
Mr. Brownlee is a director of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, the world's largest potassium nitrate and iodine producer, with operations in Chile, and in which PotashCorp owns a 32 percent equity interest. He is also a director of Great Western Brewing Company.
James F. Dietz
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
With more than 35 years of experience in the nitrogen and chemicals industry, Jim Dietz brings a vast depth of knowledge to process industry operations. As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for PotashCorp, he is finding the best ways to maximize the company's exceptional potash, nitrogen and phosphate assets.
Mr. Dietz joined PotashCorp as Executive Vice President, PCS Nitrogen in March 1997, following the company's acquisition of Arcadian Corporation, where he had served as Vice President, Manufacturing. In 1998, he was named President of PCS Nitrogen and in November 2000 became Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for PotashCorp.
Before joining PotashCorp, Mr. Dietz held positions of increasing responsibility with chemical companies in North America and Europe. He began his career with Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) in 1969 at the Vistron Chemical Plant in Lima, Ohio, moving through a variety of engineering and supervisory positions until 1980. He then transferred to Sohio Chemical's new grassroots chemical plant in Calhoun County, Texas, where he served as operations manager until 1989.
British Petroleum, which purchased Sohio in 1986, turned to Mr. Dietz to serve as its Project Director in the development of a new chemical plant in London, England in 1989. The following year, he was named Production Manager at BP's large chemical complex in Grangemouth, Scotland. Mr. Dietz returned to the United States in 1993, when he accepted a position as Vice President, Manufacturing with Arcadian.
Mr. Dietz earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University.
G. David Delaney
President, PCS Sales
G. David Delaney has built his career on a singular focus and commitment to chemical and fertilizer industry sales. That determination has helped him rise through the ranks to become President, PCS Sales, and provides PotashCorp with a youthful and energetic leader for its sales teams in fertilizer, feed and industrial products.
Mr. Delaney joined PotashCorp as Vice President, Industrial Sales, PCS Sales in March 1997, following the company's acquisition of Arcadian Corporation, where he had been Vice President, Agricultural Sales for its eastern territory. In March 2000, he was appointed President, PCS Sales.
In 1983, Mr. Delaney accepted his first position as a sales representative with Allied Chemicals' fertilizer division, which became Arcadian in 1984.
In 1987, he expanded his territory and experience, moving from a position as Product Supervisor in nitrogen and phosphate into supervisory roles as a Product Manager, Manager of Industrial Sales, Director of Industrial Sales, VP Ag Sales-East and, eventually, Vice President, Industrial Sales.
Mr. Delaney earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from Southern Illinois University in 1983 and has completed Vanderbilt's Sales Management Program and the Executive Management Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Barbara Jane Irwin
Senior Vice President, Administration
Jane Irwin's professional career has reflected one of the core beliefs of PotashCorp – that our human resources are as valuable as the potash, phosphate and nitrogen reserves that fuel our operations. With more than 25 years of experience in human resources, Ms. Irwin brings the ideas and systems to ensure PotashCorp remains an employer of choice in our industry.
Ms. Irwin accepted her position as PotashCorp's Senior Vice President, Administration in October 2000. In this role, she is responsible for the development and implementation of programs related to employee recruitment and development, benefits and compensation at all PotashCorp operations in Canada, the United States, Trinidad, and Brazil. In addition, she oversees the company's risk, property and workers' compensation insurance, travel program, corporate aviation department and corporate donations.
Ms. Irwin came to PotashCorp in 2000 after a successful career with Hewitt Associates in Chicago, where she was a principal in the firm and worked with a wide variety of clients, including several Fortune 100 companies, managing benefits, compensation and global employee ownership projects. She brings a depth of knowledge in the design and management of compensation and benefit programs, equity plans and retirement plans. Prior to joining Hewitt Associates, she practiced law with a Chicago firm specializing in employee benefits and executive compensation.
Ms. Irwin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Multidisciplinary Social Science from the Honors College at Michigan State University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her law degree at the University of Michigan.
Joseph A. Podwika
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
As Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Joseph Podwika is responsible for the delivery of legal services to PotashCorp, as well as oversight of corporate governance processes in his role as corporate secretary.
Mr. Podwika was appointed Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary in 2006, after serving as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since 2005. He joined PotashCorp in 1997 at its Memphis office, where he served as litigation and general business counsel. He moved to Chicago in 2000 to serve as senior counsel to the company's phosphate business and since 2002 has been responsible for all US legal affairs.
Before joining PotashCorp, Mr. Podwika worked in the legal department of International Paper Company in Memphis and was in private practice with the Buffalo, New York law firm, Jaeckle, Fleischmann & Mugel.
Mr. Podwika earned a bachelor's degree in English with highest honors from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1984 and a Juris Doctorate from Northwestern University School of Law in 1987. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Chicago Bar Association and the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals.
John R. Hunt
Vice President, Safety, Health and Environment
John Hunt joined PotashCorp as Director, Corporate Affairs when the company acquired Arcadian Corporation in 1997.
A year later, he was appointed Director, Production Services. In 2000, he assumed the position of General Manager of PCS Nitrogen Memphis, and in 2003 he became Senior Director, Operations Development. In 2005, he was appointed Vice President, Safety, Health and Environment.
Mr. Hunt came to PotashCorp with 12 years of experience at Arcadian Corporation. He began as Area Sales Representative in 1985 and held a variety of positions including: Nitrogen Product Supervisor; Product Manager, Nitrogen Solutions and Nitric Acid; Director, Product Management and Supply; and Director, Investor Relations and Competitor Analysis.
Prior to joining Arcadian, he spent four years in the retail and wholesale fertilizer business in Illinois.
Mr. Hunt earned his Agricultural Business degree from Black Hawk College in 1981.
Thomas C. Pasztor
Senior Director, Corporate and Government Relations
Tom Pasztor is Senior Director of Corporate and Government Relations for PotashCorp. He is actively involved in coordinating the company's external communications, and is responsible for representing it in the political arena at the local, regional and federal levels.
Mr. Pasztor is a graduate of Drake University and has more than 30 years of experience in organizational communications. His career includes 15 years with Inland Steel Industries and four as Midwest Regional Director of Media Relations for Ernst & Young. Since joining PotashCorp in March 2000, he has launched the company's Best Practices Program as well as its crisis communications initiative, which encompasses all production sites and the corporate centers in the US and Canada.
Over the past seven years, Mr. Pasztor has devoted an ever-increasing amount of his time to spearheading PotashCorp's sustainability program. This includes coordinating the reporting process as well as serving as chairman of the company's Sustainability Committee.
PotashCorp's sustainability efforts have not gone unnoticed. SustainAbility, a global consultancy firm, ranked the company's reporting practices the best in Canada and 33rd among its top 50 global sustainability reporters in 2006. The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) ranked PotashCorp's sustainability reporting among the top in the country in 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.
Denita C. Stann
Director, Investor Relations
Denita Stann joined PotashCorp in 2006, bringing significant international experience in management, finance and accounting, primarily in the mining and fertilizer industries.
After joining PotashCorp as Manager, Sustainability, Ms. Stann was named Director, Investor Relations in December 2006. She is responsible for the company's communication with analysts and investors and continues to serve as a member of PotashCorp's Sustainability Committee.
Prior to joining PotashCorp, Ms. Stann was a key member of the senior management team at Agrium Inc.'s potash operations in Saskatchewan, overseeing the finance, information technology, purchasing and materials management departments. She has also held management positions in finance and accounting with companies based in Canada, Australia and the United States.
Ms. Stann was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1990. She earned her Canadian designation as a chartered accountant in 1993 and her American designation as a certified public accountant in 2000.