1. Chantae
Lessard – “If you
don’t ask it will
never happen
and sometimes
you need to ask
more than
once!”
31/10/2015 · IntWIMCommunity
Mining has been in Chantae Lessard’s family
for generations; four generations to be exact.
Growing up, Chantae says a career in mining
was never considered but as fate would have it
she landed a role as a paralegal/health, safety,
environment executive assistant at Kennecott
Utah Copper in Salt Lake City, Utah, and that
role changed her life and her career. She’s now
Manager Corporate Social Responsibility at
Lundin Mining Corp, Canada. It’s not the
mining itself that excites her but being a change
agent, the interface between the company and
a community. She sees
Corporate Social Responsibility as being
where safety was 30 years ago and
environment was 15 years ago. “I feel that the
social side of business is on the cusp and it’s
at the tipping point.” By Camila Reed
How did you choose mining as a career?
My career path to mining was indirect and
contained many diversions, obstacles, and
opportunities. When I began my career I was
30 years old with two young children. To be
honest, at that time, it wasn’t a career in mining
I was searching for, it was a pay check from a
reputable organization that I grew up with. The
career part came after encouragement from my
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first mentor – Bill Williams, then VP Health,
Safety & Environment.
Have you had mentors and sponsors that
helped you on the way?
Yes and here’s my first piece of advice to
anyone seeking to further their career, find a
mentor and when opportunities are presented
grab them. Your mentor can open the door but
you need to walk through it.
Kennecott had a 100% tuition reimbursement
policy for full time employees, so I enrolled.
Within two years I graduated with my
bachelor’s degree and gave birth to my third
child. I remember Bill asking me what I wanted
to do with my career. I was unsure so he
suggested I do a bit of job shadowing. My first
experience was with a project manager who
was working on the tailings pipeline. It was
interesting and I learned a lot but …. It wasn’t
until I went back to school for a second time
and earned a master’s degree in
communication that I really found my true
calling.
Enter my second mentor, Louie Cononelos, VP
Government and Community Affairs. I was able
to work with Louie in a cross disciplinary role
and eventually join his team. Louie was known
all over Salt Lake County as “Mr. Kennecott.”
Louie taught me that relationships aren’t built
over night. And you don’t start a relationship
with an “ask.”
A great example of this was at Kennecott
where several properties were proposed for
listing on the EPAs superfund site. It was the
largest community petition (I am aware of)
where a community asked the federal
government not to list the properties. The
community said that Kennecott could
remediate and reclaim the sites better and
more cost effectively than the government. It
was because of the relationships built over
years of engagement that the community had
enough trust to say let the company take care
of it.
My last mentor who really helped propel me to
where I am today was Mike Welch, GM Eagle
Mine. He believed in Corporate Social
Responsibility and in my ability to deliver. Mike
highlighted the work I was doing at Eagle and
provided the opportunity for me to work with
Lundin corporate on developing their
Responsible Mining Framework and Policy.
My decision to move to Toronto and take the
corporate role was influenced by two factors,
first, formalizing the social side of the business
with standards and procedures was important
to Lundin and second, Lundin finds value in
promoting women to senior positions and 36%
of managers, directors, and the executive team
are women.
What are you passionate about in your
work?
Passion for my work comes from a strong
desire to learn and to find solutions. My
curiosity for why things are the way they are
and why people behave the way they do and
what I can do to make a difference drives me.
My biggest challenge is keeping that passion in
check and working hard to understand the
communication styles and preferences of those
around me.
The social side is what I’m really passionate
about. Companies need to be more socially
astute in their business. Honest, transparent
dialogue will get you so much farther ahead
than drawing a line in the sand and litigation,
plus litigation is extremely expensive and only
benefits the lawyers (jokingly). Being able to
talk and listen to both sides of the story.
Looking at ways I think we can move forward
— Just being a change agent is what I’m
interested in.
I view my role today as being where safety was
30 years ago and environment was 15 years
ago.
The mining industry started to pay attention to
safety and made it central to the organization
and made it everyone’s responsibility. This
approach has made a difference.
Fifty years ago the US Environmental
Protection Agency didn’t exist. The regulations
and the technology to improve the environment
did not exist and all of that evolved over time.
The industry has learned a lot from past
environmental transgressions and technology
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has provided better options but companies are
just now acknowledging the social side of
business and this work is at the tipping point.
It’s important to educate top management
through hard data and show that companies
who do well with corporate social responsibility
(CSR) come out ahead financially.
Could you share one or two challenges
you’ve experienced in your career around
CSR and how you overcame them?
At Eagle Mine we changed hands and had five
different GMs in seven years. It was small and
not typical of a major mining company. They
usually go for large, long-life operations. This
was a small nickel deposit of 2,000 tpd, with a
7-year mine life at the time.
Eagle created an opportunity to demonstrate
that a mining company could open, operate
and close a mine in a socially and
environmentally responsible way.
But when you have five different GMs it’s
difficult to make a lot of progress especially in
the CSR space. Eventually the communities’
team was able to take a new approach to
transparency and community engagement. But
it took a management team that supported
innovation to make the difference that allowed
us to positively influence community
perceptions. We did things that other mining
companies were not really comfortable with.
One of those things was an environmental
community monitoring programme. We turned
our environmental data and control over to a
local NGO. They conducted verification
monitoring and communicated the results to
the community.
We have been running that program for three
years and it’s in renegotiation now but the
intent was to run it through the life of mine.
The other thing we did was create a scorecard.
We wanted to be completely transparent with
the community and report on what they were
interested in. The unique thing about our
scorecard process was that we provided
participants with electronic clickers so they
could vote anonymously on our
performance. Our forums were held every six
months and the scorecard information evolved
overtime with feedback from the community.
We also initiated a programme to assist in
developing the local economy in
Marquette. Accelerate UP is a program funded
by the mine but managed by community
volunteers. The intent is to remove road blocks
for entrepreneurs and assist them in navigating
existing resources that could help them
succeed. Ultimately we wanted to mitigate the
boom and bust associated with mining and
create just as many jobs outside of the mine as
inside.
What is your experience of being a woman
working in the mining sector?
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the
obvious that only 19% of women make up the
industry in Canada and even fewer, 13.2% in
the US and this presents challenges. There
were definitely times when I wanted to walk
away. My personal motto became, “I can do
anything for a year (or two).”
What would you love to do next?
Before I took this role, I would have said, be in
a corporate role where I’m educating and
influencing the executive management team to
take a more holistic approach to business
decisions. It’s not just about compliance and
mitigating risk. Although those are some of the
benefits. I am where I want to be right now. I
think it’s too early really to have further
ambitions.
If there’s a wish or desire it would be that
companies recognize that corporate social
responsibility is not something you can do on
the side. CSR considerations should be
embedded in every business decision. So, in
an ideal world, this role would be part of the
executive management team.
Do you sit on a board? If not would you like
to?
I do not sit on any boards but I would like to one
day. Right now I am focused on my career and
getting my son through high school.
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What is your opinion in the women on
boards’ debate? Are you pro quotas or
against them?
I think there are better ways to handle the
issue. Do I think there’s a problem? Yes I do.
Being a ‘protocol’ sets one up for challenges
right out of the gate. As a society we need to
really look at the root of the issue and work to
make changes there. There are several studies
that suggest businesses are more successful if
they have a balance of men and women at the
executive and board level. I believe this is
where Women in Mining can have the greatest
impact – through education and hard data.
Women need to be comfortable being
themselves, after all, gender is one of the many
things we bring to the table that make us so
effective.
Boards are at a disadvantage when they don’t
have a balance. When you have the diversity
that women bring you get better ideas and
results. And I would say the same about an all-
woman board.
I hesitate to support quotas because it sets
women up. It sets a negative tone but I am
completely supportive of creating a pipeline
and educating companies and continually
pointing out how having women on boards
makes a difference to the bottom line. I think
we need to continue the conversation. I do
think it will change. Preparing women for board
positions and pipelines is a way to address it.
What is one thing you wish you’d been told
when you were starting out that you know
now?
If you don’t ask it will never happen and
sometimes you need to ask more than once! I
knew that even though I had support from
various individuals throughout my career it was
really up to me. I was the only one who could
determine my success or failure by the way I
responded to factors that were out of my
control.
Any advice to young women starting out in
their careers?
Find a mentor.
If you are a young woman starting out pick up
the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. Her
perspective is useful to both women and men
and she has some great advice on being a
successful woman in the workplace.
My final piece of advice if you are struggling is
to consider a professional coach. I believe the
key to personal and professional success is
being self-aware. Be open to constructive
criticism and know that you always have more
to learn.
I have had two coaches throughout my career
and have learned invaluable things from both
of them.
BIOGRAPHY
Chantae Lessard is the Manager Corporate
Social Responsibility at Lundin Mining
Corporation headquartered in Toronto Ontario
Canada.
Chantae worked at Kennecott from 1998 to
2008 and was promoted to various
environment and communication positions
throughout the years. Her last position with
Kennecott before transferring to Eagle Mine in
Marquette, Michigan was Senior Advisor
Strategic Partnership Development. From
November 2008 to July 2013, Chantae was the
Principal Advisor Communities and Social
Performance with Eagle. In July 2013, Lundin
Mining purchased Eagle Mine from Rio Tinto
and in 2014 Chantae was promoted to
Manager Corporate Social Responsibility
where she played an important role in
development of Lundin Mining’s Responsible
Mining Framework and Policy. She relocated to
Toronto Canada in September of 2015 when
she was promoted to her current position.
Chantae has an Associate of Arts degree in the
Paralegal Field, a Bachelor of Science degree
in Business Management, a Master of
Professional Communication degree and a
Graduate Diploma in Community Relations.