Director, Canada Practice and Senior Mediator
Michael Brown is Director of the Consensus Building Institute’s Canada Practice, Professor of Practice in Natural Resource Conflict Mediation and Global Governance at McGill University, and former Senior Mediation Expert in Natural Resource and Land Conflicts for the United Nations Standby Mediation Team. For more than 25 years, he has worked on conflict prevention, mediation, and stakeholder engagement regarding natural resources, land, environmental issues, and matters involving local or indigenous communities. He works on projects and disputes, institutional capacity, systems design, and policy. He has lived and worked internationally for many years, and he has held numerous leadership and senior advisory positions with the United Nations and other international organizations. His work is split equally between international and Canadian projects.
Michael focuses on the intersection between natural resources, land, collaborative decision-making, and conflict management internationally and within Canada. He designs and manages multi-stakeholder processes and mediations concerning natural resources (extractives, energy, water), environmental issues, and indigenous land claims and governance. He builds conflict prevention/management systems and strategies and provides in-house capacity building to international organizations, government agencies, companies, and civil society actors.
Michael negotiates, facilitates, and supports multi-party negotiations for stakeholder groups at international, national, and local levels. He also provides strategic, programmatic, and policy advice on conflict management regarding individual projects or disputes, broader systemic issues, and matters of governance. He supports policy development for international organizations, governmental agencies, and companies, and undertakes stakeholder assessments and conflict analyses. Michael also works on corporate-community engagement regarding natural resource projects.
He has given more than 50 keynote speeches, lectures, expert presentations, executive training seminars, and workshops at national and international events, mostly at the United Nations, universities, business associations, and community events. He has worked across Canada and in dozens of countries throughout Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Michael speaks English, Spanish, and French.
Exemplary Projects
The following is a partial list of Michael’s previous clients and current CBI clients:
International Organizations
Government Agencies in Canada
Indigenous Organizations
Independent Funding Body for Impartial Mediation (in Canada)
Companies
Universities and Think Tanks
NGOs
Michael is a senior mediator on various United Nations and other rosters, and a certified mediator in Canada (Québec). He is an Associate Member of the Centre for Legal Pluralism and Human Rights at the Faculty of Law at McGill University. He holds a J.D. from the University of Victoria and a B.Sc. (First Class Honours) in Physical Geography from McGill University. Michael was called to the Bar as a lawyer in Ontario, but is not a practicing member.
Michael has authored more than 70 professional reports and academic publications including: