Core Team

Dean Slocum, Principal – Dean is the founder of Acorn International and a former Director of EHS for Arthur D. Little and former VP, Oil and Gas Market Manager for Battelle Memorial Institute.  He has led multi-national teams, on > 80 EIAs and related studies and has worked in greater than 25 countries.  Dean speaks fluent Spanish, intermediate Portuguese and basic French and Greek.  See Dean’s bio.

Heather Boyd – Heather is an experienced environmental consultant who comes to Acorn International from ConocoPhillips, where she was responsible for helping manage health, safety and environmental risk and liability on upstream and downstream assets. She has over thirteen years of experience and is based in the Boston area.  With Acorn International, Heather has led environmental and social impact and risk assessments worldwide. See Heather's bio.

Atma Khalsa –Atma has led environmental and social management assignments for E&P activities in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean and participated on projects in over twenty countries.  Atma holds a Master’s Degree from the joint McGill University – United National Environment Program (UNEP) Environmental Assessment Program and brings strong formal training in ESIA, stakeholder engagement and community investment to our projects. He is currently leading ESIAs in Liberia and The Bahamas. See Atma's bio.

David Lewis – David is a former HSE manager for Dune Energy in Houston. He has prior experience in environmental consulting focusing on environmental field investigations for onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration / production activities, environmental impact assessment and wetland delineation.  David has an MS in Biology and 11 years of experience. He will be full-time in Houston and will help establish our office there in 2010. See David's bio.

Andrew Buchman – Andrew is a development professional with more than ten years international experience, primarily for major oil and gas industry projects.  A former Sustainable Development Advisor for a major oil and gas project in the Caspian, he has implemented and managed stakeholder consultation, environmental and social investment, and civil society engagement projects and initiatives in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkey. See Andrew's bio.

Mary Beth Snodgrass – Mary Beth focuses on social impact assessment, stakeholder engagement, and Equator Principles/IFC project financing requirements. With a diverse background in domestic and international not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, her experience includes working on community engagement and development projects and researching and writing on international issues and policies. For her master’s degree in Global Policy Studies, Mary Beth focused on international development and corporate social responsibility. Based in Houston, she uses her Spanish language skills for projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. See Mary Beth's bio.

John Black, P. G. – John is a senior environmental consultant with over 30 years of experience in working worldwide for the petroleum and other industries. He is based in the Houston area. See John's bio.

Working with Acorn will allow international industries to better manage the increasingly delicate balance between meeting corporate requirements for reliable, simplified service while satisfying host-country demands for maximum local content.