our team

Sean O’Beirne has more than thirty years’ experience in the environmental assessment and
management field. He began his career at the CSIR in 1989 as a thunderstorm research
scientist and completed an MSc in using radar to measure rainfall volumes. When funding
for the radar programme was terminated, Sean gravitated towards the then fledgeling field
of environmental assessment and began to lead large scale EIAs for Sasol and BHP Billiton
amongst others. Sean held various senior management positions at the CSIR where he
contributed to growing the science underpinning EIA at the CSIR. In 2000, Sean left the CSIR
and started SE Solutions together with Annarie Boer, a respected CSIR colleague. In the early
years of the company, Sean focussed principally on environmental management.
While at the CSIR, Sean conducted the Mozal Smelter EIA where he was first exposed to the
International Finance Corporation (IFC). In 2003, Sean was approached by the IFC to conduct
the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for a proposed integrated
aluminium development in northern Russia which was the start of a long association with
the country and multiple environmental assessments. It was also the start of a long
association with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and work
in other eastern European countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Armenia.
With the experience of post EIA environmental management Sean took on more project
implementation roles, notably for TCTA water projects and Gautrain (a high-speed rail
project). At the same time Sean’s aluminium smelter experience then took him to the
Middle East where he worked in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the UAE with his Environmental
and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) experience taking him to Egypt and Morrocco or oil
recovery and new Port projects.
Sean has had a long association with Eskom (SA’s electricity utility) in various roles with the
lender experience he gained from his association with the IFC being used for Environmental
and Social Due Diligence for Medupi, Kusile and Ingula. Sean led various application
processes for postponement of the Minimum Emission Standards (MES) compliance
timeframes, including detailed air quality monitoring analysis and public meeting
engagements. He similarly advised Sasol on their postponement applications, assisted in
writing their supporting documents and the public participation. Sean conducted numerous
EIA reviews for Eskom (and multiple other companies) and finally joined the Nuclear 1 EIA
process as an advisor, author, and public meeting facilitator.
Sean was appointed as a Short-Term Consultant (STC) to the IFC from 2014 to 2021 during
which time he conducted multiple project appraisals, site supervision visits (direct
investment) and Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. Sean visited a number of African
countries where he provided lender oversight on numerous projects relating to; solar, wind
and telecommunications, wastewater treatment and water reclamation, gas fired power
generation, irrigation and manufacturing. In that time Sean gained exposure to Private
Equity (PE) companies and has conducted several reviews of Environmental Social
Governance (ESG)management capacity for selected PE companies.

2 | Page
Sean has an active interest in growing and improving environmental assessment and
management capacity in South Africa especially as a National Executive Committee (NEC)
member of International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIAsa), leading both the 2015
National Conference and the 2017 International Conference organising committees.
Sean has lectured at Wits, UCT, NWU and Free State University, developed and run training
courses, presented numerous conference papers, keynote addresses and magazine articles,
and published two book chapters. Sean is a skilled facilitator in both public meeting and
strategy development processes. He is highly innovative and argues strongly that there is
always a better way to do things.
Finally, and most importantly, Sean believes that environmental and social sustainability is
not just possible but imperative and strives to manifest that ideal in all that he does.