Mr. Eric Hespenheide

Eric Hespenheide is currently the Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Board of Directors. He previously served as GRI’s Interim Chief Executive from July 2016 to January 2017 and was the inaugural Chairman of the Global Sustainability Standards Board from January 2015 to June 2016.

Eric served as one of the Global Leaders of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) member firms’ Sustainability group within Audit and Enterprise Risk Services. He represented DTTL in various forums such as the Liaison Delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Deloitte’s Organizational Stakeholder representative for the GRI and served as a member of the Working Group of the International Integrated Reporting Council.

Eric was the lead partner on a number of sustainability related engagements which included both sustainability assurance and advisory services in the US and internationally.
He is a frequent speaker and author on the topic of sustainability, particularly related to reporting and assurance matters. Eric is a CPA and served numerous global companies during his 36-year career.

He previously chaired the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Sustainability Assurance and Advisory Task Force and is currently a member of the Task Force. He was a key contributor to the development of the AICPA’s Attestation Engagements on Sustainability Information. Eric currently serves on the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) Project Advisory Panel for its EER Assurance Project.