Mr Thomas Thomas

Executive Director
National CSR Society

Topic Synopsis

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Blessing For Brands

The economic and financial crises have shown that trust has been damaged. Brands are about the trust. CSR can be a tool to establish trust with stakeholders. This will be a competitive advantage for those who read the coming emphasis on CSR. CSR is about managing with values and principles. It has to be embedded in ethics. See how CSR had made a difference for companies.

Biography

Thomas Thomas is Executive Director of the Singapore Compact for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), which serves as the national CSR society in Singapore. It is also a country network and partner of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General.

Singapore Compact for CSR was launched in January 2005 as an outcome of the National Tripartite Initiative (NTI) on CSR, of which Thomas was the Co-chairperson. The NTI on CSR was established in May 2004 as a national CSR steering committee to bring forward and embrace CSR as a national movement in Singapore.

Thomas is actively involved in the development of the ISO26000 international guidance standard on social responsibility. He is a member of the Chairman’s Advisory Group and Convenor of Singapore Working Group.

Thomas served in the trade union movement as the General Secretary of the Singapore-Shell Employees’ Union, Central Committee Member of the Singapore National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and on the executive committee of the International Federation of the Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM). He was involved in ILO negotiations for the oil and chemical industry. He had served as the Vice-President of the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), and Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF) Council Member. He was also a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP).

Thomas holds a Master of Arts degree in Industrial Relations from Warwick University (UK) and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, UK.