Dr. Richard Bonsi became SCS’ Representative for Africa in 2012 after working at the company’s headquarters in California for almost four years. While in California, he engaged in technical review, auditing and technical support to over 600 clients and partners including auditors based in the U.S., Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia. In his current role, he has focused on business prospecting, project management, auditor recruitment, capacity development, client management and auditing, on behalf of SCS in Africa. His experience of 25 years spans several areas in the natural resources sector including third-party auditing in forestry and forest products, monitoring and evaluation, research, value chain studies, business competitiveness, marketing, agricultural improvement, business development and environmental sustainability. Since 2014, Richard has led the independent monitoring of the timber legality assurance system (LAS) of the Ghana-EU Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). He is a certified lead auditor in ISO 9001, FSC Chain of Custody and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). He has conducted FSC Chain of Custody audits in the United States, Canada, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, on behalf of SCS. He has also conducted RSPO audits for SCS in Ghana and Nigeria. In the early years of his career, he worked in leading Ghanaian timber companies such as Logs & Lumber Limited, Ghana Primewood Products Limited and Samartex Timber & Plywood Company Limited. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, a Master’s of Business Administration in International Management of Resources and Environment from TU Bergakakademie Freiberg Business School in Germany, and a Ph.D. in Forestry and Forest Products from Virginia Tech, USA.