Quote that motivates his work: “Choice, Chance, Change. You must make the Choice, to take the Chance, if you want anything in life to Change.” Amit Shukla

Gus Pickard is one of The Green Connection’s board member & Secretary. He has a vision to engage the beneficiaries of black economic empowerment projects, rural dwellers and all relevant stakeholders in an honest and transparent way, in order to materialize effective black economic empowerment and sustainable rural development. Gus is independent consultant and development facilitator, who has worked as a community facilitator and trainer since 1994.  He is experienced in research and development in the field of land reform, water allocation reform, integrated water resource management, fair trade, social compliance auditing and climate change adaptation. Gus brings to his work a rare combination of development experience and personal insights (gained during an upbringing in a poor ‘Platteland’ community). This enables him to communicate to, and establish credibility with, a wide range of stakeholders, and to straddle an important divide between organised and emerging sectors related to natural resource use in South Africa.