Mary Foley

Mary Foley has over 25 years’ experience in strategy and risk and is currently a Forbes Contributor in their Money > Investing Section. She has been a part of the current Enhesa team since 2020 and initially worked with its fore runner when it was first established over 25 years ago. She is now the Expert Services Strategy Director responsible for delivering EHS and Sustainability global regulatory intelligence to multinational corporate clients. 

Mary’s extensive experience covers consulting, certification and assurance (including ISO Standards), and SaaS services related to Risk Management specifically for EHS and Sustainability issues across a wide variety of sectors.  

Mary graduated with a BSc and an M.Phil. in Mineral Surveying and EIA from the University of South Wales before working as an environmental scientist at GIBB Environmental (now Jacobs) where she became a Board Director for GIBB Ireland in 1999. In 2001, she joined ENGIE UK & Ireland as its Marketing Director where she spent 4 years before joining DNV in 2005, one of the world’s largest certification bodies, focusing on providing Business Assurance services for the oil & gas, manufacturing and software sectors. Mary then held the position of Strategic Account Director at Alcumus, working with food, retail, hospitality, property management and manufacturing sectors delivering SaaS based EHS risk services and, more recently she was the Strategic Account Director at Golder UK (now WSP Golder), responsible for strategic development within the firm’s Transaction and Compliance business unit. 

During her career she has seen the evolution of EHS and Sustainability compliance and its impact on business. She feels very strongly that her role has always been to help companies understand the role of EHS and Sustainability compliance as viewed through a risk-based lens. Mary’s belief is that understanding and managing the risks associated with non-compliance ensures that companies focus on what is important to their business and to their stakeholders across their value chains. She is a firm advocate of open and transparent communication allied with cross team collaboration and knowledge sharing. This, she feels, is fundamental to ensuring successful and sustainable enterprises.  With her knowledgeable and experienced colleagues at Enhesa, she provides assistance and guidance to organisations in order to support a safe, healthy, and environmentally sustainable world for individuals, businesses, and the global community. “It has been very rewarding to see these topics become more and more relevant and embedded in business practices over the course of my career. A sustainable business is one that is still operating in years to come.”