Alan Willis

Since 1991, Alan has been an independent researcher, writer, advisor and speaker on corporate business reporting, in particular a pioneer in advancing sustainability performance measurement and reporting and integrated reporting, together with the implications of these for governance and assurance. Previously he was a partner in Deloitte.

Alan was a member of the Working Group of the International Integrated Reporting Council and the Advisory Council of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. He served on the Integrated Business Reporting Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network, and the advisory committee of the Ontario Securities Commission for its guidance on environmental disclosures. He served on the founding Steering Committee of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), developing the original GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (now Standards). He was member of the Sustainability Advisory Board of Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) and a volunteer judge for the CPA Canada Awards of Excellence in Corporate Reporting. Alan was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for services to Canada and the accounting profession concerning sustainability. In 2017, he was awarded Fellowship of CPA Ontario.

Among the many publications Alan has authored or co-authored are CPA Canada's Briefings for Directors on Sustainability and Climate Change and CPA Canada’s 2014 Guidance on CEO/CFO regulatory certifications of corporate disclosures. He directed the development of the Guidance on Preparation and Disclosure for MD&A, first published by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2002, and helped write CPA Canada’s 2018 Spotlight on Integrated Reporting. His 2019 article Enhancing Relevance: Shaping the Future of Corporate Reporting for ThinkTwenty20 e-magazine is posted on IFAC’s Knowledge Gateway.