Ryan Thompson is a consultant and trainer specializing in the interest-based approach to negotiation and conflict management pioneered at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Mr. Thompson has worked with public and private sector clients in financial services, pharmaceuticals, law, and manufacturing in North America, Europe and Asia.
Clients he has served include the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Montreal, Vale-Inco, Xstrata, AstraZeneca, and Maple Leaf Foods.
In addition to his full-time practice in negotiation and conflict management, Mr. Thompson provides consulting services for Intrinsik Environmental Sciences. He was recently involved in an extensive public health assessment in rural Canada where residents had potentially been exposed to arsenic emitted from a local smelter. Mr. Thompson also participated in the wildlife risk assessments conducted for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at two contaminated sites: Housatonic River and Calcasieu Estuary. This work, and the work in his previous position at The Cadmus Group, has given him hands-on experience in conflict management and negotiation in the areas of project management, scientific research, and public-stakeholder management. From this perspective, he brings insights from working with private and public sector clients and environmental groups solving complex problems that demand innovative, multidisciplinary thinking.
Mr. Thompson is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Conflict Management at the University of Ottawa (Canada). His studies have focused on labour-management relations, and the influence that gender and culture have on the negotiation process. Mr. Thompson holds a certificate from the “Teaching Negotiations in the Organization” course offered by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. This program enables facilitators to advise corporations on increasing organizational effectiveness through the application of a mutual gains approach to negotiation. Mr. Thompson graduated on the Dean’s List from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) in Environment and Resources Management. He is married and lives in Ottawa, Canada.