Edward Potter

Mr. Potter is an international cooperative development practitioner with over 20 years of experience working in North American, Latin American, and Caribbean countries. Part of the solidarity economy, a cooperative is an association of persons (organization) that is owned and controlled by the people to meet their common economic, social, and/or cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled business (enterprise). He is a co-founder of the Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative (CLARITY – www.clarity.coop), which promotes cooperative legal and regulatory reform and advocacy with secondary and tertiary cooperative organizations in developing economy nations.

Mr. Potter has over 15 years of executive leadership experience with international civil society organizations (including trade, professional, philanthropic associations, and foundations) and solidarity enterprise organizations (including cooperative and mutual enterprises). As a certified association executive (CAE), he has demonstrated knowledge and expertise in executive leadership, governance, organizational strategy, operations, business development, member and stakeholder engagement, advocacy, and marketing and communication. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The mission of his consultancy practice, Worldwise, is to empower civil society and solidarity economy organizations to achieve their full potential as catalysts of local socio-economic development. Working with international cooperative and socioeconomic development organizations, he designs and facilitates collaborative group projects, conducts cooperative research, and provides analysis and guidance on cooperative legal and regulatory reform, institutional capacity building, governance, strategic planning, and cooperative education. He is a member of Cooperationworks! Cooperative Development Network, Cooperative Professionals Guild, Association of Cooperative Educators, Society for International Development, and Institute of Management Consultants.