Sarah Thorne

President, Thorne Butte: Decision Partners Inc.

Sarah Thorne is a founding partner of Decision Partners and President of the company’s Canadian entity, Thorne Butte: Decision Partners, Inc. Decision Partners is an international team of management professionals and scientists whose hallmark is knowledge integration and mental models research offering the largest inventory worldwide of expert model management tools. The company is the world leader in new knowledge and science-based strategies and communications for addressing decision-making and behaviour. Clients of Decision Partners represent leading public and private organizations across a broad spectrum of industries worldwide, including the arts, defence, energy, food safety, and health. Sarah leads the company’s international research practice.

Along with partner Gordon Butte, Sarah regularly counsels senior leaders and teams in formulating behavioural decision strategies and communications to address complex topics. She is a regular contributor to the scientific and management literature on decision and behaviour-focused strategy and communications – especially the use of knowledge tools such as expert models and mental models research – and frequently speaks on the application of behavioural decision technology for strategy and communications design. Sarah is a noted trainer in strategic risk communications, stakeholder outreach and dialogue, and dialogue-based organizational leadership and change management. 

Sarah Thorne joined Decision Partners in 1995, after having managed senior level communication initiatives and chemical industry issues for over 15 years with Dow Chemical Canada. She was also a key member of the original design team for Responsible Care® – a Canadian-led, industry-wide ethic and management system designed to ensure the responsible use of chemicals throughout the lifecycle. The system has since been adopted in over 40 countries worldwide.

Sarah is a member of the Institute for Risk Research at the University of Waterloo and the Society for Risk Analysis. She is also a member of the Canadian Standards Association’s Technical Committee on Risk Assessment and Communication.