PRME highlight sessions and speakers

Olivier van Beemen is an investigative journalist from Amsterdam and the author of the book Heineken in Africa: A Multinational Unleashed (February 2019). The book is the result of six years of thorough journalistic research, not only in thirteen African countries where the Dutch multinational is operating, but also in the company’s archives and academic literature. The author has spoken to more than 400 sources within and around Heineken.

Earlier in his career, Van Beemen was correspondent in France for several leading Dutch and Belgian news media and he currently publishes in newspapers such as Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad and The Guardian. His work has been nominated for several awards in the Netherlands.

More information: www.heinekeninafrica.com

Professor Timothy Devinney (BSc CMU; MA, MBA, PhD Chicago) is University Leadership Chair and former Pro-Dean of Research and Innovation at Leeds University Business School. He has held positions at U. Chicago, Vanderbilt, UCLA and Australian Graduate School of Management and been a visitor at many other universities. He has published 12+ books and 100+ articles in leading journals. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Academy of Intl Business, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Awardee and served on the executive of a number of academic associations. Professor Devinney is a leading expert on Corporate Social Responsibility, having published extensively on this topic, including his popular book “The Myth of the Ethical Consumer".

Louise is Director of Sustainability at the University of Leeds and leads on developing and delivering an integrated Sustainability Strategy across all University activity. Before taking up her role at the University, Louise held a lectureship within the School of Earth and Environment, where she specialised in organisational sustainability and the interface between business and policy.  Prior to joining the University, Louise worked for Deloitte and Mott MacDonald, where she collaborated with a number of corporate clients on projects ranging from sustainability integration to developing new power stations

Professor Binna Kandola OBE is Senior Partner at Pearn Kandola. He is acknowledged as an expert in the topic of unconscious bias having been researching and writing about the topic for nearly 15 years. He has written extensively about bias and most recently published Racism at Work: The Danger of Indifference. His work challenges orthodox thinking in the field of diversity and inclusion. He is invited to speak at conferences regularly most recently to speak at the Biased Science event at the Royal Institution. He has worked with senior leadership teams in many organisations including Citigroup, AXA, Rio Tinto, UBS, Cabinet Office, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

European Talent & Inclusion and Diversity Manager

My interest for Inclusion & Diversity stems from my passion for developing people to realise their full potential and the barriers that are often faced especially for women.  I have mentored students throughout my career and more recently led a maternity coaching programme to support employees through this life changing transition.  In my role at Kellogg’s I lead on the I & D strategy for Europe and whilst gender equality is a key focus of ours, broadening our understanding of Inclusion is a big part of my work. 

My roles in Asda have all been People centric, including managing their Graduate programme and talent management for Head Office, Retail and Distribution before moving to Kellogg’s with European remit. I have a perspective now from the supplier, manufacturer and retail sides of business which is invaluable.

Bruce is Senior CSR Manager at Kellogg Europe. He joined Kelloggs in 2000 having spent 12 years in the voluntary and public sector where his career was focused on environmental management and urban regeneration.

As Kellogg’s CSR lead in Europe, Bruce co-ordinates and delivers a range of sustainability initiatives across Kellogg Europe all of which form a part of Kellogg’s Better Days.

Better Days addresses the interconnected issues of food security, climate and wellbeing to help end hunger and create Better Days for 3 Billion people by the end of 2030 by:

• Nourishing 1 billion people with our foods by delivering nutrients of need and addressing hidden hunger;
• Feeding 375 million people in need through food donations and expanding child feeding programmes;
• Nurturing 1 million people and our planet by supporting farmers, especially women smallholders and workers, and creating resilient and responsible supply chains; and,
• Living our founder’s values by engaging 1.5 billion people through employee volunteerism, ensuring an ethical supply chain and supporting diversity and inclusion.

Chris Megone is Professor of Inter-Disciplinary Applied Ethics, and has been Director of Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied, a national Centre of Excellence (the IDEA CETL), at the University of Leeds, since its inception in 2005.

Chris has worked with colleagues in the Ethics Applied Centre providing research based consultancy in Professional Ethics. For example, the Centre  produced “Real Integrity: Promoting Integrity in Organisations” for the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales; and Chris drew on this in giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into the “Ethics and Culture of the Media” in the UK. In autumn 2016 Chris co-authored “Exploring the role of Professional Bodies and Professional Qualifications in the UK Banking Sector” for the UK’s Banking Standards Board, examining the role for Professional Bodies in raising levels of ethical behaviour in banks and building societies.

Chris has taught business ethics for more than 25 years and teaches ancient philosophy and applied ethics at undergraduate, taught Masters and PhD levels, in particular on the MA in Biomedical and Health Care Ethics (campus) and MA in Applied and Professional Ethics (online).

He has wide-ranging publications – recent papers covering character and leadership and responsibility and the financial crisis. He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2006. 

More about the Ethics Applied Centre can be found at www.idea.leeds.ac.uk

The workshop is led by Ryan Offutt, work psychologist and professional development trainer. Ryan (MSc, The University of Sheffield) combines a decade of research experience in behaviour science and social dynamics with interactive workshops that help people in organisations (NHS, Yorkshire Building Society, Boehringer, The University of Leeds) transform their on-their-feet communication.

Davide Stronati has been the Global Sustainability Leader of Mott MacDonald since November 2012 using his skills and experience in liaising with Executive, Directors, Managers and teams to help them leading on sustainability, managing programmes and innovative approaches tailored to achieve behavioural changes necessary to realise long-term business benefits. Before, he was seconded for five years in the @one Alliance Anglian Water instrumental in leading the carbon strategy that is allowing the water utility company to be at the cutting edge of low carbon asset management.

His current areas of interest are the UN Sustainable Development Goals and their strategic business application to private sector organisations; a new and pragmatic approach to Circular Economy in the built environment sector linked to whole life assessments of assets, components and materials.

Regularly invited speaker at conferences, he is the Chair of the Sustainability Leadership Team at the Institution of Civil Engineers; member of the Editorial Advisory Panel at the ICE journal Engineering Sustainability; member of the MSc Management Business Advisory Board at Imperial College Business School; member of the Standard Committee of SuRe, Standards for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure at the Global Infrastructure Basel in Switzerland; member of the CSR Advisory Panel at Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland.

He holds a Degree in Environmental Engineering, summa cum laude from the University of Trieste in Italy (1997) an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the Cambridge- MIT Institute (2004); he attended the High Potentials Leadership Programme at Harvard Business School in Boston, US (2011). 

Dr Natalie van der Wal is an interdisciplinary Marie Sklodowska-Curie Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Decision Research, Leeds University Business School. Her mission is to improve safety and well-being. She aims for human-centered design, immersive technologies, positive psychology interventions and evidence-based research improving evacuations and physical and mental health. She is specialised in computational modelling of group decision-making, as well as emergency communication research and well-being interventions. She shows strong leadership in her current project ‘EVACUATION’ that aims to improve speed and survival in emergency evacuations, through the combined insights from agent-based computer modelling, risk communication/decision research, and an advisory board of emergency responders. This project follows her previous European H2020 project ‘IMPACT’, in which she determined the role of culture on emergency prevention and management. She is qualified as an excellent university teacher and accelerating education by applying new technologies in her teaching. She works with Professor Wändi Bruine de Bruin in the Centre for Decision Research at the Leeds University Business School. Previously she worked as an Assistant Professor at the dept. of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit, NL, a Senior Research Fellow at the Socio-Technical Centre of the Leeds University Business School, UK, and as a Researcher at CAMS Forcevision, Royal Dutch Navy, NL.

Professor Helen Williams has served as Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) at Cardiff Business School since 2014. She was previously a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield (1998-2002), a lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Leeds University Business School (2002- 2007) and an Associate Professor in Organisational Psychology at Swansea University School of Management (2007-2014). During Helen’s time at Cardiff, the Business School has launched its Public Value Strategy which has had an impact on education in Cardiff both in terms of curriculum and the wider student experience.