Exeter sustainability expert to speak at Davos on ‘responsible business education’

A University of Exeter Business School researcher will join an exclusive panel event at the World Economic Forum next week to debate what needs to be done to make responsible business education the ‘new norm’.

Gail Whiteman, Professor of Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School, has been invited to take part in the event ‘Responsible Business Education as the New Norm’, hosted by the Financial Times. 

Professor Whiteman will lend her expertise to a wide ranging panel of leading businesses and influential networks as they explore the “extraordinary opportunity and obligation” of business schools to “reflect on their own practices and ensure they educate socially responsible leaders”.

The panel will seek to identify solutions and long-term strategies to move business education away from models that prioritise the pursuit of short-term returns and towards focusing on addressing issues such as inequality and climate change.

Professor Whiteman is a leading expert in business sustainability, a past member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Frontier Risks and the founder of Arctic Basecamp, a science communications platform that aims to “speak science to power” to spark more ambitious climate action.

Professor Whiteman said: “I am excited to take part in this Financial Times event so I can share what we at the University of Exeter are doing to shape responsible leaders of the future, and I am also intrigued to hear the opinions of businesses leaders on the panel.

“Business of course has a vital role to play in providing solutions to the urgent challenges facing our world, but any solution must be rapidly implemented at scale and for that we need courageous and socially responsible leaders. That is why I am such a passionate believer in responsible business education.”

‘Responsible Business Education as the New Norm’, co-hosted by InTent and The Financial Times is at 3pm on Monday 16 January at the SDG Tent, Promenade 139, Davos, Switzerland and will be live streamed via Arctic Basecamp.

Professor Whiteman, whose Arctic Basecamp research tent is an established feature at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, will be involved with a number of events throughout the week.

On Tuesday 17 January at 3pm Professor Whiteman will be speaking inside the WEF Congress Centre with a science update for the session “Unlocking the Polar Crisis” with Opening Remarks from HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, which will be live streamed via Arctic Basecamp.

And on Thursday 19 January Professor Whiteman will be among the speakers for an exclusive 10am briefing on a pivotal climate solutions report, as well as participating at 3pm in the event Climate Solutions in a Critical Decade, with other speakers including climate envoy for the Netherlands HRH Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Professor Julienne Stroeve, Simon Sharpe, Halla Tómasdóttir and a youth panel.