Q1 2025-2026 Activity Update

Here are the INSEAD Hoffmann Institute’s key updates from Quarter 1 of the 2025/2026 Academic Year.  

• We participated in INSEAD Launch week highlighting the role of sustainability in business education.

INSEAD Hoffmann Institute directors Kim Wilkinson and Vinika Rao explored the economics of climate change, Earth Overshoot Day, and why only 35% of UN SDG targets are on track as we near 2030. They were joined by Alumni Jinna Li MBA’19J Co-founder & Managing Partner at Endgame Capital and Hari Krishnan MBA’05D, Co-founder & CEO of AI start-up Genie Health.

• Ahead of COP30, we supported a landmark event on green innovation in Brazil, organized by Executive Education at Station F, featuring Professor Felipe Monteiro and Dean Francisco Veloso.

As part of INSEAD’s long-standing partnership with Fundação Dom Cabral, we were delighted to host our annual event at Station F in Paris on 17 September 2025. This event was designed for participants of the Programa de Gestão Avançada (PGA), a program that brings together CEOs, founders, board members, and senior executives from Brazil’s most prominent companies. Alumni include founders from iconic Brazilian firms such as Natura, WEG, and Tramontina. This year’s edition focused on innovation and green opportunities in the Global South ahead of COP30 in Brazil. The event explored how leaders can shape sustainable transformation through innovation, collaboration, and strategic action in emerging markets. 
 

• We led INSEAD’s inaugural partnership with the IUCN Business Summit- World Conservation Congress with Professor Lite Nartey hosting a session on nature-positive business. We also chaired a session with young changemakers and interviewed INSEAD alumni.

With opening remarks given by Ian Gunderson (Business Development Officer, IUCN), we hosted a session on integrating nature into business strategy and the importance of local buy-in with insights from Lite J. Nartey, PhD (INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Strategy) and Eva Ramos Perez-Torreblanca (Division Director for Environmental Policy Analysis and Economics, Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD)). The speakers notably discussed how context defines strategy — “nature’s limits must guide innovation”, and how businesses that align global sustainability goals with local realities will be the true enablers of resilient growth.

We also met up with INSEAD alumni André Hoffmann, Adonai Herrera-Martinez and Megan Pillsbury, and chaired a panel with Young Changemakers supported by the IUCN.

• We partnered with SAC in the Steward Leadership Asia 25 Awards to recognize organizations working in social impact in Asia.

Into its 4th year, Hoffmann Institute co-partnered with Stewardship Asia Centre, WTW and The Straits Times in the Steward Leadership Asia 25 Awards list - the list was curated from entries of organizations conducting impactful stewardship activities in Asia.

• We joined the Middle East Investors Summit speaking on Inclusive Leadership for Sustainable Growth

At the Middle East Investors Summit in Abu Dhabi, INSEAD Hoffmann Institute Director, Dr. Vinika Rao had the privilege of speaking on “Inclusive Leadership for Sustainable Growth”.

• We sponsored Master Strategist Day

Twice a year, INSEAD MBA students come together for Master Strategist Day, a unique, full-day event that forms part of the core Strategy curriculum. Proudly supported by the Hoffmann Institute, the event is delivered in collaboration with a real not-for-profit organisation and challenges more than 500 MBA participants across the Europe and Asia campuses to apply strategy in practice.

This year’s challenge featured Brave Generation Academy (BGA), founded in 2021 by Tim Vieira and Lidia Vieira, who recognised that traditional education systems were falling short of delivering the skills needed for genuine social mobility. BGA’s bold ambition is to make high-quality, innovative education accessible to anyone, anywhere. During the challenge, MBA participants had just 24 hours to develop future-forward strategy proposals to support BGA’s global expansion—while remaining true to its mission of transforming education for future generations.

• We hosted 3 sessions of Les Conferences de L'INSEAD series  

We kicked off another edition of Les Conferences de L’INSEAD series led by INSEAD Emeritus Professor Henri Claude de Bettignies.

This season we welcomed Professors Pierre VELTZ, Cécile RENOUARD and Dominique BOURG.

This season focuses on the biggest challenges of our time—from ecological transition to artificial intelligence and climate change.  

• We support the INSEAD-UNHCR Negotiations Programme led by Professors Horacio Falcao, Roderick Swaab and Eric Uhlmann

The INSEAD Hoffmann Institute is supporting a 6 month online programme entitled "Negotiation and Beyond: Engaging Stakeholders for Sustainable Results". The programme is designed by the Negotiation and Conflict Management Collaborative (NCMC) and is being offered for free to staff working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  

• We became an Official Nominator for the Earthshot Prize to support solutions for our planet