Q3 2023-2024 Activity Update

We welcomed Peter Joos INSEAD Deputy Dean as our new co-lead of the Hoffmann Institute

INSEAD Deputy Dean, Professor of Accounting and Control, Peter Joos  joined our team in March as the new co-lead of the Hoffmann Institute, together with Katell Le Goulven, Executive Director of the Hoffmann Institute. 

We showcased the sustainability research and teaching from our faculty in the Finance and Accounting Academic Areas

Read how both the Finance and Accounting and Control areas incorporate sustainability into their teaching and research. This completes our Lessons in Sustainability series which highlighted the work of our faculty across all nine academic areas at INSEAD.

We supported faculty attending the Africa CEO Forum

The Africa CEO Forum (ACF) 2024 recently wrapped up in Kigali, bringing together over 2000 influential business leaders, investors, and policymakers from across the continent and beyond. 

Several INSEAD faculty took part including Prashant Yadav, Amitava Chattopadhyay and Lite Nartey. Faculty shared their insights in a session titled “Delivering on Africa's Potential: Advancing Leadership, Sustainability, and Partnership”. 

We published 4 crossroads opinion papers by faculty and 11 blogs on our website

Read our 4 new Crossroads: Business & Society opinion papers on INSEAD Knowledge by Professor Wolfgang Ulaga on public-private partnerships; Professor Felipe Monteiro on partnerships between impact entrepreneurs and corporates;  INSEAD Dean  Francisco Veloso speaking on the key role of business schools in educating the next generation of sustainability leaders; and Professor Anton Ovchinnikov on why decarbonisation is so hard. We also published 11 new blogs on our Hoffmann Institute website, notably read our key findings from our study surveying 17 years of impact entrepreneurs. 

We took part in the ChangeNOW Summit in Paris by hosting INSEAD’s Impact Entrepreneurship Forum and a private impact networking event for our MBA students

To celebrate the 6th year as academic partner of ChangeNOW, the Hoffmann Institute and the Rudolf and Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship hosted the “Impact Entrepreneurship Forum” at ChangeNOW. Participants were INSEAD MBA alumni and INSEAD Executive Education programme graduates working in the impact and social innovation sectors. We sponsored 6 participants to showcase their impact enterprises with booths at ChangeNOW. INSEAD also took part in the ChangeNOW main programme sharing cutting edge thought leadership with the participation of Dean Francisco Veloso, Professor Chengyi Lin and Professor Ludo Van der Heyden. Read more here. We ended this memorable day by convening over 100 students to take part in an impact focused career networking session co-organized with the INSEAD career development centre. 

We co-sponsored the Brazil Climate Summit and the Alumni Business & Society Summit in Paris

With the support of the Hoffmann Institute, INSEAD partnered with the Brazil Climate Summit to launch the inaugural European edition in Paris at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine. The event fostered connections between Brazilian and European stakeholders and explored Brazil's potential as a hub of low-carbon solutions for the world.  Dean Francisco Veloso gave the opening remarks and Professor Felipe Monteiro  took part in a session with Walter Schalka, CEO of Suzano to showcase the recently published INSEAD case study ’The Next 100 Years of Suzano’. 

We co-sponsored the INSEAD Alumni Business & Sustainability Summit 2024: “Accelerating Our Race to Net Zero” which took place at STATION F in Paris along with the INDEVOR club (INSEAD's Global Impact Network), the Community Impact Challenge and in collaboration with multiple INSEAD Alumni Global Clubs and National Alumni Associations. INSEAD faculty, staff and alumni experts in the sustainability space convened and participated in discussions sharing insights on their own climate journeys. The summit also launched the Community Impact Challenge Climate Hero Initiative, encouraging alumni to measure their own carbon footprint. 

On campus we sponsored the 2024 editions of INSEAD EarthWeek and the INSEAD Luxury Summit 

The INSEAD Luxury Summit was hosted by the INSEAD Retail, Consumer & Luxury Goods Club and  co-sponsored Hoffmann Institute. The summit, in Fontainebleau, was a convergence of luxury industry leaders discussing sustainability and innovation with key industry speakers and faculty such as INSEAD's Professor Frédéric Godart. 

We connected students with leading practitioners for conversations around system change, sustainable investing and ecological welfare

INSEAD MBA students from the INDEVOR Social Impact & Sustainability Club welcomed  several leading practitioners  on campus: Gayatri Chauhan, Founder of BuzzOnEarth; Dr. Babu Padmanabhan, Managing Director of STEER World; Robin Millington, Founder of Planet Tracker; and Patricia Ellen (MBA’05J), Managing Partner at Systemiq and co-founder of Aya Coalition. 

We supported INSEAD student teams competing at the Turner MIINT MBA Impact Investing competition

INSEAD students Catherine Dimitroff, Benjamin Gourlay, Francois Lardinois, Brianna Nelson, and Matilde Ureta placed 2nd out of 44 business schools at the Turner MIINT impact investing competition. Their success secured a $25,000 investment for Salva Health , a Colombian HealthTech startup that aids in early detection for breast cancer, founded by INSEAD student Valentina Agudelo Vargas. The team also won the Audience Choice for Impact Award. 

We also wish to recognize the significant contributions of INSEAD Professors Luk Van Wassenhove and Atalay Atasu for their research on sustainable circular models

INSEAD Professors Atalay Atasu and Luk Van Wassenhove were recognised by the Product Operations Management Society for their impactful research!  Their papers have been named among the top 10 most influential works in the first 30 years of the Production and Operations Management (POM) journal. This incredible honour highlights their dedication to sustainable operations and the circular economy.