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Panel Discussion - Business Sustainability in Today’s Uncertain World

Many of us will have worked hard to incorporate sustainability theory and practice into our teaching and curricula over the last few years. However, sustainability is increasingly facing a more complicated world as international conflict and economic recession take on a growing importance. In this discussion, we will talk about what we can do to keep a sustained focus on sustainability in a challenging global economy.

Chair Dr Ashley Roberts

Panel members

Professor Emma Macdonald, Professor of Marketing, WBS

Professor Macdonald has been leading Exec MBA marketing modules for over a decade at Warwick Business School, Cranfield University and at the Australian Graduate School of Management. She provides customised education and consulting to leading organisations such as Pfizer, Roche, Sport England, Nestlé, Turkish Airlines, Financial Conduct Authority, Mott Macdonald and SAS Software. Her research on better customer insight, customer value and sustainability has been published in Harvard Business Review as well as in leading academic journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Psychology and Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Business Research and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Before joining Warwick, Emma was Professor of Marketing at Cranfield University and Head of the Marketing and Sustainability faculty group. She continues as a Visiting Professor at Cranfield. She was Director of Cranfield's Customer Management Forum and created and led Cranfield's popular Customer Experience Strategy programme. Prior to Cranfield, she conducted postdoctoral research at London Business School on the topic of continuous improvement through incremental innovation. Emma obtained her doctorate from the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She completed a Master of Business (by Research) degree at the University of South Australia where she continues as Adjunct Professor in the Ehrenberg-Bass Marketing Science Institute. Prior to joining the academic world, Emma worked in telecoms, including marketing management for professional services at Cable & Wireless Optus, and as a commercial researcher conducting brand, ad and new product research for leading consumer brands.

David Elmes, Professor of Practice, Strategy and International Business WBS

David joined WBS in 2008 as Academic Director for the Warwick Global Energy MBA after more than 20 years working in the energy & management consulting industries. After graduating in Natural Sciences from Christ's College, Cambridge, David joined BP, working in the UK then the US. While in the US he completed his MBA at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where he received the Dean's Award for academic excellence. He then joined Gemini Consulting in 1995 and, after various mergers, was Vice President with the UK Energy, Utilities & Chemicals team of CapGemini. In 2004 he joined Schlumberger as Vice President & Director in the team who created the firm's management consulting arm, Schlumberger Business Consulting. David initially focused on the London-based team then spent a year in Houston as Director for SBC's North & South America activities before returning to London and focusing on clients in Northern Europe. With WBS he led development of the WBS Global Energy MBA and is now the Course Director for the WBS Masters in Management. He leads the WBS Global Energy Research Network and works on a number of externally funded research programmes.

David’s interests lie in how the structure of the energy industry around the world is changing, what new business models are achieving success and how management practices are evolving to meet the challenges of supplying affordable, sustainable energy and using it efficiently. David is co-investigator in UKRI-funded LoT-NET programme on Low Temperature Heat Recovery and Distribution Network Technologies and is champion for heating and cooling in EnergyREV, the Energy Revolution Research Consortium that is part of the UK Government’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme. David was CoLead of the University of Warwick’s Global Research Priority - Energy between 2015-2020, received a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence (WATE) from the University of Warwick in 2017 and was elected a Fellow of the Energy Institute in 2018.

Duncan Ross, Chief data officer, Times Higher Education

Duncan Ross has been a data miner since the mid-1990s. As chief data officer at THE, he oversees a team that generates university rankings and related data products. Prior to this, he led Teradata’s data science team in Europe and Asia, where he was responsible for developing analytical solutions across a number of industries, including warranty and root-cause analysis in manufacturing and social network analysis in telecommunications. In 2019 Duncan launched the THE Impact Rankings, evaluating universities commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Max Frank, Senior Manager of Sustainability Solutions, Capgemini Invent UK and WBS FTMBA Alum

Max Frank is currently a Senior Manager of sustainability solutions, working with a variety of major clients across consumer goods, technology, automotive, energy and infrastructure. He and his team enable large organizations to assess and reduce their carbon footprints across scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions - from a broad organizational standpoint and via specific verticals such as sustainable IT, net-zero strategy and supply chain. He leverages technology to generate tailored solutions to these pressing issues and implement solutions to ensure they stick.Through prior experience in consultative sales and partnership development, Max leveraged technology to enable clients across construction, architecture/engineering, infrastructure, and real estate to increase efficiency and develop sustainability and net-zero initiatives. This background instilled in him a sharp focus on the momentum that global business must have toward net-zero, as well as an acute ability to analyze the needs, pain points and emotions involved in fostering successful partnerships.His sustainability-focused Warwick MBA rounded out his skill set in internationalization strategy and positioned him well in the sustainability networks of the UK, the EU, Asia, and the US.