Editors & Contributors

Seyed Ebrahimi

Dr Seyed Ebrahimi is principal consultant of sustainability operations at Alfa Energy Group. Seyed has extensive research and consultancy experience in sustainable operations supply chain management, data science, and technology applications in the energy, finance, aviation, agro-food, and automotive sector. Seyed is well-versed in greenhouse gases emissions mapping scopes 1, 2 and 3, green supply chain strategies, net zero business strategies, life-cycle assessments, the circular economy, Industrial-urban symbiosis, and environmental mitigation strategies.

Alex Edmans

Alex Edmans is professor of finance at London Business School and a member of The Purposeful Company Steering Group. Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance (corporate governance, executive compensation, investment/growth/innovation, and mergers and acquisitions), behavioural finance, corporate social responsibility, and practical investment strategies. Alex has published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Economic Literature. He is managing editor of the Review of Finance.

Turid Elisabeth Solvang

Turid Elisabeth Solvang, is president of ecoDa and co-founder and former managing director of the Norwegian Institute of Directors, established in 2009. (www.styreinstitutt.no). Ms Solvang has been a board member of ecoDa (www.ecoda.org) since 2011, and was also member of the nomination and evaluation committee, the policy committee, and chairing ecoDa’s working group on board selection processes until November 3 2015. Turid took her M.Sc. in general business at BI Norwegian Business School in 1989. She also holds a master program in scenario planning. Turid has extensive experience in corporate communications, as well as many years experience in board rooms as Non-Executive Director in both corporate boards (mainly financial and service sector) and membership associations. From 2004 onwards, she has focused on board related products and services, including recruiting for corporate boards, and as co-owner and managing director of Infovidi AS, a project-development company based in Oslo, Norway. She was formerly responsible for corporate communication at Burson-Marsteller (the leading global public relations and public affairs firm) in Oslo, and was head of marketing at Fearnley Data, Oslo.

Richard Emerton

Richard Emerton is managing partner, board and CEO services, EMEA at Korn Ferry. His clients range from Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 companies, to major global consulting and private equity firms. Prior to joining the firm, Richard spent eight years with another global executive search firm, where he held various leadership positions, including head of the board and CEO practice for the UK and head of the EMEA leadership consulting practice.

Claire Fargeot

Claire Fargeot is an investor relations consultant at the Grant Thornton Governance Institute.

Kevin Farnsworth

Kevin joined the University of York in September 2014. Prior to that he was senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield and held visiting professorships at the University of Toronto and Carleton University, Canada. Kevin has published widely on business and public policy, corporate power, corporate welfare and economic crisis, and welfare states.

Richard Fenning

Richard Fenning is the CEO of Control Risks. Richard joined Control Risks in 1993 and was head of the firm’s New York office from 1997–2000. He was appointed COO in 2001 and CEO in 2005. Richard advises many of the firm’s clients on a wide range of risk management issues. In addition, he is a frequent speaker on geo-political risk and its impact on business. Richard has an honours degree in Modern History from the University of Bristol, UK, and in 2004 attended the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD business school in France.

Ciarán Fenton

Ciarán Fenton is a leadership consultant, board evaluator and adviser to CXOs, NEDs and lawyers-as-leaders. He facilitates high EQ/ESG based decision-making by working with the interdependence between the personal and organisational purpose, strategy and behaviour (PSB) of each client board member and their boards. Since 2002 he has worked with individuals and organisations—listed, private, third, public—using his model, The Fenton Model, which is an approach to self-management he has developed over many years of practice that provides senior leaders with the thinking and tools to achieve a small change in their behaviour and that of each member of their senior leadership team by negotiating relationship contracts with them. During his early career he held senior business leadership roles at Hachette, ITN, Pearson and The Guardian Media Group, in which he was involved in change programmes. Ciarán is a mentor at London Business School, a faculty member on Paul Gilbert’s LBCambridge2 in-house counsel programme, and a regular speaker, writer and pamphleteer on board behaviour and performance issues.

Nuno Fernandes

Nuno Fernandes is professor of finance at IESE Business School. He is also the chairman of the board of auditors of the Portuguese Central Bank (Banco de Portugal), non-executive (member of audit committee) at the European Investment Bank, and a research associate of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

Guilherme Filardi

Guilherme Filardi is a partner at the law firm De Luca, Derenusson, Schuttoff e Azevedo Sociedade de Advogados (DDSA) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is a specialist in corporate and international law and is the author of several articles on corporate governance and business in Brazil.

Alexander Fink

Alexander is a partner at Kekst CNC. He has more than 20 years of international consulting experience and joined Kekst CNC in 2020. Most recently, he headed the digital agency Clarity as market lead DACH and successfully integrated it into the technology consultancy Akima. Fink was also a senior adviser at Roland Berger Executive Communications. Prior to this, he was CEO Germany of the international communications firm Burson-Marsteller and held leading functions at communications consultancies Edelman and KetchumPleon in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Alexander has extensive experience in the areas of crisis communications, cyber security, as well as in the fast-growing areas of change management and in supporting companies through the digital transformation. Alexander studied history and journalism and is co-author of the book Professional Crisis Communications (Springer Gabler 2019).

Laurie Fitzjohn-Sykes

Laurie Fitzjohn-Sykes is director of research at Tomorrow’s Company. He worked for eight years in investment banking and venture capital, primarily as a sell-side research analyst. He worked for Dresdner Kleinwort, Frontiers Capital and was vice president on the Citi telecoms equity research team before joining Tomorrow’s Company in 2015. Laurie led the Tomorrow’s Company Futures Project, reviewing progress since the foundation of Tomorrow’s Company in 1996, and developing a fresh agenda for the years ahead, published in the report, 'UK Business: What’s wrong? What’s next?'. He is also the author of 'Playing the Long Game - How to Save the West from Short-Termism' (2015). Laurie studied Economics at Cambridge University.