Antwerp Management School (AMS) announced today the appointment of Dr Wayne Visser as the world’s first Chair on Sustainable Transformation and Professor of Integrated Value. This supports a longstanding commitment by AMS to prepare future leaders to face global challenges and to be a positive force for change through business. The Chair is being supported by BASF Antwerp, the Port of Antwerp and Randstad Belgium.

In support of the appointment, Paul Matthyssens, Dean of AMS, says: “We live in times of incredible uncertainty and managers and leaders must dare to make choices. We expect our students to be engaged to not only create added value for their company and its shareholders, but also to create added value for society and the ecosystem, of which they are a part.”

Professor Visser is widely hailed as a global thought leader in sustainable business and corporate social responsibility, having been recognized as a Top 100 Thought-leader in Trustworthy Business, a Top 100 Global Sustainability Leader and a recipient of the Global CSR Excellence & Leadership Award. His work as a strategy analyst, sustainability advisor, CSR expert, futurist and professional speaker has taken him to 74 countries in the past 30 years to work with over 150 clients.

“I am excited about this new role,” says Professor Wayne Visser. “Sustainable transformation and integrated value represent the leading edge of a positive, solutions-driven approach to our global challenges. They recognize that the CSR and sustainable business agenda has shifted to transforming our economic system, rethinking our business models and redesigning our products and services. This is the next industrial revolution.”
In Prof. Visser’s Inaugural Lecture at February 1st, you will hear how systems thinking can help us to identify the forces of fragmentation leading to breakdown – and more importantly, how strategies of integration can redirect us from sustainability-as-usual to sustainable transformation .

Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of the Port of Antwerp: “For several years now, our port community has been heading towards a future built around sustainable economic models. We are convinced that this transition process contains the elements that will help us find an answer to both global and local challenges we face today, such as problems surrounding climate change, mobility and digitalization. With the appointment of Professor Wayne Visser as Chairholder on Sustainable Transformation we bring an impressive speaker and thought leader to Antwerp, who will certainly inspire us.”

Eddy Annys, Managing Director at Randstad: “From the day Randstad was founded in 1960, founder Frits Goldschmeding was aware of the impact of work on the individual and on society. Individuals and society should not be dealt with in a nonchalant way. That is why, from day one, value-oriented acting with a focus on a fair and inclusive environment was incredibly important for us. We recognize this vision in the chair for sustainable transformation and in the ideas of Professor Wayne Visser. In this partnership, we will work on the development and sharing of information and tools that will help companies make use of their human potential in favor of the individual, the company and society.”

Wouter De Geest, CEO atBASF: “Offering everyone a comfortable future with an increased quality of life is the big challenge of society today. The chemical sector has a major responsibility in that matter and can contribute a lot. That is why BASF is continuously working to make its production chains and products more sustainable through innovation. But we can’t do this alone, we need interaction across different sectors and social groups. As a founding member of AMS’ Chair on Sustainable Transformation within the framework of the “Antwerp Knowledge Center on Sustainability at the University of Antwerp/AMS, we want to cooperate with Professor Wayne Visser to stimulate the transformation through leadership groups and by striving for the integration of sustainability in all student curricula at AMS and UAntwerpen.”

Professor Visser will be facilitating next to applied research, the establishment of corporate leadership groups to advance sustainable transformation in the resilience, digital, access, circular and wellbeing economies. He will also be developing a Masters in Sustainable Transformation, as well as blended learning and tailored programs for companies.

These developments support the implementation of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UN PRME), to which AMS is a signatory.

Join at February 1st, 2018 the Inauguration of the Chair in Sustainable Transformation.

More information click here.

About Wayne Visser:

Visser is the author of 26 books and over 320 other publications, with guest columns for The Guardian, The HuffPost and the World Economic Forum. He previously held roles as a Strategy Analyst at Capgemini and Director of Sustainability Services at KPMG. He is also a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Extraordinary Professor at the Gordon Institute for Business Science in South Africa, Founder of CSR International and Director of Kaleidoscope Futures. He tweets @WayneVisser.

Press Contact:

Anja Tys, Corporate Marketing Communication Manager, anja.tys@ams.ac.be
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