John Elkington
Founder & Non-Executive Director
John Elkington
Founder & Non-Executive Director
Brief CV (pdf/19K)
Full CV (pdf/28K)
Role
Founder & Non-Executive Director, SustainAbility
Founding Partner & Director, Volans Ventures
Previously SustainAbility, Director (1987-1995), Chairman (1995-2005) and Founder & Chief Entrepreneur (2005-2008).
BusinessWeek described John in 2004 as "a dean of the corporate-responsibility movement for three decades" and in 2008, The Evening Standard (London, UK) named John among the '1000 Most Influential People' in London, describing him as "a true green business guru," and as "an evangelist for corporate social and environmental responsibility long before it was fashionable."
Latest book is The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, written with Pamela Hartigan, previously of The Schwab Foundation, now Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Said Business School, University of Oxford, published by Harvard Business School Press in February 2008.
John regularly speaks at conferences and other events throughout the world, among them the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum, of which he was a Faculty member from 2002 to 2008. He moderated sessions in New York (2002), at Davos (2003 through to 2008) and in Palo Alto (2007) and Dalian, China (2007)
Author or co-author of 17 books, including the No. 1 bestselling The Green Consumer Guide (1988) and Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (1997), short-listed for Global Book of the Year by Booz-Allan Hamilton and The Financial Times.
Regular contributor to Nikkei Ecology in Japan, Chinadialogue in UK/China, Brazil’s Época Negócios, and also Director magazine (UK) as well as other media.
John is the Visiting Professor at Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management, UK and also, chairs or serves as member of an A-to-Z of councils and committees:
Expertise
Sensing the future in pre-emergence phase. Connecting the dots. Business strategy. Engaging stakeholders. Writing. Public speaking. Low boredom threshold. Creative – though some might say grasshopper – mind (INFP, according to Myers-Briggs). Born nosey. Appetite for innovation, change. Voracious reader. Networking. Travel.
Passions @ work
Pretty much everything that SustainAbility and Volans get involved in.
See also www.johnelkington.com
Client and Research Highlights
Current: Active in broad spectrum of engagements, largely consultancy, research and ‘futures analysis’ for and alongside companies, government, social and environmental entrepreneurs, media and civil society organisations.
Historic:
- Involved in research and consulting for well over 30 years. First five years included major environmental impact studies, plus work for governments. Since 1978, mainly focused on business and markets.
- Author or co-author of 17 books and some 40 published reports and thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and journals.
- Editor of Biotechnology Bulletin from 1982 to 1995, producing over 170 issues.
Previous Experience
- Associate, Transport & Environment Studies (TEST), 1974-1978;
- Co-founder and Managing Director, Environmental Data Services (ENDS), 1978-1983;
- Founder-editor of The ENDS Report, 1978-1983;
- Director, John Elkington Associates, 1983-ongoing;
- Editor, Biotechnology Bulletin, 1981-1996;
- Trustee/Director, Earthlife Foundation, 1983-1986;
- International Judging Panel for DHL YES Awards, Asia
For full listing of previous roles, please see www.johnelkington.com/committees.htm
Education
- Bryanston School, Dorset, to 1966;
- BA (Hons) in Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Essex, 1970;
- M. Phil. in Urban & Regional Planning (University College London), 1974
Ongoing
Nationality
British
Languages
English Mother Tongue
Rusty French, Fawlty Towers Spanish, primary school understanding of German
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