Simon Zadek, Background

Simon Zadek’s work on responsible competitiveness and collaborative governance is used extensively by practitioners, policy makers and academics. He is a adviser on sustainability to the World Economic Forum, with a focus on climate finance, sustainable consumption and emerging markets.

Simon’s advisory portfolio includes governments, international agencies, businesses and non-profit institutions. He is a member of the international climate policy initiative, Project Catalyst, and a team leader on the South African government’s South African Renewables Initiative. Simon is a member of the China Council International Cooperation on Environment and Development’s task force on trade and environment. In his business advisory practice, which spans three decades, Simon advises leading global companies on the alignment of sustainability outcomes to business strategies, with a growing focus on how to best advance public policy innovations in this area.

In Brazil, he is working with Instituto Ethos on the development of a new generation of sustainability metrics as a member of the business network’s international advisory board. He founded AccountAbility, and was, until July 2010, its chief executive. Simon established that organization’s global leadership in sustainability standards. He was also the founding chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative and is a former director at the New Economics Foundation.

A non-resident fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School,  Simon is also an honorary professor at the University of South Africa, an associate senior fellow at the International Institute of Sustainable Development and a senior fellow at the newly established Global Green Growth Institute. Simon’s 2007 book, The Civil Corporation, was awarded the Academy of Management’s Best Book on Social Issues in Management.