SYMPOSIUM:
“The Human Side of Sustainability. Rethinking the Employee-Organization Relationship.”
This symposium seeks to bring together leading academics alongside professional experts (e.g., founders, managers, C-level executives) to provide fresh insights into new strategies and governance for purpose-driven, sustainability and ESG businesses. The symposium will focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to human capital.
Among other speakers, we will have the privilege of hosting Vanessa Burbano (Columbia Business School), Isabela del Alcázar (Global Head of Sustainability at IE), Claudine Gartenberg (University of Pennsylvania), Sriram Narayanan (Michigan State University), Lamar Pierce (Washington University, St Louis), Bradley Staats (University of North Carolina).
The symposium will feature an introduction by the organizers, followed by three panel discussions.
The panels will be moderated by Fabrizio Salvador (IE) and Rocio Bonet (IE).
The overall goal of the symposium is to start a conversation about new lines of research as well as practices and initiatives in organizations on topics related to the relationship between companies and employees in order to make sustainable human capital objectives synergistic with business performance. Among other topics, we will cover the need to rethink the impact that organizations have on employees, the actions that companies can take to create more sustainable workplaces and, in general, the role of companies in creating social impact through their employees.
The IE University Research Initiative on Businesses with Purpose is gratefully funded by an unrestricted gift from Meta.
The event will be for an online audience. To register to attend on Zoom, please click here
Dr. Sriram Narayanan (B.E, M.B.A, PhD) is the Eli Broad Endowed Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Broad College of Business, Michigan State University (MSU) in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) Department. He is the Founding Academic Director of the Center for Ethical and Socially Responsible Leadership at the Broad College of Business. He serves on several editorial boards of several Supply Chain Management Journals. He is currently co-editing a special issue on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Production and Operations Management Journal. His most recent research work is focused on examining how individuals with disabilities can be deployed in operational settings. His work has been funded by Peckham Foundation, Michigan State University, Strategic Partnership Grant, and the NSF. He actively collaborates with corporations and non-profits on research focused on DEI topics. He is the co-creator of the Abilities, Opportunities, and Future of Work podcast in partnership with the Michigan Rehabilitation Services (A division of the Labor and Employment Office) – which delves into challenges faced by firms in employing individuals with disabilities.
Dr. Bradley R. Staats is the Ellison Distinguished Professor of Operations at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and best-selling author of Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive. He is the Senior Associate Dean of Strategy and Academics and Faculty Director of the UNC Center for the Business of Health. His research and teaching focus on learning, healthcare and analytics. Dr. Staats integrates work in operations management and human behavior to understand how and under what conditions individuals, teams and organizations can perform their best. His field-based research in such settings as health care and software services, consulting, call centers and retail, uses archival data and field experiments to provide an interdisciplinary perspective to improve both operations’ theory and practice.
Claudine Gartenberg is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on corporate purpose, corporate ownership, and compensation, and their implications for firm competitiveness. Professor Gartenberg received a B.A. with honors in Physics from Harvard College, and a D.B.A. and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar and received the Wyss Award for best doctoral research. Her work has been published in top academic journals, including Management Science, Organization Science, and Review of Economic Studies. She is an associate editor at Management Science and serves on the editorial boards of Strategic Management Journal and Strategy Science. She joined Wharton in 2017 from the faculty of NYU Stern School. Prior to joining academia, Professor Gartenberg was an account manager at a business consulting firm, working with clients such as PG&E, Chevron, Hallmark Cards, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
Vanessa Burbano is the Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Management in the strategy area at Columbia Business School.
Burbano researches the strategic implications of socially responsible and irresponsible firm practices; in particular, how they influence employee behavior. Her body of work has been recognized by her receipt of four Emerging Scholar Awards (from the Strategic Management Society, the Strategic Management division of the Academy of Management, the Organizations and the Natural Environment division of the Academy of Management, and the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability). Her work has been published in top strategy and management journals, and has also been cited in the popular press, including in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and The Financial Times. She was named to Poets and Quants’ 2019 list of Best 40 Business School Professors Under 40.
She also serves as the Corporate Engagement Director and Executive Committee Member of LEAP, an NSF Science and Technology Center (STC) dedicated to improving the accuracy of climate projections needed for optimal adaptation to climate change.
Lamar Pierce is the Beverly & James Hance Professor of Strategy at Washington University in St. Louis. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief at Organization Science—a leading academic journal. Previously he served as Associate Dean for Executive Education and as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has held leadership roles at three successful technology platform startups.
Lamar studies how organizations can better align ethics and productivity, focusing on how economic and psychological factors create opportunities to improve the welfare of both people and their employers. His research spans a myriad of industries and settings that include salespeople, manufacturing and service workers, military and police officers, and consumer finance, while employing methods ranging from multimillion-dollar field experiments to machine learning and econometric analysis of corporate personnel and performance data. A four-time cancer survivor, Lamar is currently working on how organizations can more effectively support personal challenges such as mental health, and on clarifying how principles of business and health management can better inform one another.
Lamar holds a Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, as well as a BS in Economics and BA from the University of Puget Sound.
Dr. Fabrizio Salvador is Professor of Operations and Technology Management at IE Business School, IE University, where he also serves as Adjunct Vice-Rector, Applied Research.
His research blends operations management with strategic human capital, emphasizing people analytics, organizational flexibility, performance, and resilience. His is currently exploring the nexus between organizational design and employee well-being, with a focus on sustainability.
His award-winning research has bene published in top academic journals, where he also held various editorial leadership positions. He is a strong believer in the engagement of researchers with business and society.
Rocio Bonet is an associate professor of human resource management at IE Business School, IE University in Madrid. She earned her PhD from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests lie in the area of strategic human capital. Her current research empirically explores how the use of practices focused on achieving flexibility in organizations affects different employment outcomes. In her work, Rocio has found that there is a potential “dark side” in attaining organizational flexibility: transferring excessive risk from companies to workers can potentially lead to dysfunctional organizational consequences.
Rocio is currently the academic chair of the IE-DKV Chair for Employee Health and Wellbeing.
Isabela del Alcázar holds a PhD in molecular biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a Master in Biotech Management from IE Business School.
With more than 20 years dedicated to science, Isabela has helped scientists to set up start-ups and thus act as a bridge for scientific advances to revert to society.
Active member of high-impact business initiatives such as the Madrid-MIT consortium (Mvision promoted by the Community of Madrid and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or the South Summit-SSIS (largest competition of start-ups from southern Europe) and founding partner Polypeptide Therapeutic Solutions, and Biocapital Advisors.
Isabela has also participated as an investor in various innovative projects related to health and sustainability. Today, Isabela holds the position of Global Head of Sustainability at IE University and her mission is to transform the university into a benchmark in sustainability. The transformation of the institution is happening at all levels, academic and operational, and encompasses not only environmental but also social and economic aspects.
Antonio Lasaga has more than 20 years of experience in people management in multinational companies.
With a degree in Law and several postgraduate programmes in the area of people management, he is currently Human Resources Director at Airbus in Spain.
Previously, he has held regional and global people management positions at ABB and Nissan, both in Spain, Asia and the Middle East, where he and his teams have faced complex challenges in very diverse business and cultural environments.
He is also a Member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the FUE (Fundación Universidad y Empresa), Member of the AED Board in the central area, the Employability Advisory Board of the San Pablo CEU University Foundation, the Board of Directors of Fremap and the Institute of Legal Strategy in Human Resources of Cuatrecasas.
Aspiring tennis player and cook in his spare time, frustrated guitarist, enjoys spending time with his family and friends whenever he can.
Andalusian, from Huelva, he currently lives in Madrid with his wife and two children.
Carlos Conde is Technical Vice President and Plant Manager at Bosch Madrid with 13 years of international experience in Asia and America. His areas of expertise are in the fields of strategic planning, business development, operations and digitalization. He is Industrial Engineer from Universidad de Navarra and holds and Executive MBA by IE Business School and ADP from IPADE Business School.
Graduate in Law from the University of Navarra. He has spent part of his professional career in the world of legal advice, consultancy, training and the financial sector.
After working at Barclays Western Europe and Barclays Foundation, in 2011 he joined the ONCE Social Group. In 2016, representing ONCE, he was elected vice-president of the World Blind Union. In 2019, he was appointed Director of Institutional Relations and Sustainability of the ONCE Social Group by the General Council.
At the same time, he is preparing a PhD in Innovation and Management, with a research question about the impact that the social and labor inclusion of people with disabilities has on the reputation and value of organizations. Also, he is six-time world champion in the triathlon World Cup for people with disabilities.
Head of Human Resources Exploration & Production CEPSA
Alejandro Gómez has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources, Organization and Talent Management. As a Human Resources Specialist Alejandro has acquired an extensive experience and knowledge throughout the Human Resources value chain, such as: Talent Management, Compensation and Benefits, Recruitment, Learning, Labor Relations, Personnel Administration, Cultural Change and Organizational Development.
During the last 21 years Alejandro has been playing different Human Resources roles, in CEPSA
In addition to his activity as HR senior manager, Alejandro teaches different subjects in the Master of Human Resources at the Centro de Estudios Garrigues, and at the Sagardoy Business School.
Isabela del Alcázar holds a PhD in molecular biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a Master in Biotech Management from IE Business School.
With more than 20 years dedicated to science, Isabela has helped scientists to set up start-ups and thus act as a bridge for scientific advances to revert to society.
Active member of high-impact business initiatives such as the Madrid-MIT consortium (Mvision promoted by the Community of Madrid and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or the South Summit-SSIS (largest competition of start-ups from southern Europe) and founding partner Polypeptide Therapeutic Solutions, and Biocapital Advisors.
Isabela has also participated as an investor in various innovative projects related to health and sustainability. Today, Isabela holds the position of Global Head of Sustainability at IE University and her mission is to transform the university into a benchmark in sustainability. The transformation of the institution is happening at all levels, academic and operational, and encompasses not only environmental but also social and economic aspects.
Antonio Lasaga has more than 20 years of experience in people management in multinational companies.
With a degree in Law and several postgraduate programmes in the area of people management, he is currently Human Resources Director at Airbus in Spain.
Previously, he has held regional and global people management positions at ABB and Nissan, both in Spain, Asia and the Middle East, where he and his teams have faced complex challenges in very diverse business and cultural environments.
He is also a Member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the FUE (Fundación Universidad y Empresa), Member of the AED Board in the central area, the Employability Advisory Board of the San Pablo CEU University Foundation, the Board of Directors of Fremap and the Institute of Legal Strategy in Human Resources of Cuatrecasas.
Aspiring tennis player and cook in his spare time, frustrated guitarist, enjoys spending time with his family and friends whenever he can.
Andalusian, from Huelva, he currently lives in Madrid with his wife and two children.
Carlos Conde is Technical Vice President and Plant Manager at Bosch Madrid with 13 years of international experience in Asia and America. His areas of expertise are in the fields of strategic planning, business development, operations and digitalization. He is Industrial Engineer from Universidad de Navarra and holds and Executive MBA by IE Business School and ADP from IPADE Business School.
Graduate in Law from the University of Navarra. He has spent part of his professional career in the world of legal advice, consultancy, training and the financial sector.
After working at Barclays Western Europe and Barclays Foundation, in 2011 he joined the ONCE Social Group. In 2016, representing ONCE, he was elected vice-president of the World Blind Union. In 2019, he was appointed Director of Institutional Relations and Sustainability of the ONCE Social Group by the General Council.
At the same time, he is preparing a PhD in Innovation and Management, with a research question about the impact that the social and labor inclusion of people with disabilities has on the reputation and value of organizations. Also, he is six-time world champion in the triathlon World Cup for people with disabilities.
