Speakers

Josef Zechner, Senior Professor of Finance and Investments at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and speaker of the PhD program at the Vienna Graduate School of Finance (VGSF). His research spans corporate finance, banking, and asset management with a particular focus on unifying asset-pricing theory with corporate finance, corporate debt and capital structure, governance and ownership structure, debt-maturity, bond valuation under default risk, and the influence of social preferences (e.g. ESG considerations) on asset prices and corporate investment. He has published extensively in top-tier finance and economics journals, including The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies, and The Journal of Political Economy. In terms of academic leadership and service, He currently serves as Chair of the European Finance Association (EFA). He is a past president of the Western Finance Association (WFA) and the German Finance Association (DGF). From 2003 to 2012, he served as Managing Editor of Review of Finance.

Rajeev Peshawaria, CEO of the Stewardship Asia Centre (SAC) in Singapore and Founder President of Leadership Energy Consulting (LEC) in Seattle, WA. He is the author of Open Source Leadership, Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders, and co-author of Be the Change, and regularly contributes to Forbes on leadership, governance, and corporate stewardship. Previously, Rajeev served as CEO of the Iclif Leadership & Governance Centre in Malaysia, Chief Learning Officer at Coca-Cola and Morgan Stanley, and held senior leadership roles at American Express, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs, where he co-founded the firm’s leadership academy, Pine Street, for Europe and Asia. He provides coaching, consulting, and advisory services globally, and serves as guest faculty at leading business schools. Rajeev is an internationally sought-after speaker, featured on CNN, Bloomberg, NPR, CNBC, Harvard Business Review, and other media outlets. In 2014 and 2017, he was recognized among the Top 100 Global Thought Leaders for Trustworthy Business by Trust Across America.

Punit Arora, Associate Professor of Strategy, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of New York (CUNY). His research focuses on the evolving “business–society compact,” with particular emphasis on sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance, institutional economics, international business, and entrepreneurship. His work has been published in several top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Management, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Venturing, and Business & Society. In addition to his scholarly contributions, he holds important editorial and leadership roles in the academic community: he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Business & Society and currently serves as Program Chair (2025–2026) of the Social Issues in Management division of the Academy of Management.

Elodie Bernadi-Menu, Director of CSR and Sustainable Development at L’Oréal France, responsible for transforming the business model of the entity that brings together the Group’s approximately fifty brands in France. A graduate of NEOMA (Reims), Elodie began her career at Danone and Rémy Cointreau in marketing roles. She joined L’Oréal in 2011 in the marketing department of LaSCAD (the entity that brings together French heritage brands such as Dop, Cadum, and Mixa), before moving to the international marketing teams of the Consumer Products Division. She first worked on L’Oréal Paris, contributing to the development of Elsève and then Mixa. She subsequently held the position of General Manager France for the Garnier and Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc brands.

Domenico Dentoni, Full Professor in Business, Resilience and Transformation and Director of the Communication and OrgAnizing for Sustainable Transformations (COAST) Chair at MBS School of Business since 2021. Domenico’s research teams seek to understand why, when and how organizations coordinate across scales to address complex social-ecological problems. His research has been published in Top Tier journals like Journal of Management, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Long Range Planning, Business & Society, Academy of Management Learning & Education, and Organization & Environment. He is Section Editor of the Journal of Business Ethics (section Environment and Business Ethics) and member of the Editorial Boards of Academy of Management Perspectives and Organization & Environment.

Other speakers will be confirmed at a later date. This page will be updated regularly.