Our outstanding Advisory Board of experts (academics, thought leaders, corporate sustainability and educational leaders) are committed to contribute to the design and delivery of The Climate School curriculum.
Our advisory board


Mac led a leadership development business in the UK, and co-founded two similar consultancies in Poland and Russia. Over the last few years, his work with organisations has included the delivery of multiple presentations and workshops supporting Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, and speaking engagements with Vodafone, HSBC, and the Taranaki CEO Forum, amongst many others.
Mac was a member of Danone North America’s Advisory Committee (2017- 19) as they made their remarkable journey towards attaining B Corp accreditation. In the past he has also sat on the sustainability advisory panels for Lafarge, Lend Lease, and Procter & Gamble.
Over a period of twenty years Mac was mentored by a group of indigenous elders. During this training and ever since, he has attempted to bring two worlds together – an ancient world-view that emphasises relationship, interdependence, and reverence for life with the significant challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.
In 2013 Mac was presented with the Enlightened Society Award, and in 2015 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education for his work in service to the community by Plymouth University. He has delivered four compelling TEDx talks.
www.macmacartney.com
www.embercombe.org

Until recently, he was executive editor, Impact & Innovation and Editorial Director of What’s Working at the HuffPost in New York. During his five years there, he developed long-term editorial projects based on social, environmental and economic justice and was a member of the senior leadership team.
He is currently working with Leaders Quest, which helps leaders and companies align profit with purpose as well as Future Stewards, a coalition of partners working together to build a regenerative future.
Jo has chaired and facilitated events and conferences all over the world for the past 20 years. He also runs workshops and roundtables for attendees including CEOs, prime ministers and NGO heads.
Before joining HuffPost, he was an executive editor of the Guardian and chairman and editorial director of the Guardian Sustainable Business website. During his 23 years at the Guardian, he set up and managed a unique multi-stakeholder development project in the Ugandan village of Katine, and helped create the Guardian’s environment and global development websites.
Jo also created and managed the sustainability vision and strategy for the Guardian and its parent company Guardian Media Group.
As a journalist for the past 40 years, he has worked on regional and national newspapers and websites, with an emphasis on business and finance, including three years as Wall Street correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.
Jo has worked closely for the past 14 years with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community in Plum Village, France and is an advisory board member of Parallax Press, which publishes books on mindfulness in daily life.
He is a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and is also a trustee of Theatre for a Change, whose purpose is the empowerment of women and girls, particularly in their sexual and reproductive health.
Jo completed an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath.

Since 2012, she is the Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
She is a past member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Frontier Risk and was a scientific keynote speaker at WEF’s 2020 session at Davos “What’s at Stake: The Arctic” alongside panellists including Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Former US Vice President, Al Gore. In 2023 she was also a panellist and speaker at the 2023 WEF session in Davos – Unpacking the Polar Crisis.
Professor Whiteman is an experienced moderator at events including Reuters Impact in 2022 and the World Economic Forum in Davos. She is actively involved in building science-based targets collective business action, including those for a future low-carbon economy. Her research utilises organisation theory on information flows to analyse how a range of actors (companies, civil society, and local communities) make sense of ecological risk, and how these actors transform and build resilience across scales given environmental pressures and social inequities.
She has over 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including in prestigious journals Nature, Nature Communication, and the Academy of Management Journal. Her PhD is from Queen’s University and her field work was conducted in the subarctic region of Canada. She is regularly interviewed by the press and in 2023 launched a new Reuters series – Arctic Warning alongside Reuters Editor-at-Large, Axel Threlfall. You can follow her @GenerationCO2


As Co-President of the Club of Rome, she divides her time between lecturing, facilitating change in business and policy models and advisory work. She holds several advisory positions for the European Commission: Chair, Expert Group on Economic and Societal Impact of Research & Innovation (ESIR); Assembly Member, Climate Mitigation & Adaptation Mission (DGR&I); TEG Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, Chair, Manufacturing & Outreach (DGFISMA); and for organisations/institutes such as Climate KIC, the European Aluminium and the IEEP. Sandrine is also a Senior Associate and faculty member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and a Senior Associate for E3G, Ambassador, for the Energy Transition Commission (ETC) and WEALL as well as a Senior Advisor to Interel. In 2017 Sandrine co-founded the Women Enablers Change Agent Network (WECAN).
Sandrine was recognised by GreenBiz as one of the 30 most influential women across the globe driving change in the low carbon economy and promoting green business. She has spent her career bringing together business leaders, policy makers, academia and NGO’s. Until recently, Sandrine was Chief Partnership Officer for UN Agency Sustainable Energy for All and prior to that the Director of the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group and the EU office of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (2009-2016). During that period she was also appointed Executive Director of the Green Growth Platform bringing together EU Ministers and CEO’s.
Previous advisory and professional positions include: advising for HRH The Prince of Wales, Members of the European Parliament, European Commission Presidents, Commissioners and officials, Governments in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, international organizations (OPEC, ADB, OECD, UNEP, USAID, UNFCCC, IEA) and business leaders of large international, European and African companies. Sandrine was Vice Chair, European Biofuels Technology Platform 2008-2016; Board member, We Mean Business 2014-2016, Member of The Guardian’s Sustainable Business Advisory Board and on the Sustainability Advisory Board of the Oil and Gas major Sasol from 2007-2010.. She spoke on TEDx: The Sustainable Future series and has published numerous articles, book chapters and given presentations on green growth and competitiveness, innovation, low carbon energy solutions, climate change, sustainable development, transport, conventional and alternative fuel quality legislation as well as on trade & environment.

Alexandra Palt joined L’Oréal in February 2012 as Chief Sustainability Officer. In 2013, she launched Sharing Beauty With All, L’Oréal’s sustainability program, which sets commitments for 2020 addressing the company’s impact across its value chain.
In September 2017, Alexandra Palt was appointed Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, becoming Executive Vice President of the Fondation L’Oréal in addition to her role as head of the Sustainability Department.
In September 2019, Alexandra Palt joined L’Oréal’s Executive Committee as Executive Vice President – Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and Executive Vice President of the Fondation L’Oréal.

Prior to The Times, Dunbar-Johnson was Publisher of the International Herald Tribune (IHT), a position he assumed in January 2008. Before joining the IHT in 1998, he held various business development roles in the UK, France and the US over twelve years at the Financial Times. He was educated at Worth School and Kent University in the U.K. and has completed an executive management program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Sulzberger program at the Columbia School of Journalism.


At 16, Clover was lobbying decision-makers at the Paris climate meeting when she realised that the threat greater even than climate change was the universal feeling of powerlessness in the face of it. She made it her mission to mobilise mindsets. After graduating from the Green School in Indonesia, Clover worked with Impossible Foods CEO Pat O. Brown on national youth strategy, consulted multinationals alongside John Elkington, global authority on business as a force for good, before launching Force of Nature. Her team helps young people turn anxiety into agency. Through virtual classrooms and campaigns, their 2020 ambition is to activate a global network of young activists ready to inspire change from their living rooms.
In June, Clover launched the Force of Nature podcast, a 9-part series with ordinary people doing extraordinary things to save the planet: from the woman who started a global movement out of her backyard; to the lawyer responsible for the world’s most historic climate agreement; and a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
Clover is also campaign strategist for #MyEcoResolution, serves as a trustee to Global Action Plan, and is on the advisory board of the National Community Lottery's Climate Action Fund.

He is an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability issues and led the development of the Planetary Boundaries framework for human development in the current era of rapid global change. Rockström is a leading scientist on global water resources, with more than 25 years experience in applied water research in tropical regions, and more than 150 research publications in fields ranging from applied land and water management to global sustainability.


Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group now TESCO PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; he is a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan Bilimoria was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords. In 2008 he was awarded the Pravasi Bharti Samman by the President of India. He is an Honorary Fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and was Chair of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University from 2015-2020 and subsequently appointed as an Honorary Ambassador. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and graduated in law from the University of Cambridge. He is also an alumnus through executive education of the Cranfield School of Management, the London Business School and the Harvard Business School. In July 2014, he was installed as the seventh Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, making him the first Indian-born Chancellor of a Russell Group University in Great Britain, and he is the President of the UK Council for International Students Affairs (UKCISA). Since 2017 Lord Bilimoria has been a Bynum Tudor Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. Lord Bilimoria is an Honorary Group Captain in 601 Squadron Royal Air Force. In June 2020, he was appointed President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). In September 2020, he was appointed as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford based at the Centre for Corporate Reputation. Karan has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from University of East Anglia, University of Birmingham, Brunel University, Cranfield University, University of Exeter, Heriot-Watt University, London Metropolitan University, Staffordshire University, York St John University, University of West London (previously Thames Valley University), and University of Westminster. Karan is also President of The UK Council on International Student Affairs (UKCISA) and Co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Students. In January 2022, Lord Bilimoria joined the Board of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) UK.


His current roles include Executive Chairman of 99oint9 Hygiene Limited, NED of Vaughan Lighting Limited, CEED Limited, Smart TMS Limited and LEO Limited as well Chairman of the Advisory Board of 8 Hours Ahead, a Sino-Global technology transfer company. He is a member of the advisory board of Committed Capital LLC. He is also on the advisory board of IntoUniversity, one of the UK’s leading mentoring organisations.
Previous roles include Partner of Bain & Co., Partner of Apax Partners and Partner of The Beacon Group LLP, a boutique investment bank that was sold to Chase Manhattan in 2000 for $500 million. Eric was a member of Beacon’s Operating Committee as well as its Investment Committee. Eric subsequently led JPMorgan Partners consumer and retail private equity group until 2002. He became a partner of Talisman Management Limited in 2005.
At Talisman Management, Eric was a co-founder of Top Golf Inc, one of the fastest-growing entertainment companies in the US, currently valued at over $2 billion. He was also Chairman of Coemar Spa, an entertainment lighting turnaround which was sold in 2010, Board member and Executive Committee member of Solel Inc, a solar energy business which was sold to Siemens in 2010 and co-CEO of Leclanche SA until June 2014.
In January 2016, Eric joined Hambro Perks Limited as Partner and CIO. He helped raise over £30 million of permanent capital for the firm and the audited value of the portfolio of the firm more than doubled during his tenure. He left the firm on good terms in February 2019 to focus on his personal goals.

Notable achievements during her career at KPMG included the design and oversight of KPMG’s C-Suite Leadership Programme for senior client executives and introducing ESG as a key responsibility for KPMG and as a core client service offering.
Sue is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Accountants England & Wales and holds a BSc (Hons) Mathematics from Bristol University.

Mike was until 2019 Director of Sustainable Business at Marks & Spencer, spearheading its ground-breaking Plan A (because there is no Plan B for the one planet we have) sustainability programme. He co-chaired the Consumer Goods Forum’s sustainability work bringing the world’s largest retailers and fast moving consumer goods brands together to work on issues such as deforestation, plastics and forced labour. He is a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and a Trustee at Blueprint for Better Business.

From 2007-2013 Michael was Vice President, Global Education at Cisco Systems. During this time he founded the Global Education Leaders Program, which he now co-chairs.
Michael began his career at the BBC, initially in television current affairs, later as BBC Secretary and Director of Education. He went on to lead strategy, communications and technology at the UK Department for Education in London.

His research deals mostly with environmental and migration governance and he has worked in particular on populations displaced by environmental changes and the policies of adaptation to climate change, as well as on asylum and migration policies.
François currently coordinates two important European research projects: MAGYC, on migration governance and asylum crises, as well as HABITABLE, on migration induced by climate change. He also coordinated the DEVAST project, one of the first international projects to examine the social and political consequences of the Fukushima disaster.
He has consulted for several organisations, including the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the British government (Foresight). In 2010, he was awarded the ISDT-Wernaers Prize for achievement in the communication of science to the general public.
He is also the director of the Sustainable Development series at Presses de Sciences Po, a leading French academic publisher, and the President of the Board of the NGO Climate Voices, which seeks to connect youth from the global North and the global South around climate issues.



Laurent-David career has spanned across supply-chain, procurement and consulting combining operational roles at Unilever, Alcan, Michelin and consulting ones at McKinsey. He has worked in several countries in Europe, North America and Asia leading multi-cultural teams across the world and has a passion for driving change at scale for big challenges !
Laurent-David has also an advisory position at Ecovadis.

Vineet strongly believes that energy is inversely proportional to poverty. With increased energy access, India can overcome its poverty problems and provide its citizens with a better quality of life. Driven by his passion for sustainability and clean energy transition, in 2017, he floated the second platform and named it ‘Avaada’ – Ayurveda + Vaada – which translates to a promise of a sustainable future.
Avaada Group is India’s leading integrated energy group with business interests in Solar Module Manufacturing, Electrolyser manufacturing and Green Ammonia production. The group is completely aligned with the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School, he currently holds the position of Chairman of the MNRE’s sub-committee on Hydrogen usage and standards, Chairman of the CII National Council on climate change and Chairman of the ‘Make in India’ Task Force.
He is an active member speaker at the World Economic Forum. He is on B20’s task force for financing growth and infrastructure and Energy, Resource Efficiency & Sustainability. He is also the former India Chairman of the World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD)’s Renewables Low Carbon Technology platform program.

Massimo joined BCG in 1997, and has worked for the company in Düsseldorf, Munich, Vienna, and Berlin. In 2002, he left to run his own company, rejoining in 2006.