Keynote speakers
Ken Peattie
Ken is Head of the Marketing and Strategy Section at Cardiff Business School and has spent more than 30 years researching and writing in the field of business sustainability. He spent 12 of those years as Director of the ESRC-funded BRASS Research Centre based at Cardiff, which specialised in interdisciplinary research into business sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Before working as an academic he worked in marketing and strategic planning in an American paper multinational and a UK electronics company.
His research interests focus on the impact of sustainability on marketing and corporate strategy making; social marketing for healthy and sustainable lifestyles; social enterprise and CSR. He has published three books and numerous book chapters on these topics, and has published in journals including Journal of World Business, California Management Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Public Policy & Marketing, and Business Strategy & the Environment.
Mike Molesworth
Mike Molesworth is an Associate Professor in Marketing at Birmingham Business School at the University of Birmingham. He has been researching critical aspects of consumer culture and marketing for over 20 years drawing from sociological and psychological traditions to examine a range of topics including education, digital goods, and sharing and possession. Much of this work has questioned why we buy what we buy, implicitly arguing that consumption is wasteful, and that marketing is manipulative. His recent work also considers corporate social responsibilities and so takes a more explicitly ethical turn. His research has been published in leading journals including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Internet Research, and Organization.
His current research interests include the impact of Covid on consumer culture and particularly how our reflections (in the UK) on experiences of lockdown have resulted in people questioning their work and spend lifestyles. This has led to an observation that too much research on sustainable consumer practices focusses on 'additive' logics (consumers should buy more sustainable goods), whereas what we need is more focus on 'subtractive' consumer cultures, i.e., where people consume less and do more to enjoy what they have.
Georgiana Grigore
Georgiana Grigore is an Associate Professor in Marketing at the School of Business, University of Leicester. Georgiana's research has focused on the intersections between corporate social responsibility and marketing, including changes that result from digital media. Based on funded grants from the British Academy and from the Arthur Page Centre, and drawing from sociological and psychological theory, she has also examined the experiences of those working in responsibility roles in different European cultures, noting how their lived experiences impact on how corporate social responsibility gets done, or otherwise.
Her recent interests include the impact of Covid on consumer culture and particularly how our reflections (in the UK) on experiences of lockdown have resulted in people questioning their work and spend lifestyles. She is also currently involved with a project to establish marketing strategies for a UK National Conservation Centre. In 2012, she co-founded an annual international conference in Social Responsibility, Ethics and Sustainable Business that has built a network of CSR researchers and practitioners across Europe and beyond. She has published edited collection book series, and journal articles including in Journal of Business Ethics, Marketing Theory, Organization, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, or Internet Research.
Fajer Al-Husaini
Dr Fajer Al-Husaini holds a PhD in marketing and reputation management from Henley Business School, University of Reading. Her thesis titled 'Enhancing science communication in research proposals to influence funding decision making' explores the use of storytelling as a communication tool to address multiple audience type needs within a funding committee in order to secure funding.
Fajer’s research interests include: application of storytelling in science communication to secure research funds, or the impact of CSR communications to secure positive brand images. She is working at Kuwait Oil Company in the communications department, where she is responsible for maintaining the company’s brand image through social media communication initiatives, developing and leading CSR projects and undertaking reputation research.
Theo Asiei
Theo Asiei is a Chief of Staff and Program Manager based in Zurich, driving PwC`s Sustainability platform in Switzerland and across Europe. He brings over 12+ years of experience in professional services and sustainable development, advising various clients across industries on matters of sustainability, digital and customer transformation, and go-to-market strategy. Most recently, Theo spearheaded the development and execution of PwC`s strategy and growth agenda in the EMEA cluster. Prior to PwC, he worked in leadership and sustainable development in the non-governmental sector in Oslo and Bucharest. Theo is an accomplished speaker on matters of leadership, sustainability, and cross-sector collaboration. He holds an Executive MBA and a Strategy in Sustainability degree from IESE Business School in Munich and New York City. His Alma Matter is ASE Bucharest.
Corina Cimpoca
Corina Cimpoca is a professional with over 13 years of experience in marketing and market research. By joining forces with the Romanian Diversity Charter, MKOR has conducted a thorough research on diversity and inclusion. The second edition of the study Diversity Management in Romanian Organisations was published in 2023 and underpins the employees’ perspective while the first edition is on the employers’ standpoint.
Gabriella Pacso
Gabriella Pecso is a transformational leader with hands-on regional experience (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) and deep expertise in marketing, enterprise software and business strategy. In addition to her strong strong business acumen, achieved during on her 20+ years of experience in IBM, she has a clear goal - to make diversity, equal opportunities, and social inclusion become values acknowledged and respected in Romania.
Cristina Galalae
Dr. Cristina Galalae is a Lecturer in Marketing and Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Leicester School of Business, UK. As an interpretative consumer researcher, she studies multicultural marketplaces from a sociocultural perspective. Cristina’s research has been accepted for publication in outlets such as Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Consumption, Markets and Culture, Research in Consumer Behavior and The Conversation.