Lunchtime Sessions:
Careers to Save the Planet
Tuesday 23 February, 13:00 – 14:15
2020 has had many of us question where we want to spend our time and energy, not only personally, but especially professionally. There is a stronger desire to have careers with meaning and impact. Sustainability and climate change are areas of incredible relevance and impact everywhere. These are hot topics right now, and rightly so! Hear first hand where the sector is headed, what skills are required, and how YOU can get involved.
Benjamin Kott (MBA 03J) is the CEO of Lightsource BP Labs, Lightsource BP’s technology division that is working on scaling smart digital energy solutions across residential and commercial applications. Previously, Benjamin was the founder and CEO of Fabriq, an award-winning online platform that helps optimise building operations and reduce energy consumption. Prior to Fabriq, Benjamin was Google’s Green Business Operations and Energy Manager for Europe.
Benjamin holds a M. Eng. in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from Technical University of Munich and an MBA from INSEAD. He is also a member of the Sustainability Advisory Panel of the BBC and the Sustainability Council of the Urban Land Institute.
In other news, Benjamin briefly became a world record holder for Zorba dancing in 2008 (with 1670 other Googlers).
Carola Wijdoogen is the Director of the Sustainability University Foundation. She was the first Director of Sustainability (CSO) at NS Netherlands National Railways, from 2010 to 2019.
In 2017 Carola joined the ‘2 degrees’ expedition to the Arctic to take joint actions to reduce CO2 emissions. In 2016 Carola launched her nationally acclaimed book, “MVO doe je Zo”, which shares insights and expertise on the CSR profession. She began writing the book with the intention of exploring what sustainability managers actually do and what their added value to a company is. Carola identified, based on scientific research and with input from her CSR colleagues, the seven roles of a CSR manager and their eight competencies.
Carola is also a member of the Supervisory Board Utrecht Science Park, the Business Advisory Board at Radboud University, the Mobility Table – Climate Treaty Netherlands and the Advisory Board Sustainability for the Mobility Business Platform ‘Anders Reizen’.
Your Host, Rahima Valji (MBA 03D), is a strategic growth and innovation advisor to CEOs and leadership teams, with more than 20 years’ experience on three continents. She focuses on helping corporates, scaleups and the public sector grow through corporate innovation, new product launches, digital transformation, scaling and international expansion and by building strategic partnerships and relationships.
Rahima speaks English, Italian, French, Spanish, Gujerati, Kaatchi and some basic Hindi. She spent a recent gap year eating and cooking her way around the world, ending up as a guest chef in an Italian restaurant in Mozambique cooking for CEOs, ambassadors and real Italians! All of them are still alive.