Advisory Board of Lund Institute for Sustainability Impact

Susanne Arvidsson (chairperson) is the director of Lund Institute for Sustainability Impact and Associate Professor of Finance and Accounting at Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM). Susanne has extensive research experience in the field of sustainability and sustainable finance and heads several successful interdisciplinary research projects.

She has also long experience from executive education in the area of finance directed to e.g. management teams and board of directors as well as Swedish judges. She has led several capacity building programs related to Agenda 2030, directed to participants from low- and mid- income countries. She acts as expert in sustainability- and finance-related areas both within the academia and outside. Furthermore, Susanne is chairman of Dagens Industri’s Swedish Corporate Sustainability Ranking and is initiator of the conference SUBREA and its network with close to 200 members from companies, governments, authorities, NGOs and senior researchers at both national and international level.

Since 2019 she is the founder and coordinator of the EVRACSI Initiative (Enhancing the Value Relevance and Credibility of Sustainability Information).

Fredrik NG Andersson is Associate Professor of Macroeconomics at Lund University School of Economics and Management. He defended his dissertation in 2008 and has since specialized on economic policies and long term environmental and economic sustainability. His present research includes studying the role of the financial sector in driving a decarbonization of the economy. Fredrik is active in the public debate on sustainability with numerous media appearances, debate articles and popular science contributions. He is also regularly advising international, national, regional, and local governments and agencies on environmental and economic sustainability issues.

Ester Barinaga is Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Lund University School of Economics and Management. She also holds a Professorship (with special responsibilities) at the Copenhagen Business School. She is interested in concepts and strategies that may help us better design organisations aiming at social change in general. Her current work focuses on community currencies as a method to build more resilient communities and more inclusive cities.

The methods she uses are interventionist, actively taking part in the entrepreneurial processes she also studies. In the past, she founded Förorten i Centrum, a social venture that used the collective production of mural art to work bottom-up with communities burdened by territorial stigmatization. Currently, she leads the DANIDA-funded project “Grassroots Financial Innovations for Inclusive Economic Growth” in which a group of researchers from Gothenburg University (Sweden) and JOOUST University (Kenya) are working with local communities to set up three community currencies in the city of Kisumu (Kenya). In this doing, they hope to gain a better understanding of the diffusion strategies of grassroots innovations as well as of the economic, social and political impact of these monetary innovations on the communities introducing them.

Mats Benner is Dean of Lund University School of Economics and Management and Professor of Science Policy Studies at the School. He was trained as a sociologist of science at Lund University, and has spent the last 30 years studying, in different capacities, the governance and function of research in society. He is also affiliated with the Policy Institute at King’s College, London and the innovation, research and education institute NIFU in Oslo.

He has been engaged in advisory and evaluative roles for governments, universities, and funding organisations in Sweden, the Nordic countries, the UK, and the European Union. He contributes regularly to public debates on university governance and research policy.

He serves as deputy chair of Mid Sweden University, and has sat twice on the Swedish Government Expert Commission on Research (Forskningsberedning). Since 2009, he is a permanent member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering (IVA).

Ellen Hillbom is Professor of Economic Development of the Global South at Lund University School of Economics and Management.

Hillbom’s research interests primarily lie in understanding the long-term development of the African continent. This includes both the colonial past and contemporary issues. Under the umbrellas of African Economic History and contemporary development studies she has published on several topics such as: structural transformation; long-term inequality trends; inclusive agricultural development; natural resource dependency; property rights institutions and colonial legacies. Of late, she has branched out into researching Small Island Developing States with a focus on sustainable development and transformative change.

At Lund University, Hillbom is involved in teaching and supervision at all levels, primarily within the fields of economic history and development studies. This includes teaching within Lund University’s Agenda 2030 Research School, where she is also a board member representing LUSEM.

In her efforts to combine her academic research with the dissemination of knowledge she has given numerous talks to study groups, private entrepreneurs, and other groups and individuals with an interest in Africa. She is also involved in writing and editing textbooks, one of which can be downloaded for free, and producing a MOOC on African development.

Andreas Inghammar is Associate Professor of Business Law at Lund University School of Economics and Management. He received his doctoral degree in private law at the Faculty of Law, Lund University, with a thesis on comparative labour rights for persons with disabilities in the UK, Germany and Sweden.

He has served as a guest professor at Pannasastra University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, under an arrangement with The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He has also been guest professor at Aldo Moro University of Bari, Italy, and guest researcher in Göttingen, Germany and Warwick, UK. He is also a Swedish national expert for the European Center of Excellence (ECE) financed by the European Commission.

Inghammar’s research covers different aspects of social and labour rights, including labour migration, disability and elderly inclusion, collective labour rights and international and global aspects for the promotion of social rights. Since 2017 he is leading the research project Global Collective Agreements. He has published extensively and presented on, and chaired at, numerous international conferences all over the World.

Inghammar has acted as co-founder, board member and in-house counsel in the pharmaceutical industry, participated in executive education connected to LUSEM, worked as junior clerk at the Administrative Court in Malmö, and acted as expert for human rights dialogue and education in Southeast Asia funded by SIDA. He currently serves as a board member of the medical research foundation Sepsisfonden.

Sylvia Schwaag Serger has spent 20 years designing, implementing and studying innovation policy. Her recent research focuses on policies for transformation and resilience, and on science, higher education and international relations.

She was from 2008 to 2017, Director for International Strategy at the Swedish Government Agency for Innovation (VINNOVA). She has run an independent think tank, worked as Swedish Science Counselor in Beijing (and continues to advise governments and other actors on China), and as analyst for the Swedish Ministry of Trade and Industry. During 2015/2016 she was senior advisor at the Swedish Prime Minister’s Office for Strategic Development. In 2016, the Swedish government appointed her to coordinate its efforts to mitigate the effects of Ericsson’s cutbacks in Sweden.

At European level, she has chaired an expert group on international research and innovation cooperation for DG Research and is currently a member of the Expert Group on the Economic and Societal Impact of Research and Innovation (ESIR). She is a member of the Austrian Council for Research and Technological Development, the International Advisory Board of the Norwegian Research Council and the Swedish Innovation Council chaired by the Prime Minister. She chairs the board of the Swedish Foundation for Internationalization of Higher Education and Research (STINT) and is academician at the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering (IVA).

She has an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a PhD in Economic History from London School of Economics and Political Science. From 2018 to 2020, she was Deputy Vice Chancellor of Lund University.

Anna Thomasson is Associate Professor of Business Administration at Lund University School of Economics and Management. She is Associate Vice Dean with special responsibility for education at LUSEM. Anna also works as a researcher and lecturer in Business Administration. She teaches within the field of strategy and corporate governance.

In her research, Anna focuses mainly on the governance and organisation of public service provision. She has investigated issues concerning political governance and decision making. Among other things, Anna has published research regarding topics related to governance of inter-governmental collaboration, public – private partnerships, Triple Helix solutions and public procurement. Anna has mainly focused on researching these topics in the municipal context with focus on the development of urban infrastructure, sustainability, and innovation.

In her research, Anna works in close collaboration with the sector and actors representing the sector.

Lundaekonomerna representative will be elected soon.

Björn Brorström is professor emeritus in Business Administration. He received his PhD in Business Administration in 1982. In 1995, he was appointed Professor of Public Administration at University of Gothenburg. During 2000–2006, he was head of the School of Public Administration in Gothenburg. In 2006, he was appointed Deputy-vice Chancellor at the University of Borås and in 2011 he became Vice Chancellor at the university. 

In 2018, Björn left the assignment to resume his own research in the field of governance, organisation and management in local government. His organisational base for research and other activities has been Kommunforskning i Västsverige at University of Gothenburg. Since 2018, he has carried out a number of evaluations of organisations and effectiveness and quality in different kind of organisations and operations. Björn is also involved in issues concerning higher education and research policy.

During the years as vice chancellor, one of his driving forces was to strengthen the university's sustainability work.  The university should become the sustainable university with deep integration of sustainability in education, advanced applied research in sustainability and a campus that meets strong requirements for sustainability.

In recent years, Björn has published a number of reports and articles that describe the meaning of the sustainable university and that problematise the process towards the sustainable university. Since April 2020 Björn has been president at Kristianstad University.

Anne Jerneck is Professor of Sustainability Science at LUCSUS at Lund University. Her research focuses on social, structural, and institutional change in the politics of food, gender, and poverty in the context of climate change and land use changes, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. She also studies migration in Europe.

Her research is interdisciplinary. Theoretically, she seeks to combine critical with problem solving research. Methodologically, she seeks ways to combine natural and social dimensions of sustainability. Empirically, she is engaged in research applying social and critical theory to understand and improve livelihood conditions. To sustainability science, she has contributed integrated approaches, knowledge structuring, qualitative research design, and case study research.

She is an examiner, mentor, and teacher in three international interdisciplinary postgraduate programmes in Development Studies and Sustainability Science. She is a reviewer for Formas, IFS, Irish Research council, and Norwegian Research Council. She is also a frequent reviewer for international journals in development and sustainability, and has served as an examiner on PhD committees in Sweden and internationally. She is a lead faculty in the Earth System Governance project and an editorial board member of the journal Earth System Governance.

Lena Neij is professor at IIIE at Lund University, focusing on interdisciplinary research and education on sustainable development. During a period of nine years, 2010-2018, she was the Director of the International Environmental Institute (IIIEE). Since 2010, she holds a Holder of a UNESCO Chair in Education for Sustainable Development.

Her research is about the dynamics of a low-carbon economy and the analysis of governance andpolicy supporting a transformative change in society. The core has been on the development and assessment of methods for analysing the dynamics of energy systems in view of innovation and technical change, i.e. the development, introduction, and diffusion of new technology, and policy measures for effecting and accelerating technical change. The research, which has been system based, has focused on renewable energy, sustainable buildings, and governance at different levels of society, including urban governance.

Lars Nilsson is Head of Department and Professor at the Department of Technology and Society at Lund University, Faculty of Engineering (LTH). He has a MSc in Engineering Physics and a PhD in Environmental and Energy Systems Studies. Recent research has been on different aspects of low carbon transition policy strategies and governance.

A topical field of research is low carbon transitions in the basic materials industry and co-evolution with energy system transitions in the perspective of circular economy, industrial development and innovation policy strategies. He is currently the Coordinating Lead Author for Chapter 11 on Industry in the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. Lars is also member of the International Advisory Council to the Wuppertal Institute and the Advisory Committee to the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT under UNOPS). He teaches on energy systems, climate science and politics, energy policy and governance at the Faculty of Engineering.

Emma Ihre is Head of Sustainability at Mannheimer Swartling. At the firm she conducts the strategic sustainability work – mainly in the advisory business to clients, but also internally. Emma has a background as a financial analyst and has solid experience in the area of sustainable business and responsible investment. Emma has previously been responsible for integrating sustainability issues into the corporate governance of state-owned entities at the Ministry of Finance. She was also Head of Corporate Engagement at Ethix SRI Advisors, today ISS, where she gave advise about how capital owners and asset managers can integrate different sustainability issues in their investment process and in the ownership dialogue. Emma has also worked for Amnesty International.

Emma is Chairman of the Board of the Global Compact Network Sweden, Vice Chairman of AP7 and Vice Chairman of the ICC’s Sustainability Issues Committee. She is also an adjunct board member and Investment Ombudsman of the Nordkinn Asset Management hedge fund.

Rosman Jahja is Vice President Sustainability at Trelleborg AB. He is currently in the position of Vice President Sustainability for world leader in polymer engineering Trelleborg Group. Rosman has more than 35 years of experience within sustainability management and reporting, internal communications, PR, publishing, training, consulting and corporate communications. He has former experience from Studentlitteratur Utbildningshuset/Bratt International, Appelberg Publishing Agency, The Swedish National Encyclopedia, Børsens Forlag (Copenhagen) and Liber Förlag.

Rosman Jahja is the author and editor of several books ­– latest example being Vägval för hållbarhet (Decision points for sustainability, Studentlitteratur 2021) – as well as articles and training materials in the fields of sustainability management, corporate social responsibility and change management. 

His educational background is a M.Sc. in Environmental Management and Policy from IIIEE, Lund University, B.Sc in Business Administration and Economics from Uppsala University, and Swedish Armed Forces Language School. Rosman is also a wine lover/expert teaching in Swedish association Munskänkarna’s wine education (specialty areas: Spain, Italy), as well as the singer and bassist in rock band Walking Posterboys since 1984.

Charlotta Szczepanowski is Head of Sustainability and Quality at Coop. She has her base in Stockholm and holds a master of science specialized on polymers. She has also studied communication at Bergs School of Communication. Currently, she is working as head of sustainability and quality at Coop Sweden and also part of Coop Sweden’s management team.

Previously, she has been working as sustainability manager at Riksbyggen (a construction and real estate company) and was part of the management team there as well. She has sustainability knowledge from the logistics industry at Posten Sweden and has also worked at Electrolux mostly with LCA and sustainability communication of Electrolux products (environmental declarations). Charlotta has been chairman on the board for NMC The Swedish Association for Sustainable Business. Currently, she is Vice chairman of the bored at KRAV (a label for environmental food) and a board member of EPD international (environmental product declarations) and Vi-skogen.