Keynote Speakers
Dr Yehya Al-Marzouqi
Executive Director, Strategy , Tawazun Economic Council
Title of talk:
Inspiring innovation
Brief Abstract:
We operate in a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Challenging and Ambiguous; this is our digital world. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has and continue to create both challenges and opportunities for our stability, safety, security and prosperity. Diffusion and clever use of key technologies have already created new competitions in the information and cyber domain in particular, that are forcing academia, governmental entities and industrial communities to focus not only on new capabilities, but also new models of innovation and sustainability. For industry and government , the Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring transformational change and, with it, opportunities for those willing to adopt new, risk – tolerant mentalities that include investment in and partnership with high-tech companies and R&D institutions many of which have adopted new paradigm and operating well outside the traditional norm and framework. The presentation will broadly focuses on the design, development and deployment of new collaborative framework in order to collectively bring about solutions to today’s and future challenges that faces mankind and create a safer and prosperous world for generation to come.
Speaker profile:
Dr Yehya Al Marzouqi is currently with Tawazun in the capacity of Executive Director, Strategy. Before joining Tawazun in 2009, he was with major Oil and Gas Company in Abu Dhabi for over 16 years. Prior to that, he had worked in Resources Centre in a major bank in the USA.
At Tawazun, he has led various people development initiatives such as:
- Leadership Development Program
- Establishment of MBA in Manufacturing Excellence
- Integration of Female Emirati National in manufacturing
- Facilitating the process of articulating vision, mission and values for the organization
- Conducting various people development workshops for senior staff
- Attracting and enticing young Emirati National to pursue their education in STEM-C (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Coding)
- Member of Executive Committee for establishing Business Incubator/Accelerator
Dr Yehya served on the Executive Committee of Tawteen Program and later as a Chairman of the Executive Committee. He currently serves on:
- Board Member of Emirates Post Group
- Member of the Executive Board of UAE University, College of Business and Economy.
- Member of the Board of the Academic Affairs at Zayed University.
- Member of the Evaluation and Assessment Executive Committee of Ministry of Interior’s Quality Award.
- Member of Khalifa Innovation Center Executive Committee.
- Member of the executive judging panel for Federal Authority for Government Human Resources.
He has co-authored articles that were published in the National HRD Journal and American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) publication. Dr Yehya has participated as a keynote speaker in local and international conferences. Dr Yehya has completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the USA and has obtained his Doctorate Degree from the Bradford University in the UK. He can be reached on yalmarzouqi@tawazun.ae
Prof. Jonatan Pinkse
Manchester Business School
Title of talk:
The Paradoxes and tensions in corporate sustainability in an Asian context
Abstract of talk:
This keynote will discuss the topic of paradoxes and tensions in corporate sustainability, applying it to an Asian context. Corporate sustainability is a wide-ranging concept that comprises many underlying issues in the social, environmental and economic field. For companies across the world sustainability is now on their strategic agenda. As it is so wide-ranging, though, what companies mean when they talk about sustainability can vary significantly. Moreover, managing corporate sustainability is far from simple because it involves an understanding and management of so many different social, economic and environmental issues that are often interrelated. Managing an environmental issue, for example, might have unintended consequences for social or economic issues that are equally relevant for a company. If you want to reduce CO2 emissions by buying local products only, you might harm economic development of developing countries that would benefit from global trade. The question therefore becomes what it means to become sustainable as a business when you need to make trade-offs between all kinds of different issues that are all considered to be part of corporate sustainability. In this keynote, various key paradoxes and tensions relevant for Asian companies will be discussed as well as potential ways for managing these tensions.
Speaker profile:
Jonatan Pinkse (PhD, University of Amsterdam) is a professor of strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship at Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. He holds an MSc and PhD from the University of Amsterdam. Before moving to Manchester he held positions at the University of Amsterdam and Grenoble Ecole de Management.
Jonatan has authored more than 30 scholarly and practitioner articles in such journals as Academy of Management Review, Research Policy, California Management Review, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, and Journal of International Business Studies. He has also co-authored the book International Business and Global Climate Change and edited special issues of California Management Review and Business Strategy and the Environment. He currently sits on the editorial board of European Management Journal, Business Strategy and the Environment, and Organization and Environment. Jonatan’s research interests focus on strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship in the areas of corporate sustainability, business responses to climate change, and renewable energy.
Prof. Christopher Cowton
University of Huddersfield
Title of talk:
Doing research in business ethics and corporate social responsibility: challenges and opportunities
Speaker Profile:
Chris Cowton is Professor of Financial Ethics (half-time), a role he assumed on stepping down as Dean at the end of September 2016. At that point, he was the longest-serving Dean of a UK business school, having taken on the role in February 2008, after 12 years as Professor of Accounting at the University. During the period of his leadership, the School doubled its turnover, significantly built its research profile and increased its international activities – winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise (International Trade).
Chris is also a visiting professor at the University of Leeds (UK), the University of Bergamo (Italy) and the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao (Spain).
After graduating with first class honours from the University of Sheffield, Professor Cowton held posts at Aberystwyth and then Cardiff, before teaching for ten years at the University of Oxford. He returned to his native Yorkshire to become Professor of Accounting at the University of Huddersfield in 1996.
Chris has published extensively and is frequently invited to speak to academic and practitioner communities on business ethics, governance and research methods. He is internationally recognised for his contributions to business ethics, especially his pioneering work on financial ethics. In 2013 he was awarded the University of Huddersfield’s first DLitt (Doctor of Letters, a higher doctorate) in recognition of his original and significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge in business and financial ethics.
From 1998 to 2001 he was Chair of EBEN-UK, the UK Association of the European Business Ethics Network, and he chaired the 13th Annual Conference of the European Business Ethics Network in Cambridge in 2000. He was selected to give the P.D. Leake Lecture at Chartered Accountants' Hall, London in May 2007, and for a decade he was Editor of the quarterly international journal Business Ethics: A European Review, published by Wiley-Blackwell. He was a member of the Ethics Standards Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 2009-2018 and has been a trustee of the Institute of Business Ethics since 2017.
During his career Chris has added several qualifications (on a part-time basis) to his first degree. He holds an MScEcon from the University of Wales, an MA (by Special Resolution) from the University of Oxford, a PhD from the University of Sheffield, his DLitt from the University of Huddersfield, and also a Graduate Diploma in Philosophy from the University of York. He is a qualified Chartered Governance Professional/Chartered Secretary (ACIS), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Prof. Edwina Pio
Auckland University of Technology
Title of talk:
Eco-spirituality: Transdisciplinary learnings for organizations
Abstract of talk:
Eco-spirituality or the sacredness of the planet, from an Eastern vantage point will illuminate meaningful entwined relationships between humans, the fragile earth and organizations. Eco-spirituality is focused on the spiritual connections between human beings, flora and fauna and the whole Earth and is premised on a dynamic relational view of our inner and outer landscapes. Transdisciplinary learnings seek to recast pedagogical and organizational practices through shape-shifting which affirms earth-friendly rationally compassionate strategies and actions.
Speaker profile:
Edwina Pio is University Director of Diversity, in a position annexed to her substantive role as professor in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law. She is New Zealand’s first Professor of Diversity, a Fulbright alumnus and recipient of a Duke of Edinburgh fellowship. Edwina is a thought leader and knowledgeable interpreter in the area of diversity in business, communities and education and her passion for interdisciplinary scholarship encompass the intersections of work, ethnicity, religion and pedagogy. Edwina has a PhD in Buddhist Psychology, a Master’s degree in Psychology, and a double Bachelor’s degree – one in Psychology and the other in Education. She is widely published and travels extensively to Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and interacts with diverse audiences in the academic, business and social sector.
Her accolades include Visiting Professor at Boston College, USA; research fellowship at Jonkoping International Business School, Sweden; Visiting Academic at Cambridge University, UK; Fellow of the New Zealand India Research Institute, New Zealand and Co-Director of the Global Centre for Equality and Human Rights, UK. Edwina leads the research group Immigration & Inclusion under the auspices of the New Zealand Work Research Institute. She is a member of her University’s Post Graduate Board; the Business, Economics and Law PhD/MPhil Committee; the Migration Integration Group, and the Gender and Diversity Research Group; and chairs the Spirituality Steering Committee. She has been on the Board of the Australia New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM), and Chair of their Education committee, and also served as a Board member of Home & Family Counselling, and Mixit, both in the civil society sector. In addition, she works closely with the Human Rights Commission and Office of Ethnic Communities. She is a registered counsellor and assists women and children experiencing domestic violence.
She has received media attention for her role as an ethnic minority educator and researcher, and has been interviewed and featured on New Zealand TV, Maori TV, BBC radio, RadioNZ, the New Zealand Herald and New Zealand Management. She has won awards at the Academy of Management and the Society for Global Business and Economic Development. In 2008 her book “Sari: Indian women at work in New Zealand” was released by Hon. John Key, the firner Prime Minister of New Zealand. In 2010 her book "Longing & Belonging" was released at Te Papa Wellington on Race Relations Day by the Office of Ethnic Communities and the Human Rights Commission. In 2014 her book “Work & Worship” was released by the Race Relations Commissioner.
