simon zadek

Simon Zadek works on sustainability issues worldwide and is an independent advisor and author. Simon is currently based in Beijing, where his policy work is focused on how to embed sustainability into China’s financial market reform program, greening China’s outward investment, and advancing green public procurement and low-carbon business in China’s eco-industrial parks. He is working with the Development Research Centre of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Commerce. He is a Senior Fellow at the recently established Global Green Growth Institute; an advisor on sustainability to the World Economic Forum focused on climate finance and sustainable consumption; an Honorary Professor at the University of South Africa; and an Associate Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Sustainable Development. He is a former Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
From 2006-2011 he was non-resident Senior Fellow at the Centre for and Business and Government of Harvard University’s Kennedy School. He founded, and was until December 2009, Chief Executive of AccountAbility, where he established the organisation’s global leadership in sustainability standards, collaborative governance and responsible competitiveness. Prior to this, he was the founding Chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative and a Director at the prestigious New Economics Foundation.

Simon sits on the International Advisory Board of the Brazilian business network, Instituto Ethos; the Advisory Board of the sustainability fund manager, Generation Investment Management; and the Boards of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and the Employers’ Forum on Disability. In 2003 he was named a World Economic Forum ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’.

Simon’s advisory portfolio includes governments, international agencies, businesses and non-profit institutions.


His work has included:

  • Redesigning business: supporting leading companies such as Alcoa, AngloGold Ashanti, Bank Itau, Dow, IntelChina, Maersk, Nestle, Shell, and Nike in the alignment of sustainability practices and business strategies, supported through top-team mentoring, performance-based stakeholder engagement and co-design, and research and analysis.
  • Mediating sustainability: facilitating, mediating and convening to drive collaboration between business, civil society and governments, including being the founding Chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative, the founding Convenor of the apparel focused MFA Forum, and company-specific engagements such as with The Coca Cola Company and General Electric.
  • Progressive policy: working with governments from China to Saudi Arabia to South Africa to deepen their knowledge and attention to responsible competitiveness in policies catalyzing national competitiveness. Recent projects include: working with China’s Development Research Centre of the State Council on Chinese investments in Africa; leading a team examining the contribution of ICT in supporting China in meeting its energy and carbon intensity targets; engagement with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in work on the China-Africa relationship; and leading a team on the South African Government’s South African Renewables Initiative.
  • International initiatives: supporting international institutions and initiatives through advice and expert panel contributions to the UN Global Compact, the State of the World’s Commission for Globalisation, the ILO’s World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalisation, and the UN Commission for Social Development.
  • Collaborative climate management: contributing to the on-going global climate negotiations with policy research focused on business and adaptation, institutional design and low carbon growth planning, engaged most recently through including international climate policy platform, Project Catalyst, involving McKinsey and the ClimateWorks Foundation.
  • Shaping narrative: contributing in shaping thinking and practice of responsible business, including Harvard Business Review article, Paths to Corporate Responsibility, Harvard International Review article, Responsible Competitiveness, and The Civil Corporation, acknowledged as a classic in the field with a prestigious Award from the Academy of Management. Some of his work is summarised in, Tomorrow’s History.
  • Academic contributions: through his academic writings and his current roles at Harvard University and the University of South Africa and previous roles as Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School and as Visiting Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, as well as contributing to numerous student initiatives and events including through Net Impact and AISEC. His PhD, entitled “The Economics of Utopia: the Democratisation of Scarcity”, was published in 1992.
  • Media communications: including the Financial Times and other leading international journals, and recently on climate change with Brazilian media giant, Globo, and China’s leading English-speaking television station, CCTV9 on Chinese investments in Africa.

Recent Advisory Assignments (Corporate) Include:

  • Alcoa: On-going leadership of engagement in developing sustainability strategy, public reporting, building and chairing high-level expert review panel, and most recently working with senior leadership team of Alcoa Latin America in shaping continent wide and site-specific sustainablity strategies and practices.
  • AngloGold Ashanti: Leadership in engagement with corporate leadership team in driving sustainability strategy, alignment of public sustainability reporting with internal risk management and corporate governance and stock exchange listing requirements, and related development of internal systems and competencies.
  • Dow Latin America: Leadership in developing a co-design approach to driving forward product development and market access in the areas of water purification, building materials, and plastics recycling through the development of collaborative arrangements with community and environmental organisations, and public institutions.
  • General Electric: On-going leadership of a five year engagement with GE’s corporate citizenship team that has covered strategic alignment and design of sustainability approach, development of associated public reporting and stakeholder-based assurance, policy development in complex areas such as human rights based on stakeholder engagement, building and chairing high-level external panel of experts to advise on policy and strategy.
  • IntelChina: On-going leadership in providing strategic advise on developing credible and acknowledged leadership in sustainability actions in China, with focus on the role of ICT in supporting the realisation of China’s low carbon intensity targets.
  • Maersk: Led in catalyzing the company’s first integrated sustainability initiative under its then new Chief Executive, mapping practice, building a corporate and core-divisional case, and leading senior executive leadership sessions.
  • Nike: On-going advise to senior leadership team now in its second decade, beginning during the company’s most difficult period in the late 1990s, and extending to its current leadership role in addressing labour standards and in taking sustainability into the business innovation space.

Recent Advisory Assignments (Public) Include:

  • China-Africa Trade and Investment: Leading on-going engagement with the Development Research Centre of the State Council in exploring senior Chinese business leaders perspectives on their company’s activities in China, both now and into the future. Launch of initial work at key events in Beijing, Washington (World Bank) and Harvard with unique coverage on China’s CCTV9 TV channel.
  • South Africa’s Low Carbon Economic Policy: Leading on a multi-phase research initiative with the South Africa Ministry of Trade and Industry into how best to align South Africa’s climate policy with its industrial and economic policies. Focus on the merits and options for establishing international co-operation to support South Africa’s renewable feed-in tariff, linked to a renewables obligation for high-carbon intensity export industries facing potential trade constraints.
  • China’s Sustainable Trade: Contributed to a Chinese-led, multi-agency policy initiative to establish the basis for a long-term, sustainable trade strategy for China. Contribution focused on the place of sustainability practices in the competitiveness of Chinese businesses in global markets, and in particular strategic options for business and public policy.
  • Saudi Arabia’s Competitiveness: Led in establishing with the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority the Saudi Arabian Responsible Competitiveness Initiative with the aim of enhancing the nation’s competitiveness through improved corporate sustainability practices and outcomes, involving the development of a unique company-level assessment tool linked to high-profile recognition at the annual Global Competitiveness Forum.

Authored and Co-authored Publications

  • Zadek, Simon (2009) Global Governance: Clues from the Front Line, Paper presented as Keynote to European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) Annual Symposium, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Zadek, Simon and Alex McGillivray (2009) Responsible Competitiveness: the Global Agenda, Saudi Arabian Responsible Competitiveness Index: 13-21, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, Ryiadh.
  • Zadek, Simon (2008) More is Not Enough, in Shaping Up: Scaling Up Voluntary Standards: 8-10, Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development, Bonn.
  • Zadek, Simon (2006) Corporate Responsibility and Competitiveness at the Macro Level, Corporate Governance: Vol 6, No 4., 2006: 334-348
  • Zadek, Simon with assistance from Peter Raynard (2006) Tomorrow’s History: Selected Writings of Simon Zadek: 1994-2003, Earthscan, London
  • Zadek, Simon (2004) Paths to Corporate Responsibility, Harvard Business Review, December 2004
  • Zadek, Simon and Susan Scott-Parker (2003) Unlocking Potential: the New Disability Business Case, Employers Forum on Disability, London
  • Zadek, Simon (2002) An Economics of Utopia: the Democratisation of Scarcity, Avebury, Aldershot

  • Edwards, Mike and Simon Zadek (2002) “Governing the Provision of Global Public Goods: the Role and Legitimacy of Non-State Actors”, in Inge Kaul et al, Providing Global Public Goods, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 200-224
  • MacIntosh, Malcolm and Simon Zadek (guest editors) (2002) “Corporate Governance, Accountability and Transparency”, Journal of Corporate Citizenship
  • Zadek, Simon (2001) Endearing Myths, Enduring Truths: Enabling Partnerships Between Business, Civil Society and the Public Sector, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
  • Zadek, Simon and Peter Raynard (2001) The Digital Divide, Occasional Paper, British Telecommunications, London
  • Zadek, Simon (2000) Ethical Trade Futures, New Economics Foundation, London
  • Zadek, Simon (2000) Doing Well By Doing Good, Conference Board, New York
  • Zadek, Simon (2000) “Can Corporations be Civil?”, in D. Lewis and T. Wallace (eds) New Roles and Relevance: Development NGOs and the Challenge of Change, Kumarian Press, Harts
  • Zadek, Simon (2000) “Towards Civil Corporations?” in J. Wieland (ed) (2000) Dezentralisierung und Weltweite Kooperationen, Metropolis, Marburg: 27-54
  • Zadek, Simon, Niels Højensgård and Peter Raynard (editors) (2000), Perspectives on the New Economy of Corporate Citizenship, The Copenhagen Centre, Copenhagen
  • Tuppen, Chris and Simon Zadek (2000) Adding Values: the Economics of Sustainable Businesses, Occasional Paper, British Telecommunications, London
  • Zadek, Simon (1999) Looking Back from 2050, European Review of Business Ethics July
  • Zadek, Simon (1999), < a href="http://www.zadek.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Zadek_Stalking-Sustainability_1999.pdf" target="_blank">Stalking Sustainability, Greener Management International 261 Winter 1999: 1-12
  • Zadek, Simon and Maya Forstater (1999) “Making Civil Regulation Work” (with M Forstater) in M Addo (editor) (1999) Human Rights Standards and the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations, Kluwer, Hague: 69-75
  • Zadek, Simon (1998) “Trade Fair”, in I. Christie and L. Nash (editors) (1998) The Good Life, Demos, London: 128-132
  • Zadek, Simon (1998) “Det Internationale Perspektiv”, in K. Boelsgaard (editor) (1998) Etik I Dansk Erhvervsliv – Fremtidens Lederkrav, Jyllands-Postens Erhversbogklub, Sønderhøj: 34-43
  • Zadek, Simon, Sanjiv Lingavah and Sarah Murphy (1998) Purchasing Power: Civil Action for Sustainable Consumption, New Economics Foundation, London
  • Blauert, Jutta and Simon Zadek (editors) (1998) Mediating Sustainability from the Grassroots, Kumarian, Hartford
  • Zadek, Simon (1998) Civil Action, Consumption, and Sustainable Development, (Guest Editor with W. Harcourt), Development, Journal of the Society of International Development, Sage Publishing, London
  • Zadek, Simon (1997) “Towards a Progressive Buddhist Economics”, in J. Watts, A. Senauke, and S. Bhikku (editors) (1997) Entering the Realm of Reality: Twoards Dharmmic Societies, International Network of Engaged Buddhists, Bangkok: 241-273
  • Zadek, Simon (1997) “Socially Responsible and Accountable Enterprise”, Journal of Human Values 3, 1997, 59-79. Also available in modified form in Conditions for Social Progress: A World Economy for All: 1996 Copenhagen Seminar for Social Progress, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1977 179-198
  • Zadek, Simon, Maggie Burns and Maya Forstater (1997) Open Trading: Options for Effective Monitoring of Corporate Performance, New Economics Foundation/Catholic Institute of International Relations, London
  • Zadek, Simon, Peter Pruzan and Richard Evans (editors) (1997) Building Corporate Accountability: Emerging Practices in Social and Ethical Accounting and Auditing, Earthscan, London
  • Zadek, Simon (1996) “Looking Back from 2010” in D. Sogge (1996), Compassion & Calculation: the Business of Private Foreign Aid, Pluto Press, London: 24-35. Also published in Spanish in D Sogge (ed) Compasión y Cálculo “Mirando Hacia Atrás Desda el 2010”, Icaria, Barcelona: 49-63
  • Zadek, Simon and David Sogge (1996) “Laws of the Market”, in D. Sogge (1996), Compassion & Calculation: the Business of Private Foreign Aid, Pluto Press, London: 68-96. Also published in Spanish in D Sogge (ed) Compasión y Cálculo “Leyes del Mercado?”, Icaria, Barcelona: 103-138
  • Zadek, Simon and Pauline Tiffen (1996) “Fair Trade: Business or Campaign”, Development, Autumn 1996: 3: 48-53
  • Zadek, Simon and Murdoch Gatwood (1996) “Transforming the Transnational NGOs: Social Auditing or Bust ?”, in Edwards and Hulme (1996), Non-Governmental Organisations – Performance and Accountability, Earthscan, London:193-206
  • Zadek, Simon and Christian Haas (1996) “Perjudica el Crecimiento Economico al Medio Ambiente Crítica a la Curva de Kuznets”, Economíca Informa, Numero 253 Diciembre de 1996/Enero de 1997: 6-11
  • Zadek, Simon and Alex McGillivray (1996) Accounting for Sustainability: Indicators for Sustainable Development, New Economics Foundation, London
  • Zadek, Simon, Diana Ferguson, Christian Haas, and Peter Raynard (1996) Dangerous Curves: Does the Environment Improve with Economic Growth ?, World Wide Fund for Nature, Gland
  • Pearce, John, Peter Raynard and Simon Zadek (1996) The Social Audit Workbook Social Auditing for Small Organisations, New Economics Foundation, London
  • Zadek, Simon (1995) Dangerous Trading: Trade and Growth Pose a Threat to the Environment Unless Care is Taken, in New Economy, Summer 1995: 142-146
  • Zadek, Simon (1994) “A Matter of Need”, Environmental Values, Vol 3 Number . 83-85
  • Zadek, Simon (1994) “Trading Ethics: Auditing the Market,” Journal of Economic Issues, Vol XXVIII No 2 June 1994:631-645
  • Zadek, Simon and Susan Szabo (1994) Valuing Organisation: The Case of Sarvodaya, New Economics Foundation, London
  • Zadek, Simon (1993) “The Practice of Buddhist Economics”, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 52.4 (1993): 433


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