Rodney Irwin
Doctor of Business Administration (Cum Laude)
Academic Director of WBCSD Leadership Program
Managing Director Redefining Value
World Business Council for Sustainable Development: Geneva, Switzerland
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E-Mail: irwin@wbcsd.org
Homepage: www.wbcsd.org
Profile
Mr. Rodney Irwin is Chief Operating Officer (COO) and a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Rodney is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and member of the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland.
As COO, Rodney provides leadership of WBCSD’s enabling functions (Finance, HR, ICT and Facilities)
and fundraising, and is responsible for WBCSD’s corporate governance and statutory duties as the
Company Secretary. He also leads the WBCSD Education program, for which he manages the
organization’s relationships with key education partners including Yale University, the Institute for
Management Development (IMD) and the Global Network for Advanced Management. Prior to his
current role, he led WBCSD’s Redefining Value program for nine years.
Rodney holds a BS in Economics from Queen’s University Belfast, an MS in Management from Birmingham City University, and a doctorate degree in comparative corporate governance, ethical decision making and reporting from ISM Paris. He has also completed the Masters in Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University.
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Rodney holds the following Advisory and Academic positions:
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Council Member: International Integrated
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Reporting Council (IIRC)
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Professor of Accounting and Sustainability:
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Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany
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Lecturer: Yale School of Management
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Research Fellow: Lancaster University
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Management School.
Research
Selected publications
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Irwin, R (2012) – An investigation into how the transport suppliers employed by multinational companies contributes to the spread of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa (www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/research-recommends-how-to-tackle-spread-of-hivaids-by-african-truckers#sthash.zaRWNTHi.dpuf) Cambridge University
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WBCSD Publication (Supervisory or Principal Author): All studies and publications conducted using WBCSD sourced data are required to be published as WBCSD per my contract of employment
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Sustainability and Enterprise Risk Management: the first step towards integration (January 2017) (www.wbcsd.org/Projects/Non-financial-Measurement-and-Valuation/Resources/Sustainability-and-enterprise-risk-management-The-first-step-towards-integration)
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Reporting Matters: Communicating the Sustainability Development Goal’s (October 2016) (www.wbcsd.org/Projects/Reporting/Resources/Reporting-Matters-2016)
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Generating Value from External Assurance of Sustainability Reporting (January 2016) (www.wbcsd.org/Projects/Reporting/Resources/Generating-Value-from-External-Assurance-of-Sustainability-Reporting)
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Social Capital in Decision Making (October 2015) (www.wbcsd.org/documents/social-capital-in-decision-making-how-social-information-drives-value-creation.aspx)
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Towards a Social Capital Protocol: A Call for Collaboration (2015) (www.wbcsd.org/Projects/Non-financial-Measurement-and-Valuation/Resources/Towards-a-Social-Capital-Protocol-A-Call-for-Collaboration)
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SDG Compass – Guide for Business on the Sustainable Development Goals (September 2015) – (www.sdgcompass.org/download-guide/)
His research is applied research that focuses on the use of mainstream management accounting and control systems to strategically support and implement sustainable outcomes within businesses and has published or supervised publication on risk management, internal control, assurance on sustainability information. He is the principal author of the WBCSD’s Annual “Reporting Matters” research and publication on the effectiveness of non-financial reporting.