an invitation to join

The Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme

Senior Executive’s Seminars

The Prince of Wales commissioned the University of Cambridge to develop and maintain a Programme which brings together business leaders and key public sector and civil society figures to understand and develop strategic responses to the sustainability challenges facing business and society. Now in its seventeenth year, the Programme runs annual senior executives seminars in Cambridge, Brussels, Atlanta, Cape Town and Sydney. The programme has an influential alumni network of over 1700 senior figures drawn from over 40 countries, and 400 organisations and holds a number of high profile alumni activities, such as our 2010 London Lecture by Jeff Immelt.

Aim

The aim of the senior executives’ seminars, which are run on a not for profit basis, is to help senior leaders understand the scale of change required to address the sustainability challenges that society faces, to give them insight into innovative new approaches and responses, and to inspire them to take action. Key themes for the seminar include:

• Confronting global trends and challenges: energy and natural resource security, cities, consumption, emerging economies, supply chains, finance and investment.
• Opportunities in the marketplace: innovation in products, processes and markets and engagement with customers, employees, investors, and policy makers.
• Shaping the global economy: creating the context for long-term sustainable business - driving policy and markets for a low carbon economy
• Individual leadership and collaboration: working with key groups internally and externally to embed change at an individual, organisational and industry level.

Benefits

Attending the Senior Executives’ Seminar will enable delegates to:

•  Gain a better understanding of the social, political and environmental context in which you operate and be better equipped to anticipate future trends and opportunities
•  Reassess current business models to take account of sustainable development issues and leverage innovation created by prime movers in this field
•  Identify strategic priorities for your own organisation to ensure its long term sustainability and gain insight, inspiration, new ideas, relationships and resources to support your future action
•  Join a valuable network consisting of a richly diverse group of senior leaders from business, government and civil society

2012 seminars:

Cape Town seminar 11-14 March 2012

Cambridge seminar 16-19 April 2012

US seminar April/May 2012 (tbc)

European seminar November 2012 (tbc)

Joining the Programme

Approximately 40 participants are accepted from those nominated (usually by senior colleagues) to attend one of the six seminars around the world. Delegates are predominantly from business but around one third of places are reserved for senior representatives from the public sector and NGOs. Business delegates are typically CEOs, COOs, CFOs, Senior VPs, VPs, General Managers and heads of major departments. Nominations are vetted by the selection committee to achieve a balance between industry sectors and between business, government and NGOs.

The seminars are not designed for sustainable development or CSR specialists, who are, however, welcome on other programmes run by the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership.

The normal fee for attending a Seminar is £3,950 per person and includes learning materials, accommodation and meals. A very limited number of scholarships are available to support the participation of delegates from developing economies or from NGOs who would otherwise be unable to participate.

The application form is online at www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk/bsp. Applicants should complete the form and submit it to Eline Loux at the GRLI office (eline.loux@grli.org). The GRLI office will confirm that the application is from a qualified GRLI academic partner organisation in good standing and manage the process of allocating space at each seminar in the event that the demand exceeds the available slots. Priority will normally be given on a first-come basis but consideration will be given to achieving a spread of participants from multiple institutions. Thereafter the applicant will receive a notification of acceptance to the programme.

For further details on the programme itself please contact:

Lindsay Hooper | Executive Director |  +44 1223 768834 | Lindsay.hooper@cpsl.cam.ac.uk

Eline Loux | GRLI Coordinator | +32 2 629 0810 | eline.loux@grli.org

Programme Sponsors