Institute for Responsible Leadership
The Institute for Responsible Leadership (IRL) Principles
– Formed to promote leadership integrity resonant with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/Sustainability in the public and private sector
– Offer courses/seminars, mentoring, coaching and consultancy in responsible leadership: see a recent leadership presentation at the London Business School: csrfi.com/…/CSR-Meet-Up-3rd-Oct-2018-Humanising-the-Professions-Professor-Mike-Saks.pdf
– Provide high quality IRL input and facilitation though founding members and senior associates
– Honour and publicise key examples of responsible leadership through the award of Fellowships of IRL
– Promote the Annual Charter for Companies
What is Responsible Leadership?
The importance of being a Responsible Leader is easily said but difficult to define. The Financial Times describes a responsible leader as a `CEO who has excellent relationships with his/her main stakeholders especially shareholders`. More precisely the IRL follows the CSR/Sustainability definitions developed by one of our founding members Professor Michael Hopkins – see Hopkins-CSR/Sustainability-Model (H-CSR-M).
Responsible leaders can therefore be seen as follows:
Responsible leaders in both the private and public sector treat stakeholders with integrity to ensure that issues of sustainability, ethics and the wider public interest are best addressed.
This is consistent with the goals of corporate social responsibility where the interest of clients, directors, employees, suppliers, the environment, the community, citizens and future generations are variously taken into account.
IRL Seminars on Responsible Leadership
The Institute of Responsible Leadership (IRL) in conjunction with CSRfi and the United Nations Institute for Teaching and Research (UNITAR) holds regular seminars and workshops. Further announcements will be added to this website.
The Founding Members are:
Professor Mike Saks
Professor Mike Saks is Emeritus Professor at the University of Suffolk and Visiting Professor at the University of Lincoln, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Plymouth Marjon University, and the University of Toronto, Canada. He received his doctorate in Sociology at the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, the Institute of Knowledge Exchange, the Research Council of Complementary Medicine and the Royal Society of Arts. He was Provost and Chief Executive at University Campus Suffolk (UCS), Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln and Dean of Faculty of Health and Community Studies at De Montfort University – after contributing to the Schools of Business, Law, Public Administration and Social Sciences there. He is currently a member of the Board at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in London, having previously been on the Executive of the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia, which owned UCS. He has published extensively on professions, enterprise and regulation with seventeen books, the latest of which include The Professions, State and the Market (2015), Professions and Metaphors (2016), Professions and Professional Service Firms (2018) and Professional Health Regulation in the Public Interest (2018). He has a strong enterprise profile in the private and public sectors. In the UK, he is a member of the Innovation Council, along with CEOs of major multinational corporations and has been a chair/member of many National Health Service committees. Internationally, he has conducted large-scale funded research projects and advised governments and professional bodies, as well as chairing two significant charities. He was recently President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Professional Groups, with members from over thirty countries, and is currently a senior adviser on leadership to the United Nations.
Michael Eldon
Mike Eldon is Chairman of the Council of KCA University, and is a non-executive director of an insurance company, of one in the water and energy sectors, and of AFIDEP (the African Institute for Policy Development), a think tank that supports the actualisation of the Demographic Dividend. Mike is an economics graduate of University College London and a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School. He entered the IT field in 1967, arriving in Kenya in 1977 to become general manager of a multinational computer company, and he has lived there ever since. He was a pioneer in the development of the use of IT in Kenya, and was deeply involved with the development of Kenya’s first national ICT policy.He is a Senior Leadership Adviser to the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and has been a faculty member in transformative leadership for the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications in their joint programme with the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Global Partner of the World Bank’s Collaborative Leadership for Development initiative, and runs high level workshops on leadership in Kenya and beyond, as well as being an executive coach. He was a founding director and vice-chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kenya’s private sector umbrella body), where he is now a member of the Advisory Council. Since 2007 he has been writing a column for Business Daily, having now published over 300 articles, and his 2009 book Kenyans, Yes we Can! is a collection of his articles and speeches.
Professor Michael Hopkins
Professor Michael Hopkins (pictured with President Uhuru, Kenya) is both an academic and a businessman, as well as a widely published author on CSR and Sustainability. He has worked for IBM, ITT, BAT and others in the Corporate sector, the United Nations (ILO in Geneva for 13 years as senior economist), advises UEFA on CSR,and been an academic (IDS, University of Sussex, UK). He has held a number of Professorships (Middlesex, Brunel, Geneva and George Mason Universities). Currently he is Professor and Director of Doctoral programmes on CSR at Geneva Business School, Adjunct Professor of CSR at both George Mason University, Virginia, USA and the Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi. In 2013 Michael was nominated one of the world’s top 100 thought leaders and in 2014 received for his work on CSR and employment a lifetime achievement award from Delhi University and then an Honorary Doctorate from London Metropolitan University. His fourteenth book appeared in Jan 2016: CSR and Sustainability – From the Margins to the Mainstream A Text Book (Taylor and Francis, UK, 2016). Videos and references can be found on http://csrfi.com/?page_id=1620 – for instance a short video on What is CSR all about
Julie Search-Whittaker
Our convenor and coordinator Julie Search-Whittaker BEd (Hons), MA focuses on change management and introducing innovative changes. She has been actively involved with quality enhancement and partnership work in a range of contexts, including a variety of UK Colleges and most recently at Pearson Education in London that serves students and corporations worldwide. Throughout her career she has led on a range of community projects and wider strategic agendas. Her previous positions from Head of Department to Head of Faculty have involved her leading on government projects, chairing anti-racism initiatives and acting as a Trustee of a Community Learning Group where she engaged in event planning.
Future Prospective Seminars/Workshops
We are currently preparing our programme for 2019 and details will be announced shortly and will cover, inter alia:
-Responsible leadership in the contemporary context
-Responsible Leadership in conflict situations
-Responsible Leadership in crisis situations
-Responsible Leadership and ethics
-Responsible Leadership in situations of failure
-Responsible Leadership and corruption
-Responsible Leadership in a discriminatory society
-Bespoke programmes for particular organisations on request to: julie.18search@btinternet.com
Certification
Certified by the Institute for Responsible Leadership and the Corporate Social Responsibility Financial Institute (CSRfi).
More Information
For more information please contact julie.18search@btinternet.com – mobile (+44) (0)7790 811173.
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Institute for Responsible Leadership: Honoured Fellows
Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas is Leader of the International Governance Initiative of the Order of St Lazarus and President of the Institute of Management Services, has helped directors in over 40 countries to improve director, board and corporate performance. An experienced director, board chair and process vision holder of complex and mission critical transformation programmes, he is the Director-General for the UK and Europe of India’s Institute of Directors, Chancellor of the School for the Creative Arts and chair of United Learning’s group Risk and Audit Committee. He is also the author of over 60 books and reports, well over 1,000 articles, and theme papers for five annual international conferences for business leaders held in Dubai, India, Singapore and the UK.
Colin has held various public appointments at national, regional and local level, and has had professorial roles in Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, India and China and been a Dean of Faculty and head of a university campus and chairman and/or president of professional bodies and think tanks. His current academic appointments include being a Distinguished Professor at the Sri Sharada Institute of Indian Management-Research, an Honorary Professor at the Aston India Centre for Applied Research and Visiting Professor of Direction and Leadership at Lincoln International Business School.
Colin was educated at the London School of Economics, the London Business School, UNISA and the Universities of Aston, Chicago and Southern California, Colin holds honorary fellowships of professional associations in both the UK and India. He is a fellow of seven chartered bodies and obtained first place prizes in the final exams of three professions. Colin received the CSR Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 CSR Leadership Summit.
