Principal, Project Catalyst

Simon is currently Principal of Project Catalyst, an initiative by the United Nations Development Program designed to address systemic opportunities to meet the 2030 Agenda, Senior Advisor to UN Environment on sustainable finance, and Visiting Professor at Singapore Management University. He was until recently Senior Advisor on Finance in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, and Co-Director of the UN Environment’s Inquiry into Design Options for a Sustainable Financial System. He is on the Advisory Board of the leading sustainability investment fund, Generation Investment Management.

Previous roles include Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford, Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management in Beijing, Senior Fellow at the Institute and the International Institute of Sustainable Development, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Academy of Business inSociety, Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum, Senior Fellow at the Global Green Growth Institute, Senior Visiting Fellow at Harvard`s JK Kennedy School of Government, Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Visiting Professor, Copenhagen Business School, and Honorary Professor at the University of Southern Africa.

He founded and was until 2009 Chief Executive of the international think tank, AccountAbility, and before that was Development Director of the New Economics Foundation. His book, ‘The Civil Corporation’, was awarded the Academy of Management’s prestigious Best Book on Social Issues in Management, and his Harvard Business Review article, ‘Paths to Corporate Responsibility’ is widely used as a reference point in understanding emergent sustainability strategies.