ESG-in-Action roundtable participants at The Richard Ivey Building.
In their 1981 hit song, Under Pressure, David Bowie and Queen captured a universal feeling about an inescapable force that bears down on everyone in some capacity. For business leaders who are constantly expected to perform and excel, pressure is ever-present. Among the myriad of trials facing modern executives, few exert more pressure than the complexities of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG).
To prepare HBA2 students to navigate the challenges and opportunities of ESG, Ivey created a pioneering course, Purpose, Character, ESG, and the Future of Work, that launched on a one-time basis earlier this year. Dubbed “ESG-in-Action,” the course honed students’ leadership skills by putting them face-to-face with real-world ESG challenges. At the heart of the curriculum was a bold, new Ivey-developed approach built around one powerful idea: purpose.
When ESG meets purpose
Co-championed by Ivey’s Centre for Building Sustainable Value (BSV) and the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership (Ihnatowycz Institute), the five-week course gave students real-time direct contact with leading practitioners.
“Our vision was to empower students to navigate the rapidly changing ESG landscape from the first-person lived perspective of leaders staying their course to purpose, despite the polarization and politicization of ESG in North America,” said Oana Branzei, Paul MacPherson Chair of Strategic Leadership, who designed and directed the immersive offering.
And there was certainly no shortage of exceptional and diverse leaders for students to engage.
Students interacted with multiple influential figures, including international best-selling author Philippa White, HBA ’01; top one per cent most cited thought leader, Dovev Lavie; Vice-president Strategy and Business Transformation at BMO Capital Markets, Jemi Onyejiaka, MBA ’23; Head of Corporate Sustainability at Raymond James, Eric Saarvala, EMBA ’17; Chair of Social Capital Partners, Jon Shell, MBA ’03; and Marc Ouellette, President of the SOCAN Board of Directors.
Unlike other courses with high-profile guest speakers, ESG-in-Action strayed from polished presentations and embraced both professional and personal reflections. Guest speakers revealed how they lead with purpose when navigating complex societal challenges - emphasizing the course's purpose-centric learning method, which empowers students to examine their core values, beliefs, and motivations.
“ESG-in-Action focused not only on what leaders do to implement ESG strategies, but on who leaders need to be – their purpose and character – to be able to tackle the tensions and tradeoffs of ESG,” said Dusya Vera, PhD ’02, Executive Director of Ihnatowycz Institute, and Ian O. Ihnatowycz Chair in Leadership, who co-led the course.
A seat at the roundtable
In addition to engaging with guest speakers, students were among the first to explore outcomes and the format of three North Atlantic Roundtables hosted earlier this year by the Ihnatowycz Institute and The Long Run Institute. The roundtables brought together executives from diverse industries to examine the intersection of character leadership and purpose for ESG and the future of work (see Roundtables Synopsis).
Building on these insights, students were invited to scope, plan, and execute a fourth roundtable focused on the aspirations of students currently enrolled in Ivey programs about sustainability education. This initiative culminated in the creation of an Ivey report documenting what works, or doesn’t work, for the next generation of leaders, enabling students to shape the future of ESG and sustainability education.
“This marked a historic moment for Ivey, as it emboldened HBA students – our youngest cohort – to take the lead in defining how ESG will be embedded within all our programs,” said Branzei.
Finding your voice
Branzei and Vera co-developed the course to give students a comprehensive understanding of the ESG landscape, carefully curating content and bringing in purpose-driven speakers who championed ESG while also critically addressing the growing backlash against it.
“ESG is a very polarizing issue in modern business,” said Vera. “To prepare our students for both the pressure and potential criticism they may face, we needed to feature the diversity of perspectives today’s leaders encounter and coach students on how to activate and balance their character dimensions, so they can hone their purpose through their courage, temperance, humility, justice, and integrity, for example.”
While establishing a strong foundation in ESG, the course centred on helping students know when and how to speak up for what matters to them, while mastering the calm and open-mindedness to listen to opposing views and demonstrating consideration for others’ positions – a critical, yet overlooked, skill.
Keep calm and debate on
To put this to test, the course concluded with a live debate with 40-year Wall Street veteran and prominent ESG critic, Paul Tice, author of The Race to Zero: How ESG Investing will Crater the Global Financial System and Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.
Moderated by Ivey alum and international debate champion, Dr. Neilank K. Jha, Executive Chairman and CEO of Neuraseed BCI, the debate allowed students to thoughtfully and respectfully challenge Tice’s controversial views, including his core argument that ESG destabilizes the financial system, his denial of climate change, and his advocacy of fossil fuels.
Appreciating the chance to experience and discuss divergent perspectives, student feedback called it one of the most intense classroom experiences of their academic journey. Students particularly appreciated learning how to practice high-stakes discourse by acknowledging others’ views while standing for their own beliefs – a crucial leadership skill in a post-climate change world.
Beyond ESG-in-Action
Although a one-time initiative, positive student feedback from ESG-in-Action has inspired the creation of additional offerings aiming to equip students with the skills to navigate an unpredictable business landscape.
“Ivey’s certificates and diplomas underscore learning in action. Interactions between Ivey alumni leading their fields of practice and global thought leaders model the vital role of imagination, exploration, and conversation in making the future we hope for,” said Branzei.
Vera and Branzei share a conviction that “both/and” solutions to critical issues emerge through deep collaboration among leaders holding diverse and often divergent perspectives.
Stay tuned for “Purpose 3.0,” an exciting collaboration between Branzei, Vera, and HBA students Kirsten Swatuk (’24) and Shirley Zhong (’25), who completed Undergraduate Summer Research Internships (USRI) under their supervision. A new Ivey signature framework, Purpose 3.0 lays the groundwork for a full-term course on “Purpose-driven Leadership,” to be taught by Professor Branzei as part of the upcoming Western Leadership Certificate. Powered by Ivey and led by the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, the course is set to launch in Fall 2025.
