Keynotes
We are pleased to confirm the following keynotes for the BAM2021 Virtual Conference:
Wednesday 1st September
‘Leadership lessons from Covid - working with the complexity of a rapidly evolving environment
Dr David Nabarro, Special Envoy for COVID-19, World Health Organisation and John Atkinson
Covid-19 brought an unstable and rapidly unfolding situation. Normal crisis responses were found wanting as the outbreak became a pandemic and impacted widely across society. Organisational leadership in every sector has been challenged by this shift in the global environment. Leaders that have adapted quickly to this situation have exhibited ‘living systems leadership’ through treating their organisations as ecosystems operating in symbiosis with a changing external and internal environment. What is meant by ‘living systems leadership’ will be expanded by drawing on vignettes from David and John’s experience of working with the rapidly evolving circumstances of Covid. These will be linked to shape a projection for how leadership might become more effective for the future.
Dr David Nabarro
David Nabarro is the Co-Director of the Imperial College Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College London and supports systems leadership for sustainable development through his Switzerland based social enterprise 4SD. From March 2020, David is appointed Special Envoy of WHO Director General on COVID-19. He is also Senior Advisor to the Food Systems Summit Dialogues. David secured his medical qualification in 1974 and has worked in over 50 countries – in communities and hospitals, governments, civil society, universities, and in United Nations (UN) programs.
In the 1990s, David worked for the British government as Head of Health and Population and Director for Human Development in the UK Department for International Development. From 1999 to 2017, he held leadership roles in the UN system on disease outbreaks and health issues, food insecurity and nutrition, climate change and sustainable development. In October 2018, David received the World Food Prize together with Lawrence Haddad for their leadership in raising the profile and building coalitions for action for better nutrition across the Sustainable Development Goals.
John Atkinson
John Atkinson is an advisor to global leaders on transformational systems change. His experience in accompanying leaders through major periods of transition encompasses the design of systemic approaches for global processes, governments, businesses and NGOs. Alongside his work on Covid-19, he is also supporting the global engagement for the UN World Food Systems Summit, and Nature-Based Solutions as a response to climate change. Recent commercial clients are in the pharmaceutical, technology and financial services sectors. John’s approach is based in treating human organisations as ecosystems that exist in direct relationship with their environment.
Friday 3rd September
Prof Ruthanne Huising
Ruthanne Huising is Professor of Management and Organizations, and Director of the AIM Research Center for Work and Organization at Emlyon Business School. Ruthanne is an ethnographer of work and organizations. She studies how organizations negotiate external pressures and the implications of these changes for professional control and expertise. Across her various projects she has observed how organizations negotiate regulatory change (Human Pathogens and Toxins Act), auditing fads (Environmental Management Systems), efficiency efforts (Ontario perioperative coaching program), management ideas (BPR), and the complex responses of scientists, biosafety officers, health physicists, surgeons, nurses, and administrators. She has published her work in Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, and Regulation & Governance. She is Senior Editor at Organization Science.
Her work with Susan S. Silbey on relational regulation won the W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship from the American Sociological Association and Best Paper Prize from Regulation & Governance. Managers and policymakers recognize the relevance of her research to practice. Ruthanne is regularly invited to share her work with practitioners and her research has directly influenced regulatory policy in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Huising received her Ph.D. from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. Prior to joining Emlyon Business School, she was Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University.
- Website:
- work.em-lyon.com/ruthanne-huising-2/
'Expertise for the 21st Century' Ruthanne Huising, Professor and Director of Research Center for Work, Technology and Organization, emlyon business school
Despite concerns about the role of experts in contemporary society and claims of the crisis or death of expertise, our reliance on expert groups has not diminished. Yet there is evidence of ongoing changes in how expertise is produced, institutionalized, evaluated, and valued in organizations and beyond. I consider the implications of such changes in relation to organizational and societal challenges such as the pandemic and climate crisis, suggesting new forms of expertise needed in the 21st century.