Dr Yanfei Hu is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainability and Innovation at the Surrey Business School, University of Surrey. Her research focuses on the intersection of business and society, particularly examining how organizations respond to societal challenges such as climate change. Her interests include institutional entrepreneurship driving change in contested issue domains, social movements and moral markets that engage in pro-social productions, and the dynamics of industry responses to sustainability demands such as net-zero transitioning strategies. She is the principal investigator and visionary behind the “Cultural entrepreneurship in vegan meat markets” project.
Dr Lydia Certa is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Surrey, where she is also affiliated with the Institute for Sustainability as a Sustainability Fellow. Her work at the university is connected to sustainability governance and CSR, with a particular interest in stakeholder engagement in online and offline deliberative processes aimed at addressing Grand Challenges.
She has written about environmental issues, such as climate change, UNFCCC COPs, plastic pollution, and shared insights from her experiences at major events like COP26, where she highlighted underrepresented topics related to stakeholder inclusion in sustainability governance and plastic waste.
Dr. Frank Wijen is a Professor of Global Sustainable Strategies at the Department of Management, Strategy, and Innovation of KU Leuven’s Faculty of Economics and Business. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Society and Organizations Institute at HEC Paris.
Frank’s research is concerned with global sustainable strategies writ large. Operating at the intersection of strategy and organisation theories, he studies the drivers and contingencies of sustainable business practices in an international setting. In particular, Frank examines the strategies that incentivise and enable governments, firms, and nongovernmental organisations to engage in sustained collective action that leads to more environmentally and socially beneficial business outcomes. .
Dr. Jan Lodge is an Assistant Professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. An organizational theorist by training, Jan uses qualitative methods to broadly explore what enables and what inhibits social change. In this context, he is primarily interested in the topic of (negative) social evaluations such as stigma, as well as their antecedents such as scandals or norm violations. Currently, next to working in the context of the plant-based food sector, Jan is conducting research in an array of empirical settings such as prisons and reentry organizations, social housing organizations, capital punishment in the U.S., or among victims of organizational harm.
Dr Jonathan Chenoweth is a senior lecturer in environment and sustainability and MSc Programmes Director in the Centre for Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey. He is also affiliated with the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability as a Sustainability Fellow. His research focuses on water resource management, food sustainability, life cycle analysis, as well as sustainable development and environmental policy more broadly. Dr. Chenoweth’s interdisciplinary approach integrates insights from both the social and natural sciences, aiming to influence policy and sustainable practices on a global scale.
Dr. Chenoweth adopted a plant-based diet fifteen years ago and eight years ago founded a vegan cheese company producing cultured almond-milk and soymilk cheeses. The company launched the first commercially available white-rind Camembert vegan cheese in the UK which was available via leading retailers in Bristol, Bath and London.
Prof. Glenn Parry is a leading thinker in supply chain and the evolving digital economy. He is the Chaired Professor of Digital Transformation, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at the University of Surrey, and co-directs DECaDE, the EPSRC Centre for the Decentralised Digital Economy.
Glenn’s research explores how technologies like blockchain reshape business models, supply chains, and our understanding of value. He collaborates with Government and industry to develop practical solutions.
Dr Itziar Castello-Molina is a Reader in Sustainability and Digital Economy at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. Her research spans over 20 years, focusing on sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. She has a particular interest in how sustainability and climate change discourses are constructed across social media, businesses, and multi-stakeholder organizations. She also consults and advises organizations on developing sustainability strategies and stakeholder engagement.
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