home
frankly speaking podcast

#21 Beate Sjåfjell: Is shareholder primacy consistent with sustainability?

Listen to Professor Beate Kristine Sjåfjell, Head of Research Group on Companies, Markets and Sustainability at the University of Oslo.

Frankly Speaking welcomes Professor Beate Sjåfjell, who publishes extensively on corporate governance and the integration of sustainability in the role of the company boards, to talk about company law. Beate heads the research group on Sustainability Law at the University of Oslo, is a member of the European Commission’s Informal Group of Company Law Experts and founded an international network of women business scholars Daughters of Themis: International Network of Women Business Scholars.

Listen in to a conversation about: 

  • Shareholder Value versus Shareholder Primacy
  • Corporate governance frameworks around Europe and the Anglo-Saxon traditions
  • Why not to replace shareholder primacy with stakeholder primacy
  • How to take planetary boundaries into account in decision making 
  • Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and its implications for boards and liability
  • Gender as a agent of change for business

Listen in and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn!

“It's time to wake up: the financial and corporate risks of continued unsustainability, of climate change, biodiversity loss, human rights violations, lack of decent work, tax evasion - all of these also directly impact the company. A company can carry on as if the world doesn't matter for some time. But these risks will materialize. And that means that any board and senior executive management that wants to do its job properly must align the way the business is run with the larger interests of society.”

Prof. Beate Kristine Sjåfjell in Frankly Speaking

You may also like these episodes

32.54

#71 Antoni Ballabriga: Why ESG investment is still a business winner

What impact will the Omnibus simplification proposals have on banks, and what is their message to European policymakers? Listen to Antoni Ballabriga, Global Head for Sustainability Intelligence and Advocacy at BBVA

36.14

#70 Maria Tymtsias & Julia Otten: EU Omnibus Revealed and How Companies Should Respond

What have been the latest developments on the European Commission’s Omnibus proposals and how have companies reacted? Listen to Maria Tymtsias, co-founder of the Palau Project and Frank Bold’s Julia Otten 

39.20

#69 Anne Kelly: What Does Trump 2.0 Mean for Sustainable Business?

How can US businesses continue their work towards a green transition despite the Trump 2.0 administration’s efforts to derail them? Listen to Anne Kelly, Vice President of Government Relations at Ceres