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

34:02

#51 Richard Hardyment: How to Measure Good Business and Make Sense of ESG Data

Listen to Richard Hardyment, author and head of business engagement at the Institute of Business Ethics

39:49

#50 Antonia Zimmermann & Anna Brunetti: What to Expect From the 2024 EU Elections for the EU Green Deal

Listen to Antonia Zimmermann and Anna Brunetti, respectfully trade reporter at Politico Europe and Economic Editor at Euractiv.

34:06

#49 Heidi Hautala: Reflecting on Three Decades of Business and Human Rights Policy in the EU

Listen to Heidi Hautala, MEP and Vice-president of the European Parliament