Global Networking Night 2023
Another successful Global Networking Night (GNN) is in the books, after alumni around the world held nearly 60 separate events on October 25.
The annual GNN features alumni gatherings—some in person, some virtual—hosted by HBS Clubs, Special Interest Group (SIGs), and Liaisons on the same day around the world. All HBS alumni are invited to this evening of informal networking and engagement.
One participating club, the HBS Club of Washington DC, held a mixer at the DC headquarters of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), featuring a talk by HBS Professor of International Management Rawi Abdelal, titled “Dignity, the Populist Backlash, and the War in Ukraine: How to Imagine the Next Global Economy.” According to the club’s president, Raj Patil (OPM 42, 2012), approximately 60 people attended the catered gathering, which he described as “very informative, engaging and thought-provoking.”
The HBS Club of Seattle reported that their GNN gathering was officially its “best attended” event with more than 100 alumni in attendance. The cocktail reception featured wines by women winemakers, an appetizer spread from a local chef, and “some old-school tunes,” according to club co-president Shyam Ayengar (MBA 2006). The club also uses the GNN as an opportunity to recap the club’s year and announce new initiatives.
Alumni in Sweden Convene Leadership Forum to Move Needle on Climate
The HBS Club of Sweden, in partnership with the climate action organization We Don’t Have Time, hosted its first annual Stockholm Climate Leadership Forum on October 4. The event, which featured a series of discussions with Swedish business leaders at the forefront of sustainability and climate innovation, was aimed at synthesizing the messages from global conversations on climate change to find clear avenues for swift, coordinated action.
“Climate change is undeniably one of the most pressing challenges of our time, threatening not just our environment, but the very fabric of society and the world economy,” says forum host and organizer Cynthia Jonströmer (GMP 6, 2009; AMP 195, 2018). “For an esteemed institution like HBS, with its vast intellectual resources, influence, and global network, engagement in the climate change conversation isn’t just a responsibility—it’s a mandate.”
Jonströmer is an entrepreneur, investor and inventor who has been working with sustainable housing and renewable energy since 2007. She is the immediate past CEO of BrainHeart Energy, the largest geothermal group in Sweden. She’s also an inventor who holds several patents on geothermal technologies developed while she worked at BrainHeart Energy. She has since founded Antarez Global Impact Capital, which is focusing on investment in large-scale sustainable infrastructure. As a board member for the HBS Club of Sweden, she focuses on promoting ESG and Climate Change with the HBS alumni members, as well as the collaboration with the Swedish industries in the global climate conversation.
“I have joined many conversations at COP26 and COP27 (UN Climate Change Conference—Conference of the Parties) and Stockholm+50 (a global environmental conference held in Stockholm in 2022) and around the world in different business communities about different paths to energy transition,” she says. “However, I realized very little was being discussed about how we could integrate everything together.”
Inspired by Stockholm+50 last year and the HBS Climate Action Week last spring, Jonströmer approached club president Anders Hedfalk (MBA 2000) about organizing a forum for climate leaders in Sweden, and the club immediately got on board to help.
Held at Gripsnäs Castle in Stockholm, the forum welcomed an onsite audience of approximately 75 business, science, and government leaders, while another 300 people in 50 countries participated via a live webcast. Jonströmer co-hosted the forum with Ingmar Rentzhog, the CEO of We Don’t Have Time, the world’s largest social media platform focused on engaging world leaders to address climate change. Throughout the two-hour conversation, Rentzhog polled the audience on a range of global statistics and to drive home the dire climate situation. “One thing we can’t buy is time,” he said. “We believe we can solve this, but we are running out of time.”
HBS Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Business and Global Society Debora Spar opened the forum with a video message offering reasons to be optimistic on climate if leaders can act quickly. “It’s going to take a lot of money and new models of risk allocation,” said Spar. “We need leaders in this space who can be pioneers charging into this next era and get it right, and we need radical collaborations between different players.”
Sir David King, founder and chair of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, also joined online and shared sobering facts—the Arctic Circle is warming more than four times faster than the rest of the planet, for instance—and emphasized the need for immediate action by global leaders. “This is an existential crisis,” he said.
The featured panelists, comprised of entrepreneurs, politicians and academics, included: Harald Mix (MBA 1987), Founder of Altor Private Equity Partners, and Vargas Holdings; Reynir Indahl (MBA 1998), Founder & CEO, Summa Equity; Anna König Jerlmyr, former Major of Stockholm; Khashayar Farmanbar, former Swedish minister of Energy and Digitization; Emily Bolon (MBA 2007), CEO, Looper; Patrik Lundström, CEO, Renewcell; and Vanessa Butani, VP of Sustainability, Electrolux.
The panelists shared leadership challenges and successes around ESG, innovative public policies and “climate budgeting,” and the need for large investments to quickly scale up the renewables infrastructure, which essentially equates to a new asset class in sustainable investing that is showing promise for real returns on investment.
Jonströmer says the forum strengthened the connection between HBS and alumni in Sweden who are taking the lead on climate, and the club expects to partner with HBS to make the forum an annual event for these high-level action-oriented conversations.
“Climate change isn’t just a scientific issue—it’s a business, ethical, political, and social one. HBS can bridge these domains, facilitating conversations that lead to holistic solutions,” she says.
“I believe HBS faculty and alumni have the knowledge, influence, and capability to not just participate in the climate change conversation, but to lead it. Their active engagement can shape the future in profound ways, ensuring a sustainable and prosperous world for generations to come.”
Following the panel discussions, the forum participants were treated to a live classical and jazz music performance and a formal gala dinner.
In the end, Jonströmer and Hedfalk say the positive responses to the first Stockholm Climate Leadership Forum have cemented the club’s intention to step into a role of leadership on climate going forward. “This shared dialogue fosters a unified vision for the future,” says Jonströmer. “Instead of isolated efforts, we showed that it is possible to have a consolidated, strategic push towards a sustainable future.”
Source : Harvard Business School