What next? Leadership conversations for a better future

Episode 14: Bridging the trust gap: rebuilding legitimacy through place and community with Mike Kenny and Jacinta Koolmatrie

In this episode, co-hosts Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Marc Kahn, our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, are joined by Professor Mike Kenny, Head of Department at the Bennett School of Public Policy, University of Cambridge and Jacinta Koolmatrie, Aboriginal heritage practitioner (Adnyamathanha and Ngarrindjeri). They explore the breakdown of trust between communities and institutions, showing how centralised governance and economic transition have fuelled place-based grievances, and why rebuilding trust requires institutions to share power, work at community pace, and support locally led approaches such as community wealth building and Indigenous-led responses.

Episode 13: Making the Transition Investable: Policy Certainty, Capital, and Coordination with Marina Grossi, Sang-Hyup Kim & Helena Norrman

In this episode, co-hosts Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Marc Kahn, our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, are joined by guests Helena Norrman, Executive Vice President and Head of Group Communications, Global Steel Company,  SSAB, Sang-Hyup Kim, Executive Director, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and Marina Grossi, President, Conselho Empresarial Brasileiro para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável (CEBDS) [Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development].  Together they focus on how leaders can accelerate clean and green growth by tackling real execution challenges. Through examples from steel, green growth policy and Brazil’s business coalitions, it shows how upfront investment, policy certainty, coordination and practical platforms like carbon markets and hydrogen are essential to move beyond pilots and deliver transition at scale.

Episode 12: Reclaiming the future from the algorithm with Vilas Dhar

In this episode, co-hosts Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Marc Kahn, our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, are joined by Vilas Dhar, President of Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and philanthropist, technologist and advocate for human-centred AI, for a conversation about the Utopian promise offered by AI. They look at how balancing AI-driven corporate profits with human progress relies on overcoming social and political frictions, as well as mitigating the risk of holding conversations about our collective future in a vacuum that lacks wider engagement.

Episode 11 | Changing minds, changing markets with Michael Liebreich and Rory Sutherland

In this episode, Marc Kahn, our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, interview Michael Liebreich, Managing Partner, EcoPragma Capital & CEO, Liebreich Associates, and Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and behavioural science commentator, about winning support for climate and energy transition in the face of sociopolitical pendulum swings on the subject. Our guests bust some of the many myths that abound and focus their energy on climate action realities.

Episode 10 | Investing in Ideas. Catalysing Change: How Philanthropy Can Fuel Economic Transformation with Peter Bennett and Leslie Johnston

In this episode, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, speak with two leaders reshaping philanthropy, founder of the Bennett Foundation, Peter Bennett and Leslie Johnston, founding CEO of the Laudes Foundation. Philanthropy funds much of the world’s high-risk innovation, early-stage ideas and new economic thinking — often long before markets or governments are able to act. How can it move beyond individual projects to drive systemic change?

Episode 9 | Rewiring finance: What will it take to fund a better future? With Sarah Kemmitt, Nina Seega and Jose Vinals

In this episode of What Next?, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, with guests, former Group Chairman of Standard Chartered, José Viñals, Sarah Kemmitt, former lead of the UN Net Zero Banking Alliance, and Dr. Nina Seeger, Director, CISL Centre for Sustainable Finance, explore how finance can accelerate sustainable development more effectively. From addressing the mispricing of climate and nature risk, to correcting market distortions, tackling permitting bottlenecks and supporting coherent policy, the conversation highlights the conditions needed to align global capital with a cleaner, fairer, more resilient global economy.

Episode 8 | The new fault line: building common ground in an age of polarisation with Gillian Tett and Bob Eccles

In this episode of "What Next? Leadership Conversations for a Better Future," Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn delve into the sustainability fault lines present in geopolitics. They examine the profound political polarisation evident in today’s landscape, along with the rising anti-ESG backlash and its implications for a sustainable future.

Joined by Provost of King’s College Cambridge and acclaimed FT journalist, Gillian Tett, and Professor Bob Eccles, leading thinker on corporate reporting and political consensus-building, together they explore how these tensions are reshaping climate policy, corporate behaviour and global markets, and what leaders can do to navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape.

Episode 7 | The meaning deficit: why it matters to leadership with Sudhanshu Palsule, Gillian Secrett and Richard Springer

In this episode Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, are joined by guests, educator, leadership thinker and author, Sudhanshu Palsule, Gillian Secrett, Director of Leadership and Culture at CISL and Community leader and Rector, Richard Springer. Together they examine what many describe as a growing ‘meaning deficit’ in society. They explore how fragmentation, consumerism and polarisation erode our sense of purpose, and discuss how leaders can help rebuild meaning – through authenticity, empathy and genuine connection.

Episode 6 | The role of business ethics and values in markets that care only about financial performance with Alison Taylor and Karen Wood

In this episode, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, explore how corporate values shape decision-making in a time of political polarisation and markets that reward short-term performance. Joined by ethics expert, Alison Taylor, and experienced board chair, Karen Wood, they discuss the tension between purpose and profit, the realities of trade-offs, and how leaders can stay grounded while building trust and aligning values with action.

Episode 5 | The Tech Reckoning: Who shapes the next economy? with Thomas Lingard

In this episode, Thomas Lingard, Executive Director of the Centre for Future Generations, joins our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, to speak about how rapidly advancing technologies, especially AI, are outpacing society’s ability to govern them. They explore the risks of concentrated tech power and geopolitical competition, and discuss how stronger governance and more imaginative leadership can help ensure technology serves people, society, and the planet.

Episode 4 | Powering Africa’s future with Carlos Lopes & Jasandra Nyker

In this episode, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership host our guest speakers, Professor Carlos Lopes & investment leader, Jasandra Nyker. Our guests reframe Africa’s narrative from risk to opportunity, showing the continent to be a dynamic platform for innovation and reinvention, with green energy at its core as a driver of industrial transformation, inclusive growth, and sustainable development.

Episode 3 | Shaping the future with Dominic Vergine

In this episode our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, host Dominic Vergine, CEO and founder of Monumo. Together they discuss how AI can play a central role in advancing positive people and planet outcomes. However, the real impact of this technology depends not just on its capabilities but on how we decide to use it.

Episode 2 | Young, divided and under pressure

In this episode our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Marc Kahn, and Lindsay Hooper, CEO of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, host climate activist, Clover Hogan, and CEO of the Youth Employment Service in South Africa, Ravi Naidoo. Young people care deeply about climate, justice and equality and are seeking agency to deliver a more sustainable future. But they’re facing significant challenges. Together, we explore the question of what we can do help our future leaders.

Episode 1 | From heavy industry to clean growth

In this episode Marc Kahn, our Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Lindsay Hooper, CEO at CISL, and guests Faustine Delasalle, CEO of the Mission Possible Partnership, and Katie Fergusson, SVP, Studies and Development at Anglo American, we explore what the future holds for heavy industry as the world rises to the challenge of transitioning to a clean energy economy.