George Serafeim
George Serafeim is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he co-leads the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project and the Climate and Sustainability Impact AI Lab. He is currently teaching the course “Risks, Opportunities and Investments in an Era of Climate Change” that he designed for the elective curriculum of the MBA program and the course “Financial Reporting and Control” in the required MBA curriculum. Professor Serafeim’s research increasingly focuses on the intersection between the sustainability and the digital transformation. Over the years his research has span four main areas: business strategies in the context of climate change transition risk and opportunities, measuring and analyzing purpose inside organizations, ESG data analytics and strategies, and the role of leadership and governance in corporate scandals and misconduct.
He has presented his research in over 60 countries around the world and ranks among the top 10 most popular authors out of over 12,000 business authors on the Social Science Research Network. His book “Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World” was published in summer of 2022 and explores the challenges and opportunities in building and sustaining profitable purpose-driven organizations that have a measurable positive impact on society. Previously, he taught, with Professor Rebecca Henderson, the elective course “Reimagining Capitalism: Business and Big Problems”, which received the Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute and the Grand Page Prize.
Professor Serafeim earned his doctorate in business administration at Harvard Business School, where his doctoral dissertation was recognized with the Wyss Award for excellence in research. He received a master’s degree in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was awarded the Emeritus Professors’ Prize for best academic performance. He grew up in Athens, Greece.
The Salata Institute
The Salata Institute supports interdisciplinary research that leads to real-world action, including high-risk/high-reward projects by researchers already working in the climate area and new endeavors that make it easier for Harvard scholars, who have not worked on climate problems, to do so. Faculty interested in the Climate Research Clusters program should note an upcoming deadline for concepts on April 1, 2024.