The third edition of the ESG&FRIENDS forum, organized by the first specialized media for promoting ESG in Bulgaria ESGnews.bg, will be held on February 27th at the Hilton Hotel Sofia. A special guest speaker at the forum, which this year will be under the motto “Re-position, Re-think, Re-grow”, is Prof. Dr. Wayne Visser, one of the most influential ESG experts in the world. He is a world-renowned writer, lecturer, academic, film producer, social entrepreneur and futurist focused on sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and the creation of integrated value. He is a lecturer at Cambridge University and Antwerp Management School.
Prof. Visser is also a director of think tank Kaleidoscope Futures, founder of CSR International, former director of sustainability services at KPMG and strategic analyst at Capgemini. He has written 43 books, including the Amazon bestseller “Thriving”, which we will be giving away to our partners and workshop participants during the event. Prof. Visser will conduct the practical part in the afternoon, in which the participants will have the opportunity to solve specific cases.
Guest speaker in the third edition of ESG&FRIENDS will also be Indira Kartallozi, director at Kaleidoscope Futures, lecturer and evaluator of courses at the Institute of Sustainable Management at Cambridge. Indira’s experience ranges from sustainability and social enterprise to human rights and transformational leadership. Indira is the founder of Sustainability Leadership Kosovo and is recognized as one of the Top 100 CSR leaders.
Regulations, challenges and opportunities
Panel discussions during the forum will touch on the topics of ESG regulations, difficulties, challenges and opportunities for businesses related to sustainable management and leadership. We will also gain experience from the example of large companies operating in Bulgaria and learn how ESG can bring benefits and become an engine for business.
Among the guests in the panel discussions will be a number of business representatives, including the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shell Bulgaria Kamelia Slaveikova, the executive director and chairman of the board of Unicredit Bulbank Tsvetanka Mincheva, the executive director of Lidl Bulgaria Milena Dragijska, the chairman of the Supervisory Board of “Asarel Medet” Dimitar Tsotsorkov, General Manager of Philip Morris Bulgaria Damien Pintos, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Network of the UN Global Compact Darinka Georgieva, Director of Corporate Policy at Yetel Bulgaria Mihaela Kalaidjieva, Executive Director of the Fund of Funds Pavel Lisev, Director of the equity investment fund Invenio Partners Elvin Guri and Denislav Borisov from denkstatt.
Representatives of the academic community and employers’ organizations will also take part in the third edition of ESG & FRIENDS. Among them are the dean of the Faculty of Economics of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski Assoc. Ph.D. Atanas Georgiev, Assoc. Ph.D. Marina Stefanova, Director of the master’s program “Responsible and Sustainable Management”, Head of ESG Lab and ESG Academy, Assoc. Ph.D. Milena Angelova, General Secretary of AIKB, vice-president of SGI Europe and member of the European Economic and Social Committee, Evgenia Troanska, who has 20 years of professional experience in the field of financial consulting and represents SGI Europe in EFRAG, Iliana Pavlova, director of the “Industry and Environment” department at BSK.
During the forum, we will also learn more about the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and find out how Norwegian business accepts ESG regulations, and in particular SMEs, as well as good practices from Norway by Karsten Aust. He has extensive experience in developing and managing international projects.
Practical part
In the afternoon Prof. Dr. Wayne Visser and Indira Cartalozzi will conduct a workshop on the topic: “Thriving in Practice: Systems Thinking and Integrated Value” in which they will share the scientific principles of progress with practical exercises that introduce the technique of systems mapping.
Participants will learn the six steps of integrated value management, including realigning partners (stakeholder materiality), renewing principles (business values), refining purpose (strategic objectives), reassessing performance (ESG reporting), and redesigning portfolios (product/service innovation).
The workshop will be interactive, with group exercises and discussion with the participants. You can buy tickets for it HERE
Our partners:
Yettel Bulgaria, Philip Morris Bulgaria, Huvepharma, Medina-Med, Biovet, Mastercard, Asarel – Medet AD, Photomate, Frontier Venture, Cleantech Bulgaria, BAT, Electricity System Operator, Fund of Funds, Hilton Sofia, InterPartners, Economic.bg, Bulgarian UN Global Compact network, KRIB, AIKB, BSK, Confindustria Bulgaria, Billboard
You can read the entire program of the ESG & FRIENDS forum and find more information about the participants at: https://events.economic.bg/
