Management bios

Prof. Gilbert Lenssen is President of the Academy of Business in Society since its foundation in 2002. He is also Professor of Management at Leiden University and former Professor of International Management at the College of Europe (Bruges/Warsaw) and Visiting Fellow at Templeton College, University of Oxford.

Prof. Lenssen is a member of the Board of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and member of the editiorial board of Corporate Governance, The International Journal of Business in Society, Member of the editorial board of The Journal for Strategy and Management. He is also Visiting professor at Cranfield University, Henley Management College, and ENPC Paris and a Life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (London) since 1995.

Prof. Lenssen is former Global Vice President of BP Solar International (London/Madrid, 1995-1999). During this time, he built the global solar business and in particular the Sustainable Development Solutions strategy for the business in Africa and Asia. Before this time, he was an Executive in Marketing, Planning and Human Resource Management, Corporate Affairs and Corporate Communications for British Petroleum (BP) in USA, Germany, UK, Spain (1975-1995). Amongst his corporate achievements are the diversification of the retail business, a „federal organisation“ for manufacturing in chemicals, the „greening“ of BP’s corporate and retail image and strategy. Throughout his corporate carreer he was intensely involved in Management Development and Learning, for which he developed and implemented new approaches.

Prof. Lenssen holds a Doctorate in Social Sciences from the University of Antwerp (Belgium 1996) and the PhD programme in management from the University of Hamburg (1992-1995); faculty of Economics and Business (Magna cum laude).

As Director General, Simon Pickard is responsible for implementing EABIS' overall knowledge development and learning strategy for 2008-2010. This incorporates direct oversight of EABIS' multi-million euro programmes on research, education and training, and by extension the building of EABIS' strategic international partnerships. He also leads the Coordination Office in Brussels and oversees EABIS' growing network.

Simon joined EABIS as Deputy Director in March 2006, following the completion of his MBA at HEC School of Management in Paris. In this position, he led the internal governance, membership and all Brussels-based operations. Prior to attending business school in France, he worked for Oxbridge Academic Programs, a not-for-profit organization based in New York, USA, in management then an executive capacity. Under its auspices, he was responsible for the creation and implementation of various intensive summer schools and professional development seminars, all based at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge or in Paris.

In January 2008, Simon took on the role of the Director General of EABIS. He has since then contributed articles to various specialist media publications on the changing role of business in society and the implications for management practice and development.

John Swannick joined EABIS as Executive Director in January 2010 with primary responsibility for corporate affairs and financial management. Prior to this John was a corporate responsibility and stakeholder relations specialist for Lloyds Banking Group following management positions in retail and corporate banking. His work included public policy, issues management, investor relations, communications and change management. He developed Lloyds’ corporate responsibility management system and corporate reporting, supporting the corporate responsibility steering group of senior executives. 

John led external engagement on corporate responsibility issues with policy makers and institutions in the UK and EU.  He was a member of the European Foundation for Quality Management working group which delivered the EFQM’s CSR Framework and sat on the UK Small Business Consortium of leading SME representative groups and stakeholder organisations. He authored a 2004 report for the UK government’s then CSR Minister on the business benefits of investment in deprived communities. Since 2006, John co-leads the European Laboratory on Valuing Non-Financial Performance.  He has been a member of EABIS’ management committee since 2007 and was elected chair of its Business Board in 2008.

John is an economics graduate of the University of Bath and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.  Married with two children he also chairs a community-based social enterprise in the UK.   

Academic Director at EABIS since October 2008, David's research interests are framed within the critical management studies Special Interest Group at the Academy of Management with a particular focus on business ethics / corporate social responsibility and the political economy. Along with this specific focus he is also interested in the related areas of sustainable business management, managerialism and professionalism.  

David is currently on the faculty of Royal Holloway University of London,  School of Management where he is attached to the Centre for Research into Sustainability. Additionally, he has been a Visiting Professor at various institutions: the Graduate School of Management, (Grenoble Ecole de Management); DePaul University (Chicago), Grande Ecole des Haute Etudes de Commerce (HEC) Paris.  He has devised and delivered modules on Sustainable Business Strategy for the MBA courses at HEC Paris and RHUL since 2005. David also is a named expert in Sustainability for the University of London at the United Nations and a delegate on the International Labour Office Academic Working Group for Decent Work (2009-2012).

David worked in the commercial sector for 30 years before retraining and starting his academic career in 2002. He spent time as Business Development Director at a merchant bank where he was involved in seven corporate start-up/exit cycles in IT and property management. More recently he was project director of management consulting practice, programmes and projects with experience across public and private sectors.