John Elkington

John Elkington is founding partner & director of Volans, also co-founder of SustainAbility (1987) John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. In 2004, BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.” In 2008, The Evening Standard named John among the ‘1000 Most Influential People’ in London, describing him as “a true green business guru,” and as “an evangelist for corporate social and environmental responsibility long before it was fashionable.” Volans, launched in April 2008, aims to find, explore, advise on and build innovative scalable solutions to the great global divides that overshadow the future. Volans is carrying forward John’s work with The Skoll Foundation on a $1 million, 3-year field-building programme in relation to social entrepreneurship. Directly linked to this work, John’s latest book is on entrepreneurial solutions—particularly on the work of leading social and environmental entrepreneurs. Co-authored with Pamela Hartigan, previous Managing Director of The Schwab Foundation, now Partner of Volans, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, was published by Harvard Business School Press on 5 February 2008.