Net Positive

Paul Polman became the CEO of Unilever in 2009, the first from outside the company in its century-plus history. He created a new framework for decision-making in the organisation to focus the business on multiple stakeholders and long-term value creation, committing the company to doubling its sales while keeping its footprint flat, to touching one billion people, and to greatly improving the lives of suppliers around the world. Peers and experts have ranked Unilever as the most sustainable company - above long-standing, privately run leaders like Patagonia and IKEA - for eight years. Today, Polman is cofounder and Chair of IMAGINE, a for-benefit organisation and foundation that mobilises businesses around the UN Global Goals.

Andrew Winston is one of the world’s most widely read writers and thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy, including Green to Gold and The Big Pivot, have sold more than 150,000 copies in seven languages. Winston has also written cover stories for Harvard Business Review and published hundreds of articles in HBR, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other outlets. He was recently selected for the Thinkers50 Radar 2020, a list of “30 thinkers to watch out for in the coming year.” His views on strategy have been sought after by many of the world’s leading companies, including 3M, DuPont, HP, Ingersoll Rand, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever.