Skip to main content
University of Oxford Saïd Business School 25

Top menu

  • Oxford Answers

Main navigation

Main menu
  • Research
    Research
    • Research overview
      Research overview
      • Research seminars
      • Research strategy
    • Research areas
      Research areas
      • Accounting
      • Finance
      • Health Care
      • Impact
      • Innovation
      • International Business
      • Management Science
      • Marketing
      • Major Programme Management
      • Organisation Studies
      • Professional Service Firms
      • Strategy
      • Technology and Operations Management
    • Centres and initiatives
      Centres and initiatives
      • Creative Destruction Lab Oxford
      • Entrepreneurship Centre
      • Oxford Future of Finance and Technology Initiative
      • Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative
      • Oxford Future of Real Estate Initiative
      • Oxford Initiative on AI×SDGs
      • Oxford Initiative on Rethinking Performance
      • Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation
      • Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation
      • Private Equity Institute
      • Responsible Business
      • Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
    • Networks
      Networks
      • CABDyN
      • Oxford Institute of Retail Management
  • Oxford experience
    Oxford experience
    • Coming to Oxford
      Coming to Oxford
      • College experience
      • Living costs
      • Partners and families
      • Visas
    • Scholarships and funding
    • Life at Oxford
      Life at Oxford
      • Learning at Oxford
      • Exploring Oxford
      • Activities, clubs and groups
      • Oxford Union
    • Blogs
    • Career development
      Career development
      • Your career journey
      • Our expertise
    • Life after Oxford
      Life after Oxford
      • Alumni
      • Elumni
  • Events
    Events
    • Events listing
    • Past events
    • Future of Business
    • Oxford Smart Space
  • About us
    About us
    • The School
      The School
      • Our history
      • Our community
      • Diversity and inclusion
      • Climate emergency
      • Rankings, achievements and accreditation
      • School Board and Global Leadership Council
      • Global Leadership Centre
      • Covid-19 information
    • Support us
      Support us
      • Fundraising priorities
      • Donate online
      • How to give
      • Corporate partnerships
      • Community giving
      • Impact and recognition
    • Our people
      Our people
      • Faculty
      • Associate Fellows
      • Academic visitors
      • Recruit our graduates
      • Work for us
    • News
      News
      • Media coverage
      • Media relations contacts
    • Venue hire
      Venue hire
      • Park End Street
      • Egrove Park
      • B&B accommodation at Egrove Park
      • Our services
  • Programmes
    Programmes
    • MBAs
      MBAs
      • MBA
      • 1+1 MBA
      • Executive MBA
    • Degrees
      Degrees
      • BA Economics and Management
      • DPhil Finance
      • DPhil Management
      • MSc Financial Economics
      • MSc Global Healthcare Leadership
      • MSc Law and Finance
      • MSc Major Programme Management
    • Executive Diplomas
      Executive Diplomas
      • Artificial Intelligence for Business
      • Financial Strategy
      • Global Business
      • Organisational Leadership
      • Strategy and Innovation
    • Executive Education
      Executive Education
      • On-campus open programmes
      • Online programmes
      • ​Custom programmes
    • Programme finder
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Saїd Business School announces Paul Polman as Board Chair
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Saїd Business School announces Paul Polman as Board Chair
School outdoor view

Saїd Business School announces Paul Polman as Board Chair

Thu, 16th May 2019

Published


Related news

  • Staff

Two pivotal Board appointments have just been announced at Saïd Business School.

  • Sustainable business champion and former Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, joins the School’s Board as Chair
  • Dr Vivienne Cox CBE, one of the UK’s premier business leaders, joins as Vice-Chair of School’s Board

 


Related news

  • Staff
Paul Polman
Paul Polman

Paul Polman has been appointed as Chair of the Board, and Dr Vivienne Cox will join him as Vice-Chair.  The new appointments underline Saïd Business School’s commitment to champion business as a solution to the world’s most pressing problems. 

Paul Polman will chair the School’s Board, a fourteen-member governance group including representatives of business, the University, alumni, faculty and staff.  Polman has helped to define a new era of responsible capitalism as the driving force behind Unilever’s ten-year Sustainable Living Plan, an ambitious strategy which challenged the corporate status quo. As a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact, and Co-Chair of the B-Team, Polman has demonstrated his commitment, shared by the School, to deliver cutting-edge research and educate present and future leaders to take on the toughest challenges facing society today. 

Vivienne Cox
Vivienne Cox

Dr Vivienne Cox, a regular listee of Fortune Magazine’s ‘World’s 50 most powerful women in business’, brings deep experience of leading large-scale, multidisciplinary organisations including BP, GSK, Pearson and Vallourec to the School Board.  Among other roles, she was EVP and Chief Executive of BP’s gas, power and renewable businesses and its alternative energy unit. Her extensive expertise in creating and growing new businesses and deep understanding of government will benefit the School’s entrepreneurial and global goals significantly.

Professor Peter Tufano, Dean of Saïd Business School, commented:

‘We are honoured that Paul has agreed to chair our School Board and that Vivienne will be our Vice-Chair.  Both are outstanding business leaders who have also demonstrated vision of working across boundaries to address the world’s critical challenges. There is huge synergy between the School’s world-scale mission and the purposeful values that Paul espouses. We share his view that it is vital to have purpose-driven leaders and organisations working together to find sustainable answers to urgent global issues.  

‘Paul is joining us at a time when challenges to the world, and to business, are mounting.  There is a growing expectation that business should have a broader, deeper role – a duty to society as well as to its shareholders. Rising to these challenges is a complex task requiring judgment, commitment and resilience. As an integral part of the world’s foremost university and a leading global business school, we have a duty to equip businesses and leaders with the skills they need to make a positive impact on society and the environment.  Paul is an outstanding role model and we are delighted to welcome him into our community to help guide the School.

We are incredibly fortunate that Vivienne has also agreed to play a significant role in helping shape our future direction.  Her broad business experience and sound judgment will be invaluable as the world demands greater impact – from business and from our School – in the century to come. 

I cannot think of two more talented and respected individuals to work with us and steer us to achieve the next phase of our mission and vision.  They will build on the leadership of Sir Howard Stringer, our former Chair, who previously served as President of CBS and CEO, and Chair of Sony.’

‘The scarcest commodity right now are leaders who have the courage and willpower to deliver a systems change,’ said Paul Polman. ‘That requires leadership, courageous leadership, at times uncomfortable leadership.  What I like about Saïd Business School, is that you are creating these leaders.  I'm honoured to become the Chair of Saïd Business School which has a cadre of students that represents the whole world and many of the places where we see these biggest challenges.'

 

Footer menu

  • Contact us
  • Find us
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Website policies
  • Alumni
  • Donate
  • Covid-19

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • WeChat
  • Blogs
  • Advance HE Opens in new tab
  • EFMD Equis accreditations Opens in new tab
  • Global Network for Advanced Management Opens in new tab

Website & Privacy Policies © Saïd Business School 2023 All rights reserved

Back to top