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MSc Business Sustainability

Bord Bia Origin Green Ambassador Programme

Content

The programme delivery model is underpinned by experiential learning opportunities and is built around in-class  modules, professional & career development, and placements with leading international food firms.

Led by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, the programme includes faculty from Harvard Business School, INSEAD, and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Each faculty member is a world-renowned expert in the field of sustainability, food and agri-business who delivers the latest thinking and practice in the area of sustainability.

In-class modules include:

Business Sustainability

Supply Chain Engagement for Sustainability

Sustainable Agribusiness Supply Chains

Sustainability as a Business Development Vehicle

Innovation & Marketing in the Organisation

Project Management & Negotiation

Environmental Policy

Leadership Themes in Food & Agribusiness

This element of the programme is designed specifically for participants to learn alongside global firms in the area of sustainability. We partner with leading international food companies to provide participants first-hand experience of solving challenges and implementing sustainability programmes.

Placements are overseas, at the headquarters of the world’s leading brand-owning firms. These have included: Starbucks, Nestle, Danone, McDonalds, Coca Cola, Subway, Ahold, Costco, Sainsbury’s, Five Guys, Diageo, Marks & Spencer, Mars, Tesco, Alibaba, Sodexo, Bidvest, Bunge, Pepsico, among others

Over the course of the programme participants will complete placements in a Bord Bia export market where they learn how to build awareness of Irish sustainability initiatives in the market specifically with B2B customers, government and non-government agencies.

The MSc in Business Sustainability is a 22 month, full-time programme. With a strong emphasis on professional and career development throughout, the initial months involve in-class modules, field trips and participation at industry and sustainability events. Participants then complete overseas placements with leading international firms. Particpants return to Dublin for block release to complete academic modules, skills training and other activities.

 

Meet the Faculty

UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School has one of the most highly regarded faculties of any business school in the world and the most productive researchers in the country. Rigorous, interactive, and dynamic, they present topics via a range of engaging methods, including case studies, simulation exercises, self-assessment and small group discussions. The programme’s faculty offer a blend of academic excellence, real-world relevance and practical application that provides participants with unparalleled opportunities to expand their capabilities

Damien McLoughlin is Anthony C. Cunningham Professor of Marketing at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in Ireland. He has previously served as a visiting faculty at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and at the Indian School of Business. Since 2011 he has been a faculty member and researcher on the Harvard Business School Agribusiness seminar. His most recently published case studies have been C-suite case studies of Ocado and Nestlé; current cases cover areas of global food that is most significantly affected by innovation, including global sports nutrition, snacks and confectionery, breakfast cereals and home meal kits. Since 2014 he has been a visiting professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. In 2015 and 2017 Damien was a faculty member on the Purdue University Food and Agribusiness Executive Summit. Damien has published more than seventy papers and two books on strategy and marketing issues. He has also written more than 25 case studies, mainly relating to leadership and strategy issues in global food and agribusiness, covering all geographies and major sectors.

Damien has consulted and led executive programmes in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa, while working with some of the world’s leading organisations including Alltech, Allianz, Aurivo, Bobst, Bord Bia, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), Dairygold, DeLaval, Dawn Farm Foods, EY, Eversheds, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Independent News & Media, Microsoft, Rabobank, Ridley, Ryanair, Smurfit Kappa Group and Zespri. He is also an experienced board member, having served public and private sector organisations as a director and consultant. Damien holds a Bachelor of Business Studies degree from Dublin City University, a Master of Business Studies degree from University College Dublin and PhD in Marketing from Lancaster University (UK).

 

 

Alexis Bateman is a Research Associate and Director of the Responsible Supply Chain Lab at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. She has over ten years of experience in sustainability in the public sector, industry, and academic settings. Her work focuses on deep tier supply chain social and environmental challenges and strategy implementation through both theoretical development and applied industrial practices. Through her research, she has been able to engage closely with industrial partners, public agencies, and non-governmental organizations like    Greenpeace.

Dr. Bateman is the lead researcher and co-author on a book examining sustainable supply chains with insight from over 150 companies and hundreds of practitioners forthcoming with MIT Press. She founded and directs the MIT Responsible Supply Chain lab that organizes and builds on almost a decade of sustainable supply chain management research at MIT CTL. The lab has ongoing research projects including but not limited to: palm oil traceability, seafood risk, apparel supply chain transparency, and cross-commodity traceability analysis. Prior to joining MIT, Alexis worked with the City of Santa Ana, the Orange County Transportation Authority, and the Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan as a part of Tetra Tech. She received her Ph.D. from the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine in Environmental Planning and Management and Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. 

Profile photo of Mary Shelman

Mary holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering with High Distinction from the University of Kentucky and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School, where she was awarded a Dean’s Doctoral OGA for research in economics and marketing.

Professor Shelman was Director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Programme. She leads the annual Agribusiness Seminar in Boston which is attended by more than 200 CEO’s and senior managers from the world’s leading agribusiness firms. She has led similar programmes in Europe, Latin American and Asia. Mary is past President of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA).

Mary is known as a strategic pathfinder in the global agribusiness sector. She offers a particular competency in identifying and diagnosing the forces of change shaping global agribusiness. Actively engaging with these themes she has served as Chairman of the Board of RiceTec, Inc., a fully integrated agribusiness and packaged food company headquartered in Alvin, Texas, and on the boards of RiceTec AG, Stiftung Fürst Liechtenstein, and the USA Rice Millers’ Association.

She has also authored more than 50 case studies highlighting situations of strategic change in leading global agribusiness firms. She is a member of the editorial board of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review.

Mark Pagell holds a Chair in Global Leadership and is a Professor of Sustainable Supply Chain Management. He is also an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto, Canada. Prior to joining UCD he was a Professor of Operations Management and Information Systems at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, Canada. And he spent the 2009-2010 academic year at University College Dublin on a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship studying sustainable supply chain management. He received his PhD in Operations and Sourcing Management from Michigan State University in 1997.
Dr. Pagell conducts research on topics such as sustainable supply chain management, human resource issues including employee safety in operational environments, and operational responses to environmental uncertainty. Dr. Pagell has published over 55 peer reviewed journal articles in a number of premier outlets including: Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of Supply Chain Management. Dr. Pagell's research has won a number of awards including an Emerald Citation of Excellence Award (2013), best papers published in the Journal of Supply Chain Management (2009), International Journal of Operations and Production Management (2005) and Journal of Operations Management (2002) as well as best Operations Management paper at the Academy of Management meetings in 2001 and 2003 and best paper in the Sustainability track at the Decision Sciences meetings in 2008 and 2011

Noelle is Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Associate Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department. Her research uses atmospheric chemistry modelling to inform decision-making on air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). She received my PhD from Harvard University in Earth and Planetary Sciences as part of the Atmospheric, where she developed and evaluated a global, 3D model of mercury pollution. Prior to her current appointment, she was a research scientist with the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. In addition to her scientific work, she has published articles and book chapters on the interactions between science and policy in international environmental negotiations, in particular focusing on global efforts to regulate hazardous substances. Previously, she was a research associate with the Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a visiting researcher at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, Denmark, and worked on chemicals issues at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Conor has been responsible for the design and delivery of executive talent development and strategic support programmes for our industry partner clients.  Through his role, he has worked for over 20 years supporting the professional and career development of both recent graduates and experienced executives. 

Conor has been involved since the inception of Bord Bia’s flagship Marketing Fellowship in 2009, co-designing and managing a suite of talent and strategic development programmes for the Irish food and drink industry. He has been involved in over 1,500 industry-based commercial client assignments, delivered as a core component of executive action learning programmes. Over 600 of these assignments were on behalf of Irish food industry clients, across 15 of Bord Bia’s key international markets.
Conor's key areas of expertise include: strategic export development for the food industry; executive coaching; professional & career development module design and delivery; action learning and talent development; executive programme design and management; marketing and business development; export market development; client management; and recruitment and selection.
In addition to executive education, Conor has operated within various other sectors including: market research, construction and property development and food at Boyne Valley Foods Group.

Conor holds a first-class honours MBA from UCD Smurfit School, a BComm from NUI Galway and was placed first in his class on UCD Smurfit School’s Marketing Practice Programme. He was awarded first-class honours in the Professional Diploma in Organisational Change & Transformation at UCD Smurfit School; first-class honours in the Professional Diploma in Business & Executive Coaching; and is currently completing the MSc in Business & Executive Coaching.

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