About

A quarter of a century inside corporate sustainability. And what I've learned trying to change it from within.

Writer, teacher, musician, music promoter — and recovering corporate sustainability consultant.

It took me twenty-five years to admit something I now think is obvious: corporations can't become truly sustainable inside the economic system we've built around them. The incentives don't add up, and no amount of clever reporting will make them. So I've changed how I work. I still help companies do the best they can within the system — but I spend more and more of my time on the stories underneath it.

These days I teach sustainability at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership — where I've been a Fellow and on faculty since 2007, across the Postgraduate Certificate, the Master's in Sustainability Leadership, and executive programmes. I also hold a fellowship at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, and am writing a book called Changing Stories, Finding Hope. It's an argument that the cultural narratives we live by — about selfishness, growth, competition, our place in nature — are not facts. They're stories. And stories can be changed.

Before all that, I read law at Leiden University in the Netherlands (1987–92) and got an INSEAD MBA in 1998. I've worked in sustainability strategy from inside Kearney, Freshfields, Aldersgate Group, SustainAbility, Arthur D. Little and others — eight firms across three decades, in six languages (English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese).

I live in the Scottish Highlands, on the edge of the country and on purpose. I play harmonica in The Magnificent Kevens, a band that has somehow become a Glastonbury busking fixture and has also played Beautiful Days and Belladrum. With my partner Maia Eden I co-founded Hilltop Sessions CIC in 2021 — a not-for-profit grassroots music promoter that has now put on 40+ gigs with 125+ performers, first in Sussex and now in the Highlands, including a one-day festival in 2024. I keep bees. I'm slowly working out what a good life looks like for the people who come after us — and what it would take to actually build one.

What I do, day to day

  • Teach. Corporate sustainability strategy, the business case for change, the circular economy, sustainability communications and why we need to change societal narratives — on executive and postgraduate programmes at Cambridge (CISL), and via guest lectures and bespoke corporate education.
  • Write. A book called Changing Stories, Finding Hope about the narratives that prevent us from achieving a more sustainable future, weekly essays on Substack, plus longer commissioned pieces when an editor I respect asks.
  • Advise. A small number of boards and executive teams on transition planning, anti-ESG navigation and CSRD as advantage. I keep client numbers low so the work stays honest.
  • Speak. At conferences, leadership offsites, investor events and the occasional festival.
  • Promote and play music. Co-director of Hilltop Sessions CIC with Maia Eden — and performer with festival buskers The Magnificent Kevens and blues band Sidewinder.

The short version

  • Twenty-five years of sustainability advice
  • Fellow, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) — since 2007
  • Fellow, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP)
  • Director, Hillcrest Consulting
  • Co-founder and Director, Hilltop Sessions CIC (with Maia Eden)
  • MBA, INSEAD (1998) · Master of Law, Leiden University (1992)
  • Languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese