PEOPLE
founders. faculty. instructors.
MSLS PROGRAMME FOUNDERS
Dr. Göran Broman |
Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt |
Dr. Göran Broman is a Professor and Science Director at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development, and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, at BTH. Dr. Broman holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from Lund University. He has also studied subjects such as ecology, human ecology, economics, resource theory and leadership. He has extensive experience in transdisciplinary research and education and has played a leading role in the establishment of strategic sustainable development as a new academic subject area. He has worked with integration of sustainability aspects in higher education. He has worked in industry with innovation and quality assurance and he advises and trains leaders in industry and society in strategic sustainable development and leadership for sustainability. Dr. Broman founded the MSLS Program together with Dr. Robèrt in 2002 and was part of the design team that developed the launch version and early iterations of the programme.
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Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt is a Professor at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at BTH. Dr. Robèrt holds a medical doctor’s degree and PhD in internal medicine from Karolinska Institute and has been Head of the Department of Clinical Hematology and Oncology at Huddinge Hospital. Dr. Robèrt has also been Professor of Physical Resource Theory at Chalmers University of Technology. He has extensive experience in transdisciplinary research and education and has played a leading role in the establishment of strategic sustainable development as a new academic subject area. He advises and trains leaders in industry and society in strategic sustainable development and leadership for sustainability. Dr. Robèrt founded the MSLS Program together with Dr. Broman in 2002 and was part of the design team that developed the launch version and early iterations of the programme.
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INITIAL PROGRAMME DESIGN LEAD AND DIRECTOR
David Waldron
M.Sc. David Waldron was invited to Sweden in 2003, by Professors Broman and Robèrt, to lead the team that designed and launched the original MSLS Programme in August, 2004. This included developing and refining many of the defining features of the programme, including its unique approach to leadership and learning culture and the integration of co-creative processes with strategic sustainable development. David was Programme Director until 2006. David has, for 25 years, co-created original sustainability leadership initiatives for local communities, universities, businesses and non-profit organizations. He has taught sustainability leadership at BTH, University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU) and UC Berkeley. David holds a Master’s of Resource and Environmental Management from SFU and a Bachelors of Applied Science (Civil Engineering) from UBC. David is co-founder of, and is actively working with Synapse Strategies, a consultancy focusing on strategic leadership towards sustainability and regenerative development.
MSLS CORE TEAM
Dr. Merlina Missimer |
Dr. James Ayers |
Dr. Merlina Missimer is an Assistant Professor and the Programme Co-Director of MSLS at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at BTH.
Her research has a focus on the social dimensions of sustainability. She holds a B.Sc. in international environmental studies from Franklin & Marshall University, USA, and a Masters in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from BTH. |
Dr. James Ayers is the MSLS Programme Co-Director in the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at BTH. He holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Diploma of Journalism and is an MSLS alumnus in which he now facilitates and teaches.
He has spent almost ten years working in large organisations working towards sustainability transitions, with a focus on education and communication aspects and also worked for Engineers Without Borders Australia as the Communications and Brand Manager and Team Captain of their Humanitarian Design Summit Program. He is from Melbourne, Australia. |
Pierre Johnson |
Elaine Daly |
M.Sc. Pierre Johnsson is a lecturer at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at BTH. He has a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Carleton University, Canada, and a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from BTH.
He has extensive experience in strategic management work in companies and municipalities. |
M.Sc. Elaine Daly is a lecturer and a PhD student in the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at BTH. The focus of her research is on organisational transformation and the role of employees as changemakers to drive long last sustainable shifts in market-leading corporations.
She has a B.Eng. in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from BTH. She has worked in the fields of International Development, Finance and Health as a coach, trainer and consultant. |
Dr. Patricia Lagun Mesquita |
Dana Bergman |
Dr. Patricia Lagun Mesquita has a PhD from the Strategic Sustainable Development department at the Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden. Her research focuses on how to strategically integrate a social sustainability perspective into the product innovation process.
Patricia has a B.A. in Social Sciences with a major in Anthropology from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from BTH. Prior to her PhD, she worked for several years with supporting companies in Brazil in integrating sustainability thinking into their practices. |
In her role as University Lecturer at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona (Sweden), Dana enjoys wearing multiple hats. Dana is a learning facilitator at MSLS. She also coordinates the communication efforts to promote the MSLS programme to prospective students. As part of that work, she is also involved in the admission process for the MSLS programme. Apart from being involved in the MSLS programme, Dana is also the course responsible for the popular online course in Foundations for Strategic Sustainable Development and she also teaches in online and on-campus courses (Bachelor and Master level) in both Swedish and English.
Dana holds a BA in Social and Cultural Studies from the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and a Master´s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from BTH. |
EXTERNAL INSTRUCTORS
Yannick Wassmer
Yannick Wassmer helps groups of people work better together to address our most pressing complex social and ecological issues and help leaders thrive in times of uncertainty and complexity. Yannick holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Science from the University of Groningen, a Master's of Arts (cum laude) in Intercultural Communication from the University of Utrecht, and a Master’s of Science in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden. In his work, he often draws from the following methods, mental models, and practices: The Art of Hosting; Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development / The Natural Step Framework; Theory U; Flow Game; Transition Management; Systems Thinking and Complexity Theory; Intercultural Facilitation. Yannick currently works as Senior Consultant at Reos Partners.
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Sarah Nilsson Dolah
Sarah Nilsson Dolah provides training in conflict resolution and mediated dialogue, working to address social challenges and conflicts both in Sweden and internationally, drawing inspiration from peacebuilding methods. She spent seven years at Fryshuset, Sweden’s largest youth organization and one of the country’s biggest non-profits, gaining extensive experience in strategic leadership, change management, coaching, mediation, education, and organizational and method development. Through her work, Sarah aims to create conditions for inclusion—whether in the workplace or at a societal level—because she believes this is key to developing long-term, sustainable solutions to challenges and conflicts.
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Marula Tsagkari |
Anders Wijkman |
Marula Tsagkari is a postdoctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB. She holds a PhD from the University of Barcelona, and an MSc in Environmental Science Policy and Management from Central European University, and the University of Lund. Between 2022 and 2023, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. Her work focuses on exploring real existing degrowth cases on islands and beyond. She is also the president of the think-and-act tank Research and Degrowth.
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Anders Wijkman is a Swedish opinion leader and author. Since 2012 he is co-president – together with Professor Ernst von Weizsäcker – of the global think tank Club of Rome. In 2017, he was appointed chairman of the Governing Board of Climate-KIC – a major public-private partnership at EU level for the promotion of innovation of a low-carbon society. Anders is also chair of the Association of Recycling Industries in Sweden, member of the board of SIDA (the Swedish International Development Authority), member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry and one of the members of the World Future Council. In January 2015 Anders was appointed chair of the Swedish Cross-Party Committee on Environmental Objectives. The most immediate task is to develop a strategy for a low-carbon society in 2050. Anders has served as a Member of the European Parliament, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Policy Director of UNDP, Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross and Director General of the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries. Anders is honorary doctor at Linköping University (2011).
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Dr. Barrett Brown |
André Benaim |
Dr. Barrett Brown is a consultant and entrepreneur in the areas of leadership, organization, communication and sustainability. Dr. Brown has helped to initiate a dozen organizations, developed the multi-annual programs in leadership development, delivered leadership initiatives to managers in Fortune 500, and instructed senior officials of the United Nations Development Programme.
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André Benaim is passionate about personal and organizational development. He explores these interests in his work as a coach, as well as within sustainability related projects. His work experience includes the development of innovation capabilities in teams, as well as the development and implementation of empowering programs and processes for teams to learn more from their experiences. Currently, Andre is a project leader at the Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden.
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Dr. Bob Willard |
Dr. Göran Carstedt |
Dr. Bob Willard is the founder of The Sustainability Advantage – a source of research-based data on the business benefits of sustainability. Dr. Willard has extensive experience in business and leadership from his 34 year career at IBM Canada and in 2011 and was installed in the International Society of Sustainability Professionals’ Hall of Fame.
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Dr. Göran Carstedt is a Senior Director at The Clinton Foundation’s Large Cities Climate Initiative, a founding member of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) and former CEO of IKEA in North America and Volvo in France. He is also one of the early contributors to the MSLS program and has been actively involved in each year’s class.
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Augusto Cuginotti |
Augusto Cuginotti has 15 years experience in working with leaders and teams focusing on leadership development, organisational change and in designing & hosting learning interventions that are effective for corporate, governmental and civil society organisations.
Augusto’s ability in connecting systems and people are key to his work in preparing and conducting changing processes in face of complex situations. |
OUR WIDER COMMUNITY
Dr. Rachael Gould
Dr. Rachael Gould is a researcher and teacher working with sustainable product design. She helps companies to integrate sustainability in their design processes. She also works with companies and organisations to understand how they can work with softer, more human aspects of the transition to sustainable product design, such as behaviour change, organisational learning and decision-making. In addition, Rachael is very passionate about education for sustainable development. She is a keen teacher and is the assistant coordinator for integrating sustainability in the University’s educational offerings.
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Dr. Otto Scharmer
Dr. Otto Scharmer is a professor of Organization Studies at MIT Sloan School of Management. Dr. Scharmer is the founder of ELIAS (Emerging Leaders for Innovation Across Sectors), an initiative focused on the development of in-depth system innovation for a more sustainable world.
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Tracy Chaplin Meisterheim
M.Sc. Tracy Chaplin Meisterheim designs and facilitates transformative learning experiences and strategic change initiatives guided by a passion for building individual and collective capacity for conscious leadership and wise action towards a thriving world. Using creativity, mindfulness practices, contemplative dialogue, designed challenges, strategic frameworks and practical tools, Tracy illuminates new possibilities and deeper connections between people and planet through experiential training, participatory dialogues, educational design, and learning facilitation. Tracy is an Art of Hosting steward and founder and principal of Blue Heron Associates. Furthermore, she has experience directing a sustainability education center and the program of the Msc in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden.
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Toke Paludan Moeller
Toke Paludan Moeller has been pioneering in the fields of sustainable entrepreneurship, participatory leadership, educational renewal, and social responsibility since the early 1970s. He is co-founder and CEO of InterChange, a for more than profit training and process consulting company based in Denmark. He is working across the world in all kinds of contexts where ever leaders are sincerely calling for help with their transformations.
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Sarah Denie
Sarah Denie is a macro-economist and educator with a Masters degree in International Economic Studies from Maastricht University (NL). Having started her career as a global strategy analyst in the financial sector, she soon decided to take her interests in human rights and ecological integrity seriously, and changed profession to become a researcher for Dutch and international NGOs. While researching a wide variety of industries and their persistent unsustainable social and environmental practices, Sarah became increasingly interested in the deeper drivers of the system. She returned to her original field of economics and self-educated in a wide range of economic alternatives.
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Dr. Emanuele CampiglioDr. Emanuele Campiglio is a senior researcher at the New Economics Foundation in the UK. He focuses on macro-economics for sustainability, growth theory, ecological economics and environmental economics, modeling of climate change and basic economics theory.
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Dr. Louise TryggDr. Louise Trygg is a professor of energy systems at Linköping University. She is an expert in modeling, simulation and optimization of energy systems, strategic energy development and energy efficiency.
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Dr. Thomas B. JohanssonDr. Thomas B. Johansson is a professor of Environmental and Energy Systems at Lund University. He has been head of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. He was convening lead author of the IPCC Second Assessment Report.
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Martin Kalungu-BandaM.Sc. Martin Kalungu-Banda is a special consultant to the President of the Republic Zambia. He is a faculty member of the University of Cambridge’s Business and Environment Programme and has worked as a lecturer in business ethics at the University of Zambia.
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Dr. Deniz KocaDr. Deniz Koca is a senior lecturer in applied systems analysis and system dynamics at Lund University and focuses on the complex dynamics of ecological and socio-economic systems.
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Torbjörn LahtiTorbjörn Lahti is currently the Project Manager of the Sustainable Robertsfors project in northern Sweden. Between 1983 and 1989, Mr. Lahti was the Project Manager of the first eco-municipality in Sweden. He has been a teacher of sustainable development applied to municipalities for many years and has lectured extensively internationally. He is co-author of the book, The Natural Step for Communities.
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Dr. Jason MeekDr. Jason Meek is professor of Law at the University of California Berkeley, USA and also teaches Negotiation and Settlement at the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the University of California Hastings, USA.
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Peter Price-ThomasM.Sc. Peter Price-Thomas holds an M.Sc. in sustainability and industrial ecology from Yale University and an MA in geography from the University of Edinburgh. M.Sc. Price-Thomas has been a visiting researcher at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, manage Sustenance Ltd. and is an advisor to several multinational companies on strategic sustainability work.
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Dr. Bo RothsteinDr. Bo Rothstein is a professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg. Dr. Rothstein manage the Quality of Government Institute and is an expert on quality of governance, the social trap and anti-corruption and he leads the largest ever European project in the social sciences.
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