CBS appoints new vice dean for green transition

Green transition is an important strategic focus area for CBS, which will now enhance leadership within this field.

05/11/2022

Hanne Harmsen

Hanne Harmsen has been appointed Vice Dean for Green Transition at CBS. It is a newly established position in which Hanne Harmsen is to contribute to a greater focus on the social sciences research at CBS that plays an essential role in the green transition.

”This appointment shows that the green transition area has a great managerial focus at CBS, and it is an important joint task which affects research as well as education here. Together with many other employees, the vice dean is to pioneer the effort of bringing our green focus areas together to develop and display them and build bridges to companies, politicians and other research institutions,” says Søren Hvidkjær, Dean of Research at Copenhagen Business School.

As we know, climate change is one of the largest challenges of our time, and Denmark’s goal to reduce carbon emission by 70% in 2030 and become carbon neutral in 2050 demands new research, new education programmes, innovation, push and an enhanced collaboration across sciences and sectors.

With our long-standing tradition of strong and interdisciplinary research environments within finance, economics, marketing, management, innovation and strategy, CBS can play a significant part in reducing climate change.
 

So far, the green transition debate has tended to focus on new technology, but we also need to focus on the social sciences side

-Hanne Harmsen, Vice Dean for Green transition

Uniting business and technology

”So far, the green transition debate has tended to focus on new technology, but we also need to focus on the social sciences side. For instance, CBS delivers knowledge on consumer behaviour, shopping behaviour and economic models to measure the impact of new initiatives. And we have knowledge on how to lead an organisation facing green transition initiatives,” Hanne Harmsen points out.

CBS actually focuses on developing solutions combining behaviour, business understanding and technology, and for this reason, CBS has established a number of partnerships, particularly with the STEM area. Hanne Harmsen will also be coordinating these partnerships as well as ensuring that CBS continuously will be able to engage in relevant national and international interdisciplinary initiatives within green transition.

Hanne Harmsen was appointed Green Transformation Officer at CBS 18 months ago. Before that she worked as Executive Vice President in Innovation Fund Denmark, among other things focusing on sustainability and diversity.

Previously, Hanne Harmsen has been Vice Provost for Education at the University of Copenhagen and Associate Dean of Strategic Management at Aarhus School of Business, where she also conducted research on innovation management with a focus on the food industry.


Do you have an idea for a green transition project or any questions related to this area, please direct your inquiry at Hanne Harmsen at hh.slk@cbs.dk
 

The page was last edited by: Sekretariat for Ledelse og Kommunikation // 07/11/2023