Former PepsiCo CEO and Unilever CEO Share Views on the Purpose of Businesses in New Global Speaker Series

December 7, 2023

Students from Global Network schools were invited to join via Zoom.

In October of 2023 the Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management (Y-SIM) launched a collaborative Global Network speaker series Stakeholders, Management and Capitalism: Conversations with leaders on how to manage stakeholders in diverse settings. The program will run through June 2024 and the recorded interviews will be made available on the Y-SIM program’s website.

Ted and Indra
Prof. Ted Snyder and former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi in the Stakeholders, Management, and Capitalism class at Yale SOM.

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, was the inaugural speaker in the series. William S. Beinecke Professor of Economics and Management Edward A. Snyder invited Nooyi to a new elective class, Stakeholders, Management, and Capitalism, at Yale SOM. In front of the students Nooyi responded to questions from Snyder. In addition to the 70 Yale SOM participants, more than 120 students, faculty, and alumni from other Global Network schools joined via Zoom.

paul polman
Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman joins Stakeholders, Management, and Capitalism class Yale SOM via Zoom.

On November 13 Professor Snyder interviewed the second speaker in the series, former CEO of Unilever Paul Polman who joined the new Stakeholders, Management, and Capitalism elective at Yale SOM via Zoom. In addition to the Yale students in the classroom, an audience of over 170 participants from other Global Network Schools joined via Zoom.

With many Global Network schools already exploring aspects of stakeholder management the curated speaker series aims to push forward collective thinking on this increasingly important subject. GNAM member schools are invited to participate in the speaker series by hosting interviews with senior executives on the topic of stakeholder management and inviting GNAM students to join via Zoom. The Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management will maintain a collection of recordings of the interviews on the program’s website.

The program is also developing case studies for business classes around the world. A case study on Enel Group, one of the largest electric utilities in the world, headquartered in Rome, and another case study on Equinor, one of the world's largest oil companies, based in Norway, have just been completed.

For additional information about the program, please contact Adria Boyle, Director of the Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management at adria.boyle@yale.edu.