George Serafeim

George Serafeim is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he co-leads the Climate and Sustainability Impact Lab in the Digital, Data, and Design Institute. He teaches the course "Risks, Opportunities and Investments in an Era of Climate Change" (ROICC) that he designed for the MBA program. With a focus on operating and business models, ROICC has three tracks, entrepreneurial, managerial and investment, for students developing skills to excel in creating or joining startups, moving to managerial positions, or joining an investment firm. It explores growing opportunities in energy transition (such as electric vehicles, heat pumps, off the grid solar energy systems, green hydrogen, renewable energy generation, and bioethanol for clean cooking), materials and product utilization (such as circular models for reuse or recycle, plant based food, and lab grown agriculture), and enabling solutions (such as energy storage, carbon capture and storage, digital and AI driven models, carbon accounting, carbon credits and markets, risk management, and innovative financing). Professor Serafeim teaches in the school's custom executive education programs for senior leaders of global companies.

Previously, he taught “Reimagining Capitalism: Business and Big Problems”, which received the Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute and the Grand Page Prize, "Financial Reporting and Control," and created the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project that designed methodologies, produced large datasets, and incubated dozens of pilot projects globally on impact accounting and valuation. He has presented his research in over 60 countries around the world and ranks among the most popular authors on the Social Science Research Network. His book "Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World" explores the challenges and opportunities in building and sustaining profitable purpose-driven organizations that have a measurable positive impact on society.

Professor Serafeim’s research currently focuses on the intersection between the sustainability transformation and the digital and AI transformation. Specifically, he spends most of his research time on the use of generative AI to study climate solutions products and services. Over the years his research has span four main areas: business strategies in the context of climate change transition risk and opportunities, measuring organizational purpose and analyzing its drivers and consequences, sustainability data analytics and strategies, and the role of leadership and governance in corporate behavior and performance. His research is widely cited, having been published in prestigious academic and practitioner journals, across the fields of accounting, finance, management, and strategy. He has received multiple recognitions, including the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to the HBS community, the Pericles Leadership Award in recognition of services to the Hellenic Republic, the Kim B. Clark Fellowship on Responsible Leadership from University of Oxford, the Dr. Richard A. Crowell Memorial Prize, the JIBS Decade Award, and twice the Graham and Dodd Scroll Award.

Professor Serafeim has held several positions of leadership that allow him to bring, alongside research insights, a wealth of relevant experience to the classroom. He serves on the board of directors of Liberty Mutual, a Fortune 100 company, and on the advisory boards of leading investment firms, Summa Equity, Apax, and Neuberger Berman. He is an academic partner at State Street Associates, where he directs research on climate change-related transition and physical risks and opportunities and human capital factors that are affecting return and risk for institutional investors globally. He has been an investor and advisor to several start-ups over the years.

Previously, he co-founded the advisory services firm KKS, served on the board of directors of dss+, a leading operations consulting firm, and on the board of directors of AEA-Bridges Impact that combined with Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle division to create the first publicly traded electric motorcycle company in the US. Focusing on corporate governance, he served on the steering committee of the Athens Exchange Group, the governance body for both stock and bond exchanges, and as the Chairperson of Greece’s Corporate Governance Council. During his tenure, a new corporate governance code was issued to improve governance practices, investor protection, and business performance. He has contributed in advancing corporate transparency globally, having served on the inaugural Standards Council of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, which created standards for investor relevant sustainability corporate disclosures adopted by thousands of leading companies around the world, and on the Taskforce Working Group on Impact Transparency, Integrity and Reporting established by the UK's Presidency of the G7 nations. He was a member of the first ever decarbonization advisory panel for the New York Common Retirement Fund, one of the largest US pension funds, which offered recommendations on how to identify, assess and manage investment risks and opportunities from the energy transition.

Professor Serafeim earned his doctorate in business administration at Harvard Business School, where his doctoral dissertation was recognized with the Wyss Award for excellence in research. He received a master's degree in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was awarded the Emeritus Professors’ Prize for best academic performance. He grew up in Athens, Greece.