Exploring Models and Mindsets for Restorative Business
There is a growing call to reorient and rebalance financial and market systems to support regenerative economies with more mindful, compassionate, cooperative worldviews. This includes purpose-driven business and strategies to mobilize sequestered capital and stagnant wealth for community benefit, with a greater focus on fairness and restoring well-being of individuals, societies, and natural systems.
In collaboration with the Garrison Institute, we explore the role of policy, institutional mindsets, consumer attitudes, cultural value systems, and the pressure of social movements in transitioning from destructive, hyper-extractive economies toward practices that support flourishing.
Program and Panelists
A brief welcome from Brian Berman, President and Founder of the Nova Institute for Health, was followed by an opening meditation from Rick Scott. Susan Prescott, Director of the Nova Network, chaired the meeting. Community discussion followed short presentations from industry leaders and pioneers.
See the full event recording below or scroll down to see individual presentations.
Welcome
Professor Brian Berman, MD, is President and Founder of Nova Institute for Health and Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he was Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine.
He is one of the most highly funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers in the field of integrative and complementary medicine. A pioneer in the field and founder of the first U.S. academic medical center-based program for integrative medicine in 1991, he received two Bravewell Collaborative awards in leadership and service. He continues to conduct NIH-funded research at University of Maryland and promote a broad vision of health through leadership at Nova Institute for Health.
Introduction: Mobilizing Sequestered Capital and Stagnant Wealth for Community Benefit Requires Ethical and Cultural Transition
Susan Prescott is Director of the Nova Network. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at University of Western Australia, Director of the ORIGINS project, Editor-in-Chief of Challenges, and a Scholar at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore.
She is internationally recognized for cutting-edge research into early environmental determinants of health and disease. Her global work promotes awareness of the interconnections between personal and planetary health in a way that inspires wiser, creative, integrated approaches, grounded in reciprocity, for social and ecological justice and flourishing futures. She is also an artist and award-winning author.
“My passion is connecting people and ideas to create new opportunities.”
Purpose-Driven Capitalism Requires Social and Spiritual Transformation
Rebecca Henderson is a Harvard University Professor, a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and fellow of both the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She has more than 25 years of major public board experience. Her research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy. Rebecca’s latest book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, was shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey 2020 Business Book of the Year Award.
“My passion is connecting people and ideas to create new opportunities.”
The Important Role of Marketing Narratives for Restorative and Regenerative Business
David Webb is an Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia Business School (Marketing).
He is a social psychologist with primary interests in the domain of macro-marketing focusing in particular on the interface between marketing and quality of life, self-determination theory, and the psychology of consumption. He has held numerous international academic and industry positions in Germany, the Far East, the United States, and the United Kingdom together with an executive position at a customer satisfaction management consultancy firm in South Africa.
Nurturing Compassionate Leadership in Finance: Mindfulness-Based Leadership Skills Within the Financial Industry to Transform the Sector into a Force for Good
Sander Tideman is Program Director of Compassionate Leadership in Finance (CLIF) at the Garrison Institute, New York, and serves on the faculty of the Rotterdam School of Management and Mobius Executive Leadership.
Holding degrees from the University of Utrecht, London School of Economics, and School of Oriental and African Studies, his work integrates insights from Eastern philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and systems science with practices of management, finance and economics. He is an author, consultant, and coach in sustainability leadership, organizational change, and investing. He worked closely with H.H. the Dalai Lama in translating insights from Buddhism into business, economics, and leadership, laid down in the book Business as an Instrument for Societal Change (2016). His most recent book, Triple Value Leadership, describes a new leadership theory and practice for sustainable business transformation.
Restorative Economics: Stewarding Shared Assets for Shared Prosperity in Vulnerable Communities
Nwamaka Agbo (first name pronounced “Amaka”) is the CEO of the Kataly Foundation and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund (REF).
In her roles, Nwamaka collaborates with the Kataly team to lead the foundation’s day-to-day operations, while holding the community-centered strategy and vision for the REF. With a background in community organizing, electoral campaigns, and policy and advocacy work on racial, social, and environmental justice issues, Nwamaka is deeply committed to supporting projects that build resilient, healthy, and self-determined communities rooted in shared prosperity.
The Role of Education and Inner Development in Creating the Enabling Conditions for Socioeconomic Transition
Kate Rudd, from the The Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), recently graduated with her Masters in Regenerative Economics with distinction from Schumacher College (UK).
Her dissertation involved research in four languages across six countries in the Global South and Global North to understand the enabling conditions for scaling deeply regenerative agriculture.
“I believe in food systems transformation, innovation, and education as pathways towards peace and social and ecological resilience. My mission is to secure a brighter future for people and the planet, through supporting the regenerative work of organizations and innovators.”
Marketing Prosocial Consumption and Sustainability: Strategies to Promote Sustainable, Prosocial Consumer Behavior
Kate White is Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Science at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada.
She is the Academic Director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics and she holds a professorship in Consumer Insights, Prosocial Consumption, and Sustainability. Kate teaches courses in consumer behavior, consumer insights, social influence, marketing strategy, and sustainability/social marketing at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels.
“I am interested in how we can shift people’s attitudes and choices for the social good by encouraging positive actions such as engaging in charitable giving and prosocial and sustainable behaviors.”
