Klaus M. Leisinger
Klaus Leisinger heads the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Develop¬ment as Chief Executive Officer and President of its Board of Trustees. The Foundation (www.novartisfoundation.com) has consul¬tative status with the Social and Economic Council of the United Nations. In addition, Klaus Leisinger is Professor of Sociology at the Uni¬vers¬i¬ty of Basel where he teaches Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility as well as Human Rights and Business. Klaus Leisinger served as invited lecturer at several Swiss and German universities, as well as at the University of Notre Dame, De Paul University, the MIT Sloan School of Management (Cambridge), and at Harvard University. He is member of the European Acade¬my of Sciences and Arts. Klaus Leisinger has held and still holds several advisory positions in a number of national and international organi¬¬za¬¬tions, such as the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Development Pro¬gram (UNDP), the World Bank (CGIAR), Asian Development Bank as well as Economic Com¬mission for Latin America (ECLA) and the UN Economic and Social Council. Between September 2005 and December 2006, Klaus Leisinger served as Special Advisor of the United Nations Secretary General for the UN Global Compact, at that time Kofi Annan. For his sustained engagement “pro pace et justitia” as well as for his academic work in Business Ethics he was awarded a “doctor honoris causa” in theology by the university of Fribourg (Switzerland).