Shaun Westcott SE Forum Chairman

SE Forum Chairman Selected One of Top 100 CSR Leaders in Sweden

February 29, 2012 - News

SE Forum’s Chairman of the Board, Shawn Westcott, was chosen as one of the “Top 100 Leaders to Affect Sustainability in Business” in 2012 by CSR i Praktiken, the on-line magazine of Veckens Affärer, one of Sweden’s leading business magazines.

The citation read (translated from Swedish):

“Shawn Westcott, Chairman of SE Forum: The loose-knit network with the aim of promoting social entrepreneurship is becoming more refined and focused. Westcott’s college-boy look and ability to pack quite a load of ideas in great American words seduces both investors and the outside world (we melt when he says Strategic anything!). The year’s most interesting project is an incubator program for social entrepreneurs who have ideas that can make a difference in developing countries.”

“I’m extremely humbled to have earned this recognition,” said Westcott. “As I see it, however, this was given to me for my role with SE Forum; I gladly accept this on behalf of my Board and staff, our previous Boards, and SE Forum’s members. It is a pleasure to have the work we’re doing recognized, especially with the development of our new social business incubator, SE Outreach, and this certainly gives us additional encouragement.”

Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus with SE Forum Chairman, Shawn Westcott in a discussion on social business in Stockholm. June 2011

Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus with SE Forum Chairman, Shawn Westcott in a discussion on social business in Stockholm. June 2011

According to the magazine, “the 40 people completing the CSR i Praktiken list of the 100 people that affect most businesses in 2012 have received high marks when we considered their formal influence (power to make decisions for change and the degree to which the decisions affect Swedish companies), informal influence (in which extent they affect other informally and how large network they have), and their charisma (charisma combined with credibility on sustainability issues).”

“In the autumn of 2011 and winter of 2012, CSR i Praktiken invited readers to suggest people to the list. In parallel, they contacted the influential men and women in business, government and civil society to propose names. All incoming names had subsequently received their degree of impact based on three criteria: formal influence (power to make decisions for change and to what degree decision for the Swedish company), informal influence (the degree to which they affect other informally and how large network they have) and charisma (charisma combined with credibility on sustainability issues). They also considered the extent to which the leaders may affect business sustainability in 2012 rather than a few years. This method means that some eminent scientists, famous politicians and high profile academics are outside the list when the overall assessment is that others will affect the companies’ work more in just 2012. This does not mean that they can not appear on the list next year.”

Shawn Westcott, who has been SE Forum’s Chairman since last year, moved to Sweden from the US in 2007 to study for his Masters Degree in sustainability. After graduate school he moved to Stockholm to work as a sustainability adviser. He’s currently working in Business Development with Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) in preparation for SOCAP Designing the Future, which will be held in Malmö this year.