Background…
Dr Sarah Birrell Ivory is an Associate Professor in Climate Change and Business Strategy at the University of Edinburgh Business School (UEBS), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and a Chartered Management and Business Educator (CMBE).
She has a BCom (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, an MBA from Melbourne Business School (including an exchange semester at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), an MSc (Research) and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to academia, Dr Ivory worked for a decade in the private sector in Singapore and Australia, and for an international NGO in the UK.
University Of Edinburgh
Dr Ivory is the immediate past Director of the Centre for Business, Climate Change, and Sustainability (B-CCaS) at the University of Edinburgh Business School. B-CCaS aims to be a catalyst for positive social and environmental change in the interaction of climate, business, policy, and society; to work across institutional, market, organisational, community, and individual levels; and to offer innovative and research-led solutions, stimulate and contribute to key policy debates, and create and inspire changemakers for the future.
As well as being a past chair of the British Academy of Management Sustainable and Responsible Business special interest group, she has served a term as an elected non-professorial member of the University of Edinburgh Senatus Academicus.
Published work and Research Projects
Dr Ivory has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Business Ethics, and Business Strategy and the Environment. Her research covers a range of topics including the relationship between business, sustainability, and climate change, as well as social enterprise governance and alternative forms of organising. She also researches critical thinking pedagogy, and creating critical thinking learning environments. Dr Ivory regularly reviews for leading journals including Journal of Business Ethics, Organization & Environment, and Business & Society.
In addition to research mentioned above, Dr Ivory has been involved in funded research projects throughout her career including Teaching Critical Thinking in Business; Mapping Social Enterprise Governance; Study Skills Transition; Carbon Benchmarking Project; Pilot study of FTSE companies for proposed Climate Change Index; and Voices of Graduating Students.
Public Speaking
Dr Ivory is a regular presenter, panellist and media commentator on climate change, sustainability, business, university education, and critical thinking. Her television appearances include BBC 24-hour News and BBC Reporting Scotland, while for radio she has contributed to BBC World Service, and BBC Radio Scotland.
In the academic sphere, Dr Ivory is a regular presenter at academic conferences, including the British Academy of Management (BAM), and a consistent supporter of their Doctoral Symposium. She has conducted keynote addresses at the University of Mississippi, Melbourne Business School, and more. She also organised regular Sustainability in Business conferences at the University of Edinburgh with keynote speakers including Prof Bobby Banerjee, Cass Business School; Prof Ioannis Ioannou, London Business School; and Prof Christian Seelos, Stanford University.
Additionally, she is a popular speaker at corporate events such as practitioner conferences and staff forums and training. This includes events at NatWest Group, Baillie Gifford, Crown Estates Scotland, Horizontal, Story, and more.
She has been an invited panellist or speaker at events including the Ethical Finance Global conference (2022), Environment Leadership Australia Climate Leadership and Jobs Summit (2022), Scottish Parliament’s Festival of Politics (2020), COP26Cast (2020), UK Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Network Scottish Launch (2017); Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Report Launch (2017); Chartered Bankers’ Institute Green and Sustainable Finance event (2019); Sustainability Managers Practitioner Network (2015), and Australian-based Fairley Leadership Programme (2013).
Teaching
Dr Ivory has taught courses in universities in Scotland, England and Australia, and provided guest lectures in person and virtually across the UK, Australia, USA, Canada, France, Belgium and China. She has taught courses on global challenges, sustainability, climate change, leadership, strategy, environmental policy, organisational behaviour, and study skills. In addition to Business Schools, she has been an invited guest lecturer in Law Schools, Geosciences, and in Politics and Social Sciences.
In relation to Executive Education teaching, Dr Ivory leads the University of Edinburgh-NatWest Group 3 year Climate Change Education Partnership, which has included rolling out fundamentals programmes to all 65,000 colleagues, and more in depth training to specific teams up to and including the Board of Directors. She is a sought after educators in climate change in the financial services sector, and has been recognised for her contribution with a nomination in the Green Giant Awards as ‘Scotland’s Green Champion’.
“Rather than passively impart information, Sarah encouraged vibrant debate within classes
and really encouraged us to think about the bigger picture,”
Dr Ivory has extensive experience supervising undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students from multiple countries including the UK, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Russia, Germany, Poland, China, Indonesia, Egypt, and Iran.
She has acted as faculty advisor for case competitions, including notably taking her team of four undergraduates all the way to the semi-finals of the John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition, at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.