Stuart L. Hart

Dr. Stuart L. Hart is the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Johnson School of Management and Founder of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University. He is also the President and Founder of Enterprise for a Sustainable World. Previously he was the Hans Zulliger Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Kenan Flagler Business School and Founder of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina. He was also the Founding Director of the Corporate Environmental Management Program at the University of Michigan (now the Erb Institute’s Dual Masters Program). He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the implications of environment and poverty for business strategy. Professor Hart has published over 70 papers and authored or edited seven books, with over 5,000 Google Scholar citations in all. Hart wrote the seminal article “Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World,” which won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in the Harvard Business Review in 1997, and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability. With C.K. Prahalad, he also wrote the path-breaking 2002 article, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which first articulated how business could profitably serve the needs of the four billion poor in the developing world. His best-selling 2005 book, Capitalism at the Crossroads (Wharton School Publishing) was recognized by Cambridge University as one of the top 50 books on sustainability of all time. A third edition of the book was published in 2010. With Ted London, Hart is also the author of a newly released book entitled Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid. In this book, Hart and other leading BoP thought and practice leaders show how to apply second-generation BoP innovations, techniques, and business models to build successful and sustainable BoP businesses. He has served as consultant, advisor, or management educator for dozens of corporations and organizations including Dupont, S. C. Johnson, General Electric, Baxter Healthcare, Wal Mart, the World Economic Forum, and the Clinton Global Initiative. He is an internationally recognized speaker and has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses on the topic of sustainable business around the world. Stuart Hart earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester (General Science), Master’s degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Environmental Management), and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (Planning and Strategy).