Business School Professor of Practice
Nationality: Swiss, Irish, American
Professional Career & Mini Bio
Professor Margaret Flaherty has spent the last 25 years building coalitions of leadership companies around business and sustainable development.
She was part of the founding team of the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), growing that organization for ~ 20 years as the Chief Operating Officer/Chief of Staff. Before that, she was with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France.
She is currently a Professor of Practice at IÉSEG School of Management (Paris, France) and the Business School Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland), teaching at the Bachelor, Master and MBA levels. Her courses focus on business, sustainability and scenario planning including specialized modules on specific industry sectors including cement, textiles, mining and agri-business.
Margaret is a member of the Citizenship Advisory Boards of Abbott (USA) and held similar roles with Caterpillar (USA), Areva (France), AccountAbility (UK) and FSG (US & CH).
She has a MSci from Tufts University School Civil Engineering (Boston), a Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law (Boston) and a BA from the University of Connecticut. She has also completed Executive Education Programs at both Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Business School.
A Swiss, Irish, and American national, she is based in both Geneva, Switzerland and Paris, France, where she combines teaching with consulting within a variety of industry sectors, including agri-business, textiles, and FMCGs. She is married and has two children that she hopes will soon move out.
