Empowering tomorrow’s leaders: Online MSc students in conversation with Professor Dame Jane Francis

Date: Thursday 10 August 2023

On 25 July 2023, students from the online Sustainable Business Leadership MSc were invited to join a virtual roundtable with Professor Dame Jane Francis, Chancellor of the University of Leeds and Director of the British Antarctic Survey.

During the event, Professor Dame Jane Francis spoke about her experiences as Director of the British Antarctic Society, and her hopes for business leaders to play a key role in managing the devastating effects of climate change that are being seen around the world.

The students, who are part-way through their post-graduate studies, asked a number of questions about the role of businesses in driving radical change to keep global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees, the role of AI in sustainability and future opportunities for PhD research.

The Chancellor shared stories from her recent trip to the Arctic, where she spent time with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage as part of a new project to communicate the importance of sustainability via poetry and recordings of the ice caps melting. She went on to describe how AI technology has been used to decode centuries of handwritten records to develop more accurate weather forecasting models.

Following a discussion on the role of businesses in addressing the climate crisis, Dame Francis offered the students her words advice for their studies on the Sustainable Business Leadership MSc programme:

"I think this course is absolutely fantastic. Taking practical examples of sustainable mechanisms, but looking at it how it can affect business, is absolutely critical for being able to understand the future and particularly how businesses can adapt... So good luck, because the future depends on you."