Wayne Visser


Wayne Visser is a writer, speaker, film producer, academic, editor of poetry, social entrepreneur and futurist focused on sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and creating integrated value.

Biography

Wayne Visser was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, raised in Cape Town, South Africa and now lives in London, United Kingdom. Wayne Visser completed his high school at Fairbairn College in 1987 and went on to study marketing and economics as part of a Business Science Honours degree at the University of Cape Town. In 1996, he studied at the , where he obtained an MSc with special commendation.
Visser's early career was spent as a management consultant, first as a strategy analyst for Capgemini and then as director of sustainability services for KPMG in South Africa. In 1995, he established a Johannesburg chapter of and in 1997, he co-founded the . In 2007, he qualified with a PhD in business and management from the at Nottingham University Business School, where he researched what motivates of sustainability managers, using existential psychology as his lens of analysis. In 2008, he set up the research sharing platform and in 2012 started the think tank and media company .
he is professor of integrated value and holder of the chair in sustainable transformation at Antwerp Management School. He is a fellow and former research director at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and visiting professor at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Recognition

The Fast Company business magazine claims that "anyone interested in CSR will eventually come across Wayne Visser. He is very active in the field, and offers a unique and candid voice on the topic". CSRWire USA calls him "one of the most prolific, creative and original thought leaders on CSR and author/editor of books on the subject".
Visser's research and writing proposes going beyond creating shared value and corporate social responsibility to the creation of Integrated Value. He promotes sustainable enterprise and the idea of CSR as "corporate sustainability and responsibility" and calls for an evolution from CSR 1.0 to CSR 2.0. His theory of CSR 2.0 characterises CSR maturity into five stages, from defensive, charitable, promotional and strategic CSR to systemic or transformative CSR. He identifies three failures of CSR 1.0, five principles of CSR 2.0 and four DNA elements of CSR 2.0. The CSR 2.0 theory is summarised in his books, The Age of Responsibility and CSR 2.0.

Publications

Wayne Visser has written and edited 27 books and published more than 320 chapters and articles. He writes a regular column on international sustainable business for the HuffPost website, and The Guardian UK newspaper. His book, Beyond Reasonable Greed, was made into a film called Lessons From The Wild: Leadership – Tusks or Fangs. His poem "I Am An African", from his anthology of the same name, was the basis for a dance theatre production at South Africa's 2012 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. and an inspiration behind Heleen du Plessis's Cello for Africa CD

Business and sustainability

Visser was a producer on the 2015 climate change documentary Sinking Nation, along with Emmy Award-winning director, . In 2016/17, they collaborated again on a documentary film on the circular economy called Closing the Loop.

Attribution