Discussion Breakouts: Preparing students to use business as a force for good

   Session Overview



Discussion Breakouts:  Preparing students to use business as a force for good

Session Description:  Preparing students to use business as a force for good - Business schools across the country are building innovative, interdisciplinary experiential learning programs, called B Impact Teams, preparing students to use business as an engine to drive social and environmental impact. These curricular and co-curricular models, teach students about B Corps and the business for good movement and connect them to real world opportunities to engage stakeholders while creating bottom line business value.

Moderator: Jake Mosley
Director, Full-Time MBA Student Services, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia

 

Jake has worked in Higher Education Administration for eleven years.  During that time, he has worked across all areas of graduate business education:  Admissions, Career Services, and Student Affairs. Jake specializes in collaborating across departmental units to maximize resources and design infrastructures empowering students to realize their goals.  Recent examples include redesigning the student club structure within the Full-Time MBA program to better align with the size and strategic mission of the program and working closely with MBA students and alumni to launch the Georgia MBA B Collaborative pairing MBA students and UGA undergraduate students to serve as consultants for companies pursuing B Corp™ Certification. Jake is invested in providing the best student experience possible, volunteering as a Safe Space Training Facilitator, Student Veteran Transition Coach, and a Correll Scholar Mentor which provides mentorship to first generation college students from rural areas.  

Moderator: Nathan A. Stuck
Director of Culture & Strategic Impact, Ad Victoriam Solutions

Nathan A. Stuck is a champion of all things B Corp and corporate social responsibility. He currently serves as the Director of Corporate Culture & Strategic Impact at Ad Victoriam Solutions, a certified B Corp Salesforce consultancy in Atlanta, GA. In addition to his work in the private sector, Nathan founded and chairs B Local Georgia, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness of, and strengthening, the B Corp community in Georgia. He is also the founder and principal of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a B Corp consultancy, and a part-time lecturer in the University of Georgia’s Full-Time MBA program, where he teaches a B Corp class that pairs students with companies looking to certify their businesses. Mr. Stuck was awarded the 2020 Community Builder Award by B Lab North America and is a frequent guest on podcasts and at conferences, where he makes the business case for B Corps, explains the nuances of growing this movement in the southeast, and the importance for including it in both undergraduate and graduate program curriculum. After working on a project as an MBA candidate (and now working for that certified B Corp), he has been a pivotal force in creating the B Collaborative at UGA and has also helped with projects at Agnes Scott College, Georgia Tech, and Emory University as well. In his local community, Nathan serves as the board chair for Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful and as the alumni advisor to Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at UGA. He received an undergraduate degree in international business from the Terry College of Business (UGA) in 2004 and graduated from Terry again in 2017 with his MBA.

Moderator: Jessica Yinka Thomas
Co-founder, President and Board Chair of B Academics and Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Poole College of Management at NC State University

Jessica Yinka Thomas is an academic and an author with over 15 years of experience studying social innovation, sustainability and business ethics. Professor Thomas is the director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative, an academic initiative in the Poole College of Management at NC State University focused on preparing the next generation of leaders to use business as a force for good. She is also an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where she teaches social innovation and environmental sustainability in the undergraduate and MBA program. Her work focuses on studying innovative sustainable business models including B Corporations. She leads the nationally-recognized, B Corp Clinic, an experiential learning consulting program where multidisciplinary students work with aspiring and certified B Corps to drive social and environmental impact. Professor Thomas is president and chair of the board of B Academics, a global network of over 2,000 educators and researchers studying B Corps and benefit corporations. She has published numerous award-winning case studies and is the author of two social justice novels, How Not to Save the World and How Not to Make Friends. She has led globally recognized academic programs at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan Flagler Business School and now at NC State’s Poole College of Management. Before her career in academia, Professor Thomas spent over a decade in industry in roles ranging from designing mobile satellite communications systems at a multinational corporation, managing product development for an educational toy company startup and consulting for global non-profits. She is a recipient of the Bill Clark B the Change award, the B Lab Collective Action award (on behalf of B Academics), the Fuqua Leader of Consequence Award, and the NC Business Council Visionary Leadership Award. Professor Thomas received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and her MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.