Date: Wednesday, June 25
Location: School of Economics and Management, University of Florence, via delle Pandette 9
Room: Building D6 – Room D6/0.18
Time: 2.00 – 3.30 PM
Description:
The aim of this Lab is to create a platform for open exchange and collaboration between academics, business leaders, and institutional representatives on the topic: Purpose-Driven Organizations: Law and Finance Perspective.
Over the past few years, the global economy has shifted toward stakeholder capitalism, with organizations increasingly redefining success and purpose of organization, by emphasizing people and planet value alongside profit. However, many organizations have been constrained by outdated legal structures, fragmented regulations, and capital markets that continue to prioritize short-term financial returns.
This progress was recently disrupted in the United States, where the Trump administration rolled back several legal and regulatory frameworks that had begun to support purpose-driven models. As a result, we’ve seen increased ideological polarization and a temporary retreat of U.S. leadership in sustainable business regulation. By contrast, Europe has taken a more structured and proactive approach. The European Union has introduced ambitious reforms—such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and proposed legislation on corporate due diligence—to embed sustainability and purpose into corporate governance and financial markets.
The regulatory agenda related to purpose and sustainability in the EU has faced these days a growing criticism for regulatory complexity and perceived overreach, with concerns that overlapping and burdensome compliance requirements may deter innovation and weigh disproportionately on smaller enterprises. This raises an important question: how is it possible to have legal reform to enable purpose-driven organizations, while ensuring legal clarity, proportionality, and effectiveness?
In our panel we will further explore how legal frameworks and financial systems must evolve to enable long-term purpose alignment. We will discuss with a bank representative if/what legal and regulatory reform can help unlock financing for organizations transitioning toward purpose-driven models.
Speakers:
Prof. Colin Mayer, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Prof. Fabiola Schneider, University College Dublin, Member of the ESMA Sustainability Standing Committee
Prof. Umberto Tombari, University of Florence
Representative from Intesa Sanpaolo (TBC)
Moderator:
Prof. Agnieszka Słomka-Gołębiowska, SGH, Warsaw School of Economics
Colin Mayer is Emeritus Professor of Management Studies at the Said Business School at the University of Oxford and Visiting Professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the European Corporate Governance Institute, an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and St Anne’s College, Oxford, and he has an Honorary Doctorate from Copenhagen Business School. He was the first professor at the Said Business School in 1994, Dean of the School between 2006 and 2011, and the founding professor of the Oxford Rethinking Performance initiative. He was co-chair of the Scottish Government Business Purpose Commission, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Playhouse, the UK Government Natural Capital Committee, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and the International Advisory Board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. He was chairman of the economics consultancy, Oxera Ltd. between 1986 and 2010, and a founding director of the energy modelling company, Aurora Energy Research Ltd between 2013 and 2020. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours. Between 2017 and 2021, he led the British Academy enquiry into “the Future of the Corporation” and his most recent book Capitalism and Crises: How to Fix Them was published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
Fabiola Schneider is Asst. Prof. in Accountancy at the University College Dublin (UCD) College of Business. As an Ad Astra Fellow, her research is dedicated to advancing UCD’s strategic theme of creating a sustainable global society. Previously Fabiola was appointed Asst. Prof. of Finance at Dublin City University (DCU). Fabiola’s current research addresses the climate emergency and sustainable transitions, with papers on fossil fuel financing published in ABS 3- and 4 journals. Moreover, publications on emission reporting and impact investing are in progress.
This research is complemented with policy related work. Fabiola was appointed as a member of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Sustainability Standing Committee and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 3 Technical Working Group. For the last two mandates, she served as Sherpa to the European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance, working on the EU Green Taxonomy. Fabiola co-leads GreenWatch which – funded by Enterprise Ireland – applies AI to detect greenwashing in the market (https://greenwatch.ai/).
She frequently engages with media and features on podcasts. See here for her Financial Times opinion piece: https://www.ft.com/content/37ac4900-a0d8-4e82-9850-ba4a5ad3ac6d
Umberto Tombari – Born on June 18, 1966, he graduated with the highest honors (cum laude) in Law from the University of Florence.
In July 2000, he was awarded a Full Professorship in business law, and since 2001 he has been teaching the subject at the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Florence.
He is a founding partner of the law firm Tombari D’Angelo e Associati – with offices in Milan, Florence and Bologna – specialized in corporate and business law, and he is a member of the Italian Bar.
In 2001, he was appointed to the Ministerial Commission for the reform of company law, established by Ministry of Justice (the so-called “Vietti Commission”).
He currently serves as an independent director of Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. and as a Chairman of the Board of Statutory Auditors of Toyota Motor Italia S.p.A. He has previously served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and Vice President of ACRI.
Following a postgraduate course in corporate law at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) in the 1993–1994, he conducted research and served as visiting scholar at both the Institut für deutsches und europäisches Handels- und Gesellschaftsrecht and the Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privat- und Wirtschaftsrecht at the University of Heidelberg from 1994 to 2001 and again from 2004 to 2019.
He was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School (USA) during the fall semester of 2003, and from July to August 2016, he was an academic visitor at the Commercial Law Centre, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford.
He is co-editor of Rivista delle Società, a founding and managing editor of Rivista di diritto societario, a member of the editorial board of Rivista del diritto commerciale e del diritto generale delle obbligazioni and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Studi e Ricerche CESIFIN book series.
He regularly contributes to Il Sole 24 Ore, publishing analyses and commentary on corporate, commercial, banking, and financial markets law.
He is the author of numerous monographs and publications in the field of corporate and business law.
Agnieszka Słomka-Gołębiowska is a Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics with research focus on corporate governance, gender diversity and sustainability. She is a professional Non-Executive Director, Board Advisor, and helping companies fulfill their commitments to sustainability through profitable strategies. Professor Slomka-Golebiowska has over 20 years of extensive experience on boards of large international publicly listed and private companies, as well as international organizations such as the WFP, ILO and UNAIDS. This is complemented by her chairing board and various committees: audit and remuneration, nomination and remuneration. Her experiences in client-centric, technology-based businesses financial services, international food distribution, commercial real estate and industries along with academic roles focus on researching good practices of accountability and board effectiveness. She received prestigious awards including the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at Muenster University and the Fulbright Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley (Haas), where she cooperated with prof. Oliver Williamson – Nobel Prize winner in economics. She is an author of numerous articles in JCR journals, books as well as a speaker at business and academic conferences. In 2019, she received the Corporate Governance Personality Award. She is a mentor at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin and global ambassador of the Bank of America and Vital Voices Partnership Program on women entrepreneurship and empowerment.