George Serafeim

In a world of intensifying competition, resource constraints, and heightened stakeholder expectations, business leaders are increasingly recognizing that solving society’s biggest problems can also be their biggest commercial opportunities. For almost two decades, Harvard Business School professor, award-winning author, and board member George Serafeim, Ph.D., has been at the forefront of showing how companies can deliver scalable, profitable solutions to global challenges — while building enduring competitive advantage.

Serafeim’s work sits at the intersection of strategy, performance measurement, and organizational transformation, helping executives move beyond compliance and reputation management to unlock real business value through innovation, culture, and operational excellence. His impact has reached boardrooms, investment committees, and government institutions around the world.

Rather than viewing environmental and social issues through a narrow regulatory or reputational lens, Serafeim challenges leaders to integrate them into core business models — where scale and profit become necessary engines of impact. His research on the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project has provided breakthrough methodologies for quantifying how companies create (or erode) value for society — and how that performance connects to long-term financial success.

Serafeim has worked across both Fortune 500 and fast growing start up boards and C-suites on aligning strategy and performance systems to succeed commercially in a world of transition — whether due to shifting technologies, climate change, or stakeholder demands. His most recent research harnesses Generative AI and data science to analyze the diffusion and business consequences of transformative technologies, such as EVs, batteries, and circular economy solutions.

At Harvard, he teaches in the MBA and executive education programs, including courses on Financial Reporting and Control, Corporate Governance, and the Purpose of the Firm. He previously co-designed and taught award-winning courses on business and climate, the energy transition, and reimagining capitalism. His book “Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World” (HarperCollins, 2022) lays out a roadmap for leaders who want to win commercially by solving meaningful problems—grounded in his years of field research across industries.

Outside of academia, Serafeim is a board member at Liberty Mutual, advisor to leading investment firms and entrepreneurs, and co-founder of professional services and technology organizations. He has presented his research in over 60 countries and has been recognized with the Greenhill Award, the Graham & Dodd Scroll (twice), and the JIBS Decade Award, among others.

As pressure mounts on organizations to deliver both financial and societal performance, Serafeim equips leaders with the tools, data, and strategic thinking to compete and grow — while contributing to a better future.

George Serafeim is the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He co-leads a Lab, within Harvard’s Digital, Data, Design Institute, and serves on the faculty steering committee of Harvard University’s Salata Institute. He teaches Financial Statement Analysis, Management Control Systems, and Corporate Governance in the Executive Education General Management Program. In the MBA program, he teaches the first-year required courses on Financial Reporting and Control and Purpose of the Firm. In addition, Professor Serafeim teaches in Harvard Business School’s custom executive education programs for senior executives.

Previously, he taught and designed award-winning courses on the energy transition, circular economy technologies, and the role of business in society, writing more than 40 case studies for those courses. Moreover, he created the Impact-Weighted Accounts Project that produced methodologies, large datasets, and dozens of projects on impact accounting and valuation. He has presented his research in over 60 countries around the world and ranks among the most popular authors on the Social Science Research Network. His book “Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World” explores the challenges and opportunities in building and sustaining high performance purpose-driven organizations that have a measurable positive impact on society.

Professor Serafeim’s widely cited research spans the fields of accounting, finance, management, and strategy, and has been published in prestigious academic and practitioner journals. Most recently, he led a research project using Generative AI to study the diffusion and consequences of technologies that drive the energy transition and efficient use of resources, such as electric vehicles, batteries, and recycled materials. Over the years, his research has focused on measuring, analyzing, driving, and communicating corporate performance. He has received multiple recognitions, including the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to the HBS community, the Pericles Leadership Award in recognition of services to the Hellenic Republic, the Kim B. Clark Fellowship on Responsible Leadership from University of Oxford, the Dr. Richard A. Crowell Memorial Prize, the JIBS Decade Award, and twice the Graham and Dodd Scroll Award.

Professor Serafeim has held several positions of leadership. He serves on the board of directors of Liberty Mutual, a Fortune 100 company, on the board of the International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI), and on the advisory boards of leading investment firms. He has been an investor and advisor to several start-ups over the years. Previously, he co-founded an advisory services firm, served on the board of directors of a leading operations consulting firm, and on the board of directors of a publicly listed investment company. He has played an active role in shaping corporate governance standards as a member of the steering committee of the Athens Exchange Group, overseeing both stock and bond exchanges, and as Chairman of Greece’s Corporate Governance Council, issuing a new corporate governance code to enhance governance practices, investor protection, and business performance. He has contributed in advancing corporate governance globally, having served on the inaugural Standards Council of SASB, which created standards for investor relevant information adopted by thousands of leading companies around the world, and on the Taskforce Working Group on Impact Transparency, Integrity and Reporting established by the UK’s Presidency of the G7. He served on a panel, established by the state of New York, to advise one of the largest pension funds on a strategic framework to identify, assess and manage investment risks and opportunities from the energy transition.

Professor Serafeim earned his doctorate in business administration at Harvard Business School, where his doctoral dissertation was recognized with the Wyss Award for excellence in research. He received a master’s degree in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was awarded the Emeritus Professors’ Prize for best academic performance. He grew up in Athens, Greece.

George Serafeim is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.