British Academy of Management is delighted to bring to your attention the first of ten annual Wensley Memorial Lectures: ‘Ensuring Solar Power Transitions for both the Climate and Ecological Emergencies’.
Named in honour of Professor Robin Wensley, a founding member of the British Academy of Management, a world-leading scholar and a lifetime champion of early career and interdisciplinary researchers, the annual Wensley Memorial Lecture provides an opportunity to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange, organised around a lecture and panel discussion on an important area of contemporary concern.
For the inaugural Wensley Memorial Lecture, BAM and Warwick Business School welcome Professor Alona Armstrong, of Energy and Environmental Sciences and Director of Energy Lancaster at Lancaster University to speak with us about what we can do to ensure solar power transitions support both the climate and ecological emergencies.
In our time of the Anthropocene we also welcome Hing Kin Lee, Group Lead for Nature, NextEnergy Capital, and Hugh Wilson, Professor of Marketing, Warwick Business School, to explore the inter- and transdisciplinary research opportunities that this important topic generates. The discussion will be Chaired by Katy Mason, President of British Academy of Management, PVC Dean and Professor of Markets at the University of Salford.
Wensley Memorial Lecture Abstract
Growth in solar photovoltaic (PV) has been phenomenal, comprising more than three quarters of renewable energy capacity additions in 2023 and it is expected to be the dominant renewable by 2050. Whilst PV was originally deployed on rooftops, a large proportion has been deployed as ground-mounted solar farms, comprising 57% of global solar PV capacity in 2022. Solar farms remain an attractive deployment option given economies of scale and the comparative rapidity of build-out in light of Net Zero commitment across the world.
Whilst decarbonisation of energy supplies is essential for mitigating climate change, we also face a concomitant ecological crisis. Land-use and land-cover change is the biggest driver of decline in biodiversity, over and above that of climate change, and there is a risk that the proliferation of solar farms could cause detrimental impacts on natural capital and in particular biodiversity. However, if well-sited and managed, there is opportunity to use current and future solar farm deployments as a means to increase natural capital stocks across the world, enhancing the supply of critical ecosystem services urgently required by society.
Within this Wensley Memorial Lecture, Professor Armstrong, will share findings of the effects of solar farms on ecosystems, guidance and tools to help inform management, and insights on how outcomes could be linked to finance. We will then move on to discuss how research expertise of the British Academy of Management could help encourage and accelerate the incorporation of biodiversity in renewable energy decision-making.
In Honour and Memory of Robin Wensley, Leader and Scholar
The Wensley Memorial Lecture has been created to honour the memory and celebrate the achievements of Professor Robin Wensley’s inspirational work in support of excellence in business and management scholarship, through British Academy of Management and beyond. With the support of Warwick Business School (where Robin worked for so long) and importantly, Robin’s family, the British Academy of Management are delighted to launch the annual Robin Wensley Memorial Lecture.
Professor Robin Wensley FBAM and winner of the BAM Richard Whipp Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, had a stellar career and was a central figure at the British Academy of Management championing early career researchers and interdisciplinary research to deliver, quality and value from a flourishing community of scholars.
He went on to gain one of the highest profile positions in management research in the UK, when taking over as Director of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM) in 2004, with AIM given the task by the UK Government to improve how business leaders operated to boost productivity and innovation.
Professor at Warwick Business School since 1986, Robin was also Chair of the School from 1989 to 1994, Chair of the Faculty of Social Studies from 1997 to 1999, and Director of the AIM Research initiative from 2004 to 2011. Previously, he had worked for RHM Foods, Tube Investments and the London Business School and was visiting Professor at UCLA and University of Florida. He was also Chair of the Council of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations from 1998 until 2003 and a member of the Sunningdale Institute (2008 -11).
When he retired from the University of Warwick, he further delivered on his values as an educator, taking up a fractional appointment at the Open University – an institution set up to provide access to education to those who otherwise might not have the opportunity to study. This was typical of Robin’s care for others and his big-hearted approach to life – where opportunity, fairness and inclusion sat at the centre of everything that he did.
His scholarship and contribution to the marketing and management field are widely recognised. He was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) and The Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). He was awarded the 1981 and 1988 Alpha Kappa Psi prize for the most outstanding article in the Journal of Marketing, the Millennium Prize for the best paper in the Journal of Marketing Management and received the Academy of Marketing Lifetime Achievement award in 2006. He was appointed to the Council of the ESRC from 2001 to 2004 and was a Board member of the ESRC Research Grants Board from 1991 to 1995. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the Warburg Institute and the Academic Advisory Board of the Chartered Management Institute.
Agenda
Please note: Part of this event (between 18:30 and 20:00) will also be live-streamed. The link will be available here nearer the time.
|
18:00 |
Arrival |
Drinks & canapes |
|
18:30 |
Welcome and Introduction |
Prof Katy Mason, Prof Hugh Wilson and Robin’s family |
|
18:35 |
How do we ensure that plans for solar power transitions mitigate both the climate and ecological emergencies? |
Prof Alona Armstrong |
|
19:00 |
Panel Discussion |
Prof Katy Mason, Prof Alona Armstrong, Prof Hugh Wilson, Hing Kin Lee |
|
19:30 |
Audience participation |
All |
|
19:50 |
Close |
Prof Katy Mason |
Date and Venue
Thursday, 22nd May 2025, 18:00 - 20:00 BST.
Warwick Business School | The Shard – Level 17, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG
Guest Speaker
Professor Alona Armstrong
Alona Armstrong is Professor in Energy and Environmental Sciences and Director of Energy Lancaster at Lancaster University. She is a thought leader in solar farm–ecosystem research, with projects ranging from assessing the biodiversity impacts to how to link with finance and policy. Moreover, she has led and co-developed tools and guidance which are applied across the industry, such as the Solar Park Impacts on Ecosystem Services decision support tool (SPIES) and the Solar Energy UK standardised biodiversity monitoring guidance. She sits on Solar Energy UK’s Natural Capital steering group and Electricity North West sustainability group. Her research consistently informs policy and practice, contributing to national-level policy development.
Panel
Professor Katy Mason
President of the British Academy of Management, PVC Dean and Professor of Markets at University of Salford, researching how actors manage to make moral markets. She is President and Fellow of the British Academy of Management, Fellow of Academy of Social Science and Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. Her work has been published in Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, and Academy of Management Learning and Education and Industrial Marketing Management.
Hing Kin Lee
Lee is a Chartered Environmentalist and Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. He joined NextEnergy Capital in 2022 as an Environmental Impact Manager and provides environmental governance across the portfolio, driving forward our ambitions for net positive biodiversity outcomes through nature-based solutions, ecosystem service provision and climate change resilience. With 18 years’ experience in the environment sector, Lee previously worked in consultancy providing sustainable and innovative solutions, adding value to scheme design and development, satisfying lending requirements and delivering industry best practice for major proposals.
Professor Hugh Wilson
Hugh Wilson is Professor of Marketing at Warwick Business School. After degrees in mathematics at Oxford and computer science at Cambridge, Hugh spent some years in management roles with IBM, Xerox and NCR. He now teaches and researches on sustainable customer behaviour, purpose-led business, sustainability-oriented innovation and customer experience management, and works on these issues with companies such as Unilever and Neste.
Hugh has published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Service Research and Journal of the American Statistical Society among other journals. He writes equally for practitioners, such as several articles for Harvard Business Review. His latest book is Marketing Plans (9e 2024, with M McDonald & D Chaffey). His work is influential, with over 15,000 Google Scholar citations (references to his research in the publications of other academics).
Hugh is co-chair of WBS's Sustainability Working Group, working to embed sustainability across the school's teaching, research and operations. In his previous role, Hugh initiated Cranfield University's carbon programme which has reduced the university's carbon emissions by 32% so far. Hugh is listed in the Chartered Institute of Marketing's "Guru Gallery" of "50 leading marketing thinkers alive in the world today", alongside such names as Jack Welch and Bill Gates. He has also been honoured by Tim Berners-Lee as one of the hundred "Internet Decade" individuals who had most influenced the development of e-commerce
Who should attend?
- Business and Management Scholars
- Scholars in the field of the invited speaker
- Business leaders and policymakers
- Journalists
Event Fee
Event Ticket: FREE (registration required)
Registration Deadline: 19th May 2025
Provider Information
This event is presented by the British Academy of Management, in conjunction with Warwick Business School and Robin’s family.
Contact
Please contact the BAM Office at [email protected] with any queries.