Annachiara left Concord in 1998 and throughout her career she has held a variety of senior roles championing sustainability. She is now Head of Environmental, Social & Governance and Communications at Slättö, a private equity firm in Sweden focusing on Real Estate.   

Q) Hello Annachiara, you left Concord 26 years ago and a lot has changed since you were here! What was Concord like in the 1990s?

It was an incredibly international place with motivated and ambitious young people and great teachers.

Q) How did studying at Concord influence you?

Studying at Concord gave me academic and later professional opportunities that I could not have dreamed of otherwise.

Q) What were you like as a student? How would your teachers describe you?

As most Concord students, I was hard working, and especially enjoyed humanities subjects – English literature, Politics and Economics.

Q) Please (if you can) share any stories of your friends or teachers with us!

Concord's Principal Mr Morris was especially inspiring to me. His Saturday morning Economics tests encouraged me to engage with current economics topics and be curious about different parts of the world.  He suggested we students read The Economist, which I have done weekly throughout my life since then! He had a very strong impact on my university opportunities as well, which I am forever thankful for.

Q) How did you decide on your first degree? Did it meet your expectations?

I wanted to study PPE at Oxford University, because I liked politics and economics – I have always been interested in the intersection between business and government. I did not get in, which was a disappointment at first, but thanks to Principal Mr Morris and good grades I got in at the LSE in International Relations; I am very happy with that choice in the end as the LSE is a very diverse university with first-class faculty. Living in London as a student is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Q) How important is doing an internship or taking part in extra-curricular activities, while at university, for your future career?

I think it has become more important now than it was during my time. My internship after university studies opened the door to my first job in Brussels. I really encourage all students to do internships. Remember that as highly-motivated and talented students, you are an asset for companies so you can choose where to do internships!

Q) At what point in your career did you decide you wanted to specialise in sustainability issues? What influenced you then and influences you now?

A few years into my working life, sustainability started to become more important in business, and this began in the Nordic countries. I realised it when I moved to Stockholm in 2007.

What motivates me now is that driving sustainable and profitable business is the biggest and most meaningful opportunity there is, as an entrepreneur, an investor, an innovator. It is possible to build and grow profitable companies that also create value to society and drive sustainability and I simply want to be part of that.

Q) How have the businesses/government agencies you’ve worked for asked for your help – how are you able to make a difference?  As a government consultant, or working for Electrolux or Samsung – what was your brief? 

The roles have changed as I gained experience and companies’ needs changed. In my first roles in sustainability, the tasks were very much what is typical of a sustainability expert in business. For example, stay ahead of regulation, educate internally about what regulatory requirements will come up, have dialogue with external stakeholders, and reporting.

Then the role became more about driving a mindset change internally, at highest level in the company, in favour of sustainability. As a consultant, the task was to grow our advisory business to clients. Now my current role is to actually drive the transformation, coming up with investable, sustainable initiatives in real estate.

Q) Please tell us about a typical week at work for you now. What is your work/life balance like?

Now I have three children so work/life needs to balance itself out or it will be chaos at home! Jokes apart, it is easier to work longer if what I do feels meaningful. I also like to cooperate with not-for-profit organisation and would like to be a mentor for sustainable start-ups.

Q) What qualities or experience does someone need to do a career like yours?

There are many different sustainability roles out there today. Some are sustainability expert roles in companies (or in consultancies, audit firms); others are more traditional business roles, such as product development / R&D / sale / finance but they are in companies that are driving the sustainable transformation. Even in management consultancies and finance there are sustainability roles.

I think a good business or engineering degree could be a good start for these roles, coupled with some well-chosen internships. For interested students, you can reach out to people who seem to have interesting roles and ask how did you get there and how can I get some experience to start with. Most older people are happy to help young students!

Q) What would you like to see everyone do to make our world more sustainable?

We older people can do a lot in our companies and workplaces, trying to understand the role that our business or organisation can have in the sustainable transformation. There will be business opportunities!

Annachiara's CV:

After leaving Concord Annachiara went to LSE where she studied International Relations. She went on to do a Masters in Economic History, and after a few years’ work experience a Business MBA at the Stockholm School of Economics. After her LSE degrees, she started working with EU Affairs in Brussels. Her interest in sustainability started after moving for personal reasons to Stockholm.

She has worked in European companies such as Electrolux, and in Asia-headquartered companies, spending 5 years at Samsung Electronics as Sustainability Director for Europe.

Her education continued while working, as she completed leadership education courses at Oxford University Saïd Business School. 

Throughout her career she has held a variety of senior roles championing sustainability, and is now Head of Environmental, Social & Governance and Communications at Slättö, a private equity firm focusing on Real Estate.