By Jeffrey York, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Faculty Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Professor

Strategic planning for 2035 Leeds is well underway. Discussions with advisory boards and leaders in business, academia and government have identified four key trends likely to impact business and business education in the next decade. These trends are not a prescription or a strategy but will inform our evaluation of strengths and opportunities as a school.

1. Sustainability. Addressing environmental sustainability will be crucial for businesses over the next decade, bringing both challenges and opportunities. Firms that fail to adapt risk regulatory and reputational sanctions. Leeds can play a unique role by highlighting how sustainability can be a competitive advantage and by incorporating a multidisciplinary perspective into our curriculum to prepare future business leaders.
2. Economic Shifts. Our research identified economic shifts for the next decade. Trade and manufacturing realignment will stress supply chain reliability. Demographic changes and labor shortages challenge health care, while AI and synthetic biology offer opportunities. Increased regulatory scrutiny and income inequality present ethical and market challenges. These shifts allow Leeds to differentiate and prepare our students for the future.
3. Future of Work. The new workforce faces unprecedented challenges in balancing digital and in-person collaboration. Many will work remotely, lacking in-person mentoring and tacit knowledge, and navigate multiple jobs and careers simultaneously. Leeds can support lifelong learning and mentoring to manage business and life amid these radical changes.
4. Digital Transformation. Businesses will undergo a digital transformation driven by AI, quantum computing and other tools, enhancing efficiency and customization but also increasing cybersecurity threats and potential loss of control. To prepare our students, we must teach them to use these technologies for complex analyses and to develop skills in leadership, communication and working under uncertainty.

One theme that emerged across all our discussions: Differentiating our students’ ability to be innovative, resilient and effective communicators would not only set them on a path to success but also greatly enhance Leeds’ reputation and service to the business community.

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Athletes at Leeds are using their training in the classroom and on the field to prepare for business careers.

Drive. Teamwork. Commitment. For student-athletes at Leeds, these qualities are essential for success on the field, in the classroom and on the job. With their experience in endurance, winning and losing, they are uniquely positioned for careers in business.

“One of the big comments we hear from employers is about being coachable—that student-athletes at this level did not get to where they are without being willing to learn from experts and taking feedback to help them grow,” said Lauren Unrein, associate athletic director for CU’s Scripps Leadership and Career Development program. “They want to be the best at what they do—whether that’s on the playing field or selling a product. That drive and passion never leave.”

Erick Mueller, executive director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at Leeds, agrees that elite athletes tend to have a slew of qualities that make them assets in the professional world.

“Playing well in the sandbox is huge,” Mueller said, “as well as understanding and taking calculated risks. Student-athletes are so used to taking risks, and this is of great value in their careers. It is their adaptability: If one way (or 12) doesn’t work, let’s try it a different way ... they understand what excellence looks like, and this is very desirable to any employer.”

Mueller and Unrein co-created Buffs with a Brand (BWAB), a program designed for CU athletes. Launched in summer 2020 ahead of the NCAA ruling allowing student-athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness, the program helps athletes capitalize on their personal brands while also acquiring necessary business skills in marketing, finance and entrepreneurship.

"Whether in my career or personal life, sports will always hold a significant place for me."

Taylor Simpson (Fin’25)

Eyes on the Prize

More than 120 student-athletes were working toward majors and minors at Leeds last fall. Their academic paths were as varied as the sports they compete in:

• A CU Buffs football player combined a business degree in marketing with a minor in international affairs.
• A competitive skier at CU worked toward a double minor in business and philosophy.
• A student-athlete on the lacrosse team pursued a business minor while majoring in integrated design engineering.

A long snapper on the CU Buffs football team, Camden Dempsey (Fin, Mktg’25), is also a Boettcher Scholar and Leeds honors student. He says he’d like to combine his education and athletic experience to leave a lasting impact on others.

“After graduation, I want to ... look at working internationally,” Dempsey said. “After being on campus for five years, I want to see what the world has to offer and then potentially join a startup or begin my own business.”

Dempsey excels at academics as a Leeds Scholar. “The program has been the best resource for me in terms of finding friends and like-minded individuals with similar high aspirations and career goals,” he said.

Taylor Simpson (Fin’25), a Buffs volleyball player and Leeds honors student, sees her future as a certified financial planner, inspired by one of her classes: “Principles of Personal Financial Planning and Insurance ... significantly influenced my perspective on my future career path. Following the course, I secured a wealth management internship and have found great satisfaction in all facets of financial planning and advising.”

“I’m uncertain if I’ll blend sports and business in my career,” she said. “However, one thing I’m sure of is my passion for sports; I can’t imagine my life without it. Whether in my career or personal life, sports will always hold a significant place for me.”

The Goal is Balance

What Leeds athletes all have in common is the challenge of pursuing an education while fitting in frequent practices, training and games. Under pressure to stay eligible and compete for a spot on the team, they’re forced to strike a tough balance. Skills in time management, communication and prioritization make them stronger in all areas.

“I don’t think anything about being a student-athlete lends itself to being easy,” said Unrein. “I think they learn very quickly that they have to be strategic in how they balance their time and understand their priorities. This is a vital skill that will help them in their transition into careers, regardless of what path or role they choose.”

They stand out as students, athletes and future business leaders, says Mueller. “It’s their drive to succeed in all facets of their lives,” he said. “I’d hire them in a heartbeat.”

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His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives students the key to compassionate leadership.

Last spring, the Leeds Dalai Lama Fellows participated in a once-in-a-lifetime trip to India—facilitated by CU’s Renee Crown Wellness Institute—to learn about compassionate leadership with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“I don’t really think I knew what compassion meant until these talks,” said Nikki Bechtold (Mktg’24), one of the attendees. “I took away that if I’m dealing with a conflict as a leader, I want to keep that mindset. Compassion is such an important thing that can often be overlooked in leadership. Because as the Dalai Lama mentioned, hierarchies can be really detrimental to compassion.”

Bringing the Program to Leeds

The trip attendees were part of Renee Crown Wellness Institute’s Dalai Lama Fellows (DLF) program, a one-year leadership program offered to Leeds students, who learn techniques for building compassion and strengthening empathy. Fellows implement their learnings through an applied project in their local communities.

In 2021, the Crown Institute at CU entered into a partnership with the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia to offer the Dalai Lama Fellows program, also present on the campus of Stanford University. Thanks to a donation from Paralel CEO and Leeds alumnus Jeremy May (Acctg’92), the program expanded in 2023 to include Leeds students for a three-year pilot.

“The Crown Institute has been delighted to partner with the Leeds School of Business because our shared work exemplifies how compassionate leadership can be woven into the fabric of business education, preparing students to navigate complex global challenges with care,” said Sona Dimidjian, director and founding faculty fellow of the institute. “Our hope is that the message from these conversations and the Dalai Lama Fellows program will ripple out across the world, generating compassionate action and a more caring and just future for our world.”

May, who serves on the Crown Institute advisory board, strives to integrate compassionate leadership into his own work. His personal connection to Leeds made it the logical choice for a pilot program.

“When the Dalai Lama Fellows got connected with Crown, we started talking about how we bring these types of practices into the business world,” he said. “It’s been something I’ve tried to do personally, and to bring these conversations into the Leeds school was a natural fit for me.”

Tandean Rustandy Endowed Dean Vijay Khatri stated that the program “can significantly contribute to advancing and embodying Leeds’ core values,” including social responsibility, global perspective and holistic student development.

Unforgettable Lessons

Even within the program’s scope, meeting the Dalai Lama was special. For the event, titled “Compassion in Action: A Conversation ������Ƶ18 Leadership With His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” fellows submitted questions for the Dalai Lama.

One student asked about maintaining compassion as a leader when feeling frustrated.

“If we were to keep the basic sense of affection that we received from our mother alive, there’d be no reason to quarrel with anyone,” the Dalai Lama responded. “However, instead of thinking about what we have in common with other people, we tend to focus on the differences between us.”

This insight resonated with Bechtold.

“If I can become a leader someday and a manager and all these things, I’ll remember how important being compassionate is,” she said. “In the society that we have right now, sometimes it can be hard to be compassionate in all circumstances.”

Khatri also attended the trip, calling the experience “transformational.”

“I am filled with inspiration and gratitude after witnessing young social innovators who are creatively addressing global challenges in ways that are tailored to their local communities, all the while fostering the well-being of our planet,” he said.

Khatri noted that trip attendees received instruction not only in compassion but also in interconnectedness and ethical leadership.

“By integrating these lessons, students can contribute to creating more compassionate, mindful and cohesive communities, both at Leeds and beyond,” Khatri said.

During their fellowship year, participants expand their empathy and self-awareness. Meghan Fall (Mktg’26), one of the 2023–24 fellows, runs Good Grief, a grief support group for students. Since visiting Dharamsala, she has been collaborating with Khatri and Birdie Reznicek, associate dean for culture and community, to establish a community grief group specifically for Leeds faculty, staff and students. Her DLF year allowed her to do “the internal work I needed to do the external work this year.”

“The fellowship itself was definitely a holistic experience for developing myself—my ability to have compassion with people and my ability to regulate myself in really hard emotional situations,” she said.

May called the DLF program’s teachings “the future of leadership” and stressed that the program’s impact will expand beyond the fellows themselves.

“This is an exponential thing,” he said. “When you can observe somebody applying these practices, then that’s the exponential impact we have here.”

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For this generation, it's not about if they're a good fit for a job, but whether the job is a good fit for them.

Funded by Gordon (TrMg’77) and Susan Trafton, Leeds Mentoring Programs turned 15 this year and celebrated matching over 9,000 students with mentors. At Leeds, where mentorship is a cornerstone of the student experience, 54% of the 2024 graduating class had participated in at least one mentorship program.

Today’s graduates and students, known as Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012), want mentors who support their distinctly different views on work from previous generations.

While salary is still the most important factor in deciding on a job, research has shown that Gen Z values salary less than any other generation before it. They’re searching for interesting and meaningful work that gives them autonomy, flexibility and work-life balance at a company aligned with their their values: diversity, sustainability and social impact.

They gravitate toward opportunities where they can build genuine, personal relationships with co-workers and supervisors. Likewise, Gen Z expects more from their mentors than career advice and connections.

“Students are looking for more than professional advice from their mentors; they are looking for a true, authentic relationship. Sometimes they’ll talk about friends, family and mental health for an entire session,” said Sally Forester, associate director of Leeds Mentoring Programs.

These relationships frequently become lifelong, thanks to Forester and her team. They match student and mentor pairs one by one, using a blend of technology and human insights to make personalized matches, ensuring each student finds the right mentor for them.

All three mentoring programs—the Young Alumni, Peer2Peer and Professional Mentorship Programs—have received gold-level accreditation from the International Mentoring Association, recognized as model programs among higher education institutions.

And the programs keep growing with the times, ready to meet the evolving needs of generations to come.

Martin Moller (Mktg, Fin'79) Principal and Founder, LEARN Consulting Services
Professional Mentorship Program (Mentor)

“With the increase in remote work, there are many advantages and challenges ... we discuss issues of communication, earning trust, gaining credibility, networking, getting the support you need and understanding the operations of a firm.”

Matthew Harrison (Fin'26)
Young Alumni Mentors Program (Mentee)

“My conversations with my mentor have not only painted a picture of my soon-to-be professional career but have also helped me envision a fulfilling life that aligns with my values.”

Nolan Crowley (Bus'24), Staffing Consultant at Beacon Hill Technologies
Professional Mentorship Program (Mentee)

“My mentor suggested I make a list of my top six values and post them where I can look at them daily ... to help me internalize the standards I want to live by and move forward with in my new job.”

Kennedey Rapp (InfoAn'19), Senior Consultant, Deloitte
Young Alumni Mentors Program (Mentor)

“I think this group of students is looking for someone to walk beside them rather than a traditional hierarchical mentoring approach. They need to know we are human too, and hopefully, they can learn from our mistakes, and we can learn from theirs.”

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Anna Bedell’s semester abroad in Milan wasn’t all pizza and pasta ... it was a lesson in risk-taking and pushing through fear.

I called my mom, tears in my eyes. I told her I was terrified I wouldn’t make any friends; I wouldn’t adjust to the culture; and I wouldn’t do well in my classes. I thought, Maybe this wasn’t the best decision. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone abroad.

I had been in Italy for less than 24 hours.

I had chosen to do an exchange program at Bocconi University, a premier business school in Europe—and an amazing opportunity to earn some elective credits through the First-Year Global Experience (FGX) at Leeds School of Business.

And now, here I was in Milan, fearful, excited and steeling myself for a fall semester like no other.

An Attitude Adjustment

The acclimation to Italian culture was difficult. My sense of direction was horrible, and with all the buildings looking somewhat the same, I was using Google Maps just to get two blocks from my apartment. Since one-stop shopping doesn’t exist in Milan, I spent a full day running around the city, getting a SIM card from one store, food from another and bed sheets from a place across town. I was forced to use the trams and metro system, which, frankly, freaked me out. I had never even been on a train before, unless you count Denver airport’s shuttle train between concourses.

There was an obvious language barrier, and my couple of months of Duolingo Italian did not prepare me for conversations with the locals. Thankfully, nearly everyone in Milan spoke English to some degree, and once they heard my American accent and bungled pronunciations, they quickly switched to English. But that was frustrating at times—I had hoped to practice my Italian and had even learned how to place my gelato order perfectly.

Despite all this, the longer I lived in Italy, the easier things got. It turned out I shouldn’t have worried about making friends—I made quite a few by the end of the first week, including my roommates, who were from everywhere: Amsterdam, São Paulo and Tokyo.

Oh Yeah, There Was Studying

Classes were both easier and more difficult than I thought they would be. The good news was that Italian universities don’t assign homework; everything is lecture-based, with a midterm and final that counts for your entire grade.

I figured my classes would be effortless. No homework meant time for travel and exploring—all I had to do was pass. But as midterms loomed closer, I began to worry: What if I didn’t pass? After getting a terrible midterm score, I realized that studying abroad was about living abroad, traveling abroad and studying abroad. It was an important lesson, even though I’d had to learn it the hard way.

It made me realize that the experience of being a student at an international university was one of the most amazing parts of the experience. Seeing firsthand what life was like for Italian students and how it compared and contrasted with mine back at Leeds was so interesting. I also realized there was so much to learn about business from the international perspective of my Italian professors. My studies from that point on became a priority and an incredibly valuable part of my experience.

Just Me, Myself and I

One bright day in late October, I realized I had eight weeks left of my time abroad ... and panicked. How was it almost over? It felt like I had only been in the country for a couple of weeks, and I was just starting to get acclimated–I wasn’t ready to go back home. I began mourning the end.

But my friends gave me some wise advice: Make the most of the time you have left. So, I did something bold, something I never thought I’d do: I booked a whirlwind solo trip by train across Eastern Europe.

Within six days, I checked off five countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czechia and Germany.

Looking back, it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life in terms of personal growth. Previously, I hadn’t felt confident in my ability to do unfamiliar things, partly due to how much I hated asking for help, even when I was clueless.

“I thought, Maybe this wasn’t the best decision... Looking back, it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life in terms of personal growth.”

Anna Bedell (Mktg’25)

But being on my own forced me to push past my pride and fear and lean on strangers. Whether it was approaching two French girls for directions to my hostel in Prague or spending 15 minutes going back and forth with a middle-aged woman on Google Translate, trying to get directions to the bus stop in a tiny Czech town, I learned that asking for help made my trip an even richer experience.

Most of all, it made me feel more capable as an independent person. When you’re on your own, you learn to notice your surroundings and keep yourself safe. Now I feel confident that if I were dropped off at a random location without my phone, I could get back home in one piece.

Ciao, Milan

I had a new perspective on everything, especially the impending conclusion of my Italian adventure. Instead of panicking, the opposite happened: I accepted it.

I started planning for the years to come. The cities I didn’t see this time became places to visit in the future. I had a friend who was going to work in London and two roommates from Amsterdam, which meant that I’d have free housing when I returned to explore more of the continent. And someday, I would return to Milan and go to all my favorite restaurants and gelato shops and be able to say, “Now this is true Italian food.”

Nowadays, I’m interested in both the national and international news. I plan to explore job opportunities in Europe after graduation. Everything I learned from the people I met—their cultures, perspectives and ways of life—made me see the world differently, and I’m excited to see more of that. My journeys abroad have just begun.

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As women’s health takes center stage for the first time in history, Leeds alumni and students see massive potential in this subsector's future.

Ten years ago, “menopause” wasn’t mentioned in mixed company. There weren’t conversations at the water cooler about infertility. Women didn’t ask their doctors about pelvic health.

At work, you’d have been shocked to find perimenopause support, fertility care and maternity benefits offered by the largest employers in the U.S.

That’s because historically, the health-care industry has largely overlooked the complex biology of women, leaving them to struggle with the underdiagnosis of medical conditions, untrained doctors, fragmentation of care and inadequate representation in clinical trials.

But within the last decade, technological advances and evolving societal attitudes toward women’s health have started shifting the paradigm: The medical community is recognizing women’s health needs, employers are offering more benefits, and investors are realizing the vast potential in women’s health innovation.

What is FemTech?

The gradual awakening to inequities in health care has spawned a sector of technology designed to address health issues suffered solely, differently or disproportionately by women—from menstrual tracking apps and sexual wellness products to cardiovascular medical devices and mental health therapies.

The term “FemTech” has been around since 2016, when the co-founder of one of the first period-tracking apps, Ida Tin, coined it. She wanted a way to encapsulate technology-driven solutions in the women’s health space, including products, diagnostics, medical devices, digital therapies, consumer applications and services.

Leeds graduate Kristin Apple (MBA’08), president of an innovation strategy consultancy called LINUS, focused on helping health organizations grow, takes issue with the term “FemTech.” She explained that the industry is much more than technological products and services—it’s about women’s health.

“All health care today is enabled by technology—that’s a given. It’s not about the technology; it’s about how tech is enabling us to get better results by gaining insights into the diagnosis and treatment of conditions that affect a women’s physical and emotional well-being.”

She pointed out that the 2023 initiative passed by the Biden administration to increase research on women’s health is an example of the movement toward acknowledging the need for health care tailored to women.

“This is about the growth and destigmatization of women’s health. It’s about the broader picture of women’s health,” she said.

Opportunities and obstacles

Today, the FemTech market has an estimated value of $50 to $60 billion. By 2027, it is estimated to be worth $1 trillion, according to forecasts by the nonprofit organization FemTech Focus.

A 2022 study by McKinsey’s Health-care Systems & Services Practice revealed what the estimates show: that the women’s health sector is growing at an incredible rate. Public awareness, company formation and funding are surging. The opportunities for multiple stakeholders, including investors, researchers, health care providers, employers, insurers, and pharmaceutical and medical-device companies are undeniable.

Entrepreneurs are seizing these opportunities in droves. More than 60% of FemTech startups were founded between 2017 and 2022, and there has been a 1,000% increase in the number of companies over the last 10 years, according to FemHealth Insights research.

Eighty percent of those startups were founded by women. However, many have met obstacles in gaining funding—a well-known discrepancy in the startup world. A study in 2022 showed that women entrepreneurs are 63% less likely to get VC funding than men (PitchBook).

Another challenge is that investors in tech are mostly men, and for some, there’s a lack of knowledge or comfort in understanding women’s biology—and stigmas still abound.

The seers and believers

Nonetheless, it’s hard to dispute that the market potential is huge; FemTech is an underserved market that’s ripe for growth and investment. As a demographic, women spend an estimated $500 billion a year on medical expenses (PitchBook). Modern technologies for this population are not only transformative but lucrative.

A growing syndicate of venture capitalists, made up mostly of women, are making a substantial impact in the space. And the next generation of FemTech investors is gearing up to do the same.

 “I think people are beginning to see the power of investing in FemTech and it’s really exciting.”

Gwyneth Brass (Ent, Fin’26)

Zoe Cope, a Leeds sophomore studying finance and accounting, has been interested in FemTech since high school, when she and her friends started using the menstrual tracking app Flo. She explained that it gave them a sense of control through knowledge.

As a Leeds Scholar and member of the Business and Engineering Women in Tech (BEWiT) program, she fine-tuned her vision for making an impact. “I see myself as contributing to the industry through working in finance.

“Women are solving issues for women that health care providers have ignored,” said Cope. “That’s why I want to enter private markets—to improve the lives of many through investments.”

Cope has an idea of where to start: “FemTech is being driven by female entrepreneurs—but funding doesn’t come easily for them—we need to see female entrepreneurs dominate this market.”

Birth of the first unicorn

Worth about $1.35 billion and widely considered the first U.S. unicorn dedicated to women’s and family health, according to Fortune, Maven Clinic is the world’s largest virtual clinic that serves some of the biggest employers, including Microsoft and AT&T.

Its founder, CEO Kate Ryder, not only convinced employers to provide better benefits for women, but she helped prove to investors that women’s health had massive potential as a business. To make her point, she argued that the lack of medical attention to menopause was not only harmful to women but was a lost opportunity worth $600 billion.

Angie Golden Henry (Mktg’11) is a Leeds alum and senior brand designer at Maven. “I’m energized by the opportunity to build a brand that users can trust and the challenge for our brand to stand out among very established health care brands.”

When she first started in 2018, she noted there were few tech companies focused on women’s health care. “When I came across Maven, their entire product and mission felt very unique and important, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. “Seeing the product make such an impact on users is incredibly rewarding.”

Having recently had her first baby, she has a new appreciation and inspiration for the work she’s doing. “The health care system in America can be so hard to navigate, especially when building a family, and companies like Maven make health care more accessible and work better for more people,” she said.

Better health means better growth

A wave of inventive companies has emerged to address menopause, IVF, endometriosis, fertility, hormone health, childbirth, osteoporosis, cancer diagnosis and more.

As women’s health improves, so does the sector’s success. The following companies are rolling out life-changing innovations that dramatically improve women’s health outcomes and propel the industry forward.

• NextGen Jane, a company that uses tampons to tell women about their reproductive health, recently raised $9 million in new funding.
• London-based Elvie, a wearable breast pump and a pelvic exercise trainer and app, raised $42 million in Series B funding.
• Midi Health, a virtual health care provider for perimenopause and menopause, reported that 91% of its patients experienced improvement in their symptoms after just two months of care. The company successfully raised $60 million in a Series B funding round this year, increasing the company’s total funding to $100 million.
• Oula, a modern maternity clinic combining obstetrics and midwifery, boasts a 26% better C-section rate and a 61% lower preterm birth rate than New York City benchmarks. It has raised more than $50 million in funding.
• Progyny, which manages fertility benefits for employers, went public in 2019 at a valuation of over $1 billion; its recent market capitalization was about $4 billion.

“This is about the growth and destigmatization of women’s health.”

Kristin Apple (MBA’08), President, LINUS

When women succeed economies flourish

Nurturing innovation within the FemTech space doesn’t help just women and investors—it has the potential to help the world. According to the nonprofit Women’s Health Access Matters, a $300 million investment into improving women’s health could generate around $13 billion for the global economy.

It also helps improve global productivity. When women leave the workforce at the peak of their careers due to the side effects of perimenopause and menopause—global productivity losses can add up to more than $150 billion a year (Ultra Violet Futures). But deploying technological and consumer-centric health solutions can enable the success of women leaders and companies.

The impact on global economies, especially those in poor countries, has not escaped Cope, who explained, “When women have more freedom over their reproductive cycle, they’re able to extend their education and have careers, allowing them to be more successful. This will eventually and inevitably lead to economic progress in third-world countries.”

When countries empower women to feel better and live longer, their economic potential soars. That’s because women are not just consumers but the primary health care decision-makers for their families; better health outcomes for women can lead to better outcomes for society.

A glimpse of the future

As women-led companies grow and consumer demand for personalized health solutions rises, a more inclusive, gender-aware health care system could help the next generation of women become inventors and founders.

Take Gwenyth Brass (Ent, Fin’26), a junior in entrepreneurship and finance at Leeds. When she learned that women generally have low expectations of the health care system, she wanted to find a way to make women more comfortable—starting with gynecologist visits.

“Women aren’t fully empowered and informed; they need to know how the procedures work. And there needs to be more trust between women and doctors,” said Brass. “It involves transparency and getting to know who the doctor is as a person.”

This past summer, she began developing her idea with fellow students in her New Venture Class and was surprised to learn that “most of the men had no idea about the anxiety of going to the gynecologist.” Like other founders before her, she successfully helped them understand a problem they had never personally dealt with.

“Male investors are getting their heads turned by the impact. I think people are beginning to see the power of investing in FemTech, and it’s really exciting . . . It’s time for a change to improve women’s lives.”

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Three newer Leeds faculty members are regularly in the spotlight for their contributions to their fields and achievements in teaching, having come to CU from top PhD programs and world-class business schools. Their inspiring examples underscore three important concepts to students: Think outside the box. Ask tough questions. Take risks.

That’s how to be innovative, and that’s how to drive progress.

ETHAN POSKANZER

Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Frank Schiff Faculty Scholar

Ethan Poskanzer explores the nature of ideas with his students, whom he considers great co-workers. He values their feedback and appreciates their intellectual openness.

That’s the foundation of an entrepreneurial environment, which Poskanzer believes is crucial for societal advancement. “My research is motivated by the idea that innovation is our best weapon to solve important social problems.” Innovation, he asserts, boosts the global economy and living standards by addressing issues like disease and climate change.

Developing transformative technologies, however, isn’t easy, and it takes time. It’s also prone to failures along the way. That’s challenging for startups, which often run out of funds. “We need to design ways for innovators to explore new possibilities and take ‘big swings’ without having to be profitable immediately,” Poskanzer noted. “I’m particularly enthusiastic about the clean technology innovation as a way to address ecological deterioration.”

His work has earned awards and has been published in Organization Science, the American Sociological Review and the American Journal of Sociology, among other leading publications.

Democratizing innovation is a central theme in his research, asking how entrepreneurs can best nurture their ideas and bring them to life. One of Poskanzer’s current projects examines how gender and luck play a role in whose projects get funded. Another study investigates the effect of entrepreneurship training on careers in Accra, Ghana. “There are a ton of entrepreneurship training programs enacted in developing economies, and we know surprisingly little about how they affect participants’ careers,” he said.

AMIT BHATTACHARJEE

Associate Professor of Marketing

The more challenging and divisive the issue, the more it interests Amit Bhattacharjee. He’s drawn to questions and solutions that leaders and policymakers often avoid because they’re “too unintuitive, taboo or politically inconvenient to be palatable.”

Bhattacharjee studies how morality shapes our understanding of the world. He notes that our moral intuitions evolved in small-scale ancestral societies with no growth or technological progress. Conversely, today’s modern markets enable rapid wealth creation, trade with strangers everywhere and occupational specialization at a global scale. Yet this fundamental mismatch makes such benefits deeply unintuitive. Whereas economists see most exchanges as mutually beneficial, the public often perceives them as zero-sum, fueling consumer distrust and policy preferences that depart from scientific consensus. Bridging this gap could help unlock markets’ potential to foster societal prosperity, he said.

His research often “considers what might be good about things that are widely regarded as bad and what might be bad about things with widespread public approval.” This unique approach has garnered recognition, including the 2017 Best Article Award from the Journal of Consumer Research and the 2023 Best Paper Award at the La Londe Conference.

Over the last two years, Bhattacharjee taught undergraduate Marketing Research and Analytics, and he will teach graduate-level Market Intelligence this fall. “The key thing I want students to take away is that whatever it is they hope to achieve in their careers or in their lives, an aptitude for data-driven thinking can help them do it better.” Both his scholarship and teaching reflect his commitment to understanding the beliefs that limit our ability to harness collective knowledge for the greater good.

NIKKI SKINNER

Assistant Professor of Accounting
Craig and Cynthia Smith Faculty Scholar

As a former Leeds student, Nikki Skinner was no stranger to CU, but when she returned as a professor, everything seemed different. What didn’t change was the energy on campus. She loves that the community doesn’t shy away from pressing issues. In her classroom, she’s fostering exactly the take-charge attitude that the Leeds culture embodies.

In just one semester, Skinner developed three new undergraduate and graduate courses on environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, a topic that’s evolving so quickly that Skinner can’t find textbooks that keep up with the changes.

To tackle the issues, she and her students analyze current events. “I encourage students to put themselves in the shoes of managers, regulators and investors to understand why things are changing and how companies are handling ESG reporting in real time,” Skinner said.

One of her current projects examines green patenting, finding that managers are now more likely to discuss green technological investments in corporate disclosures than in the past. Innovation was traditionally “hush-hush,” she says, because companies wanted to protect proprietary information.

Skinner’s research keeps her consistently on the radar. In 2023 alone, she was named the Leeds School of Business Craig and Cynthia Smith Faculty Scholar and received the Kolb, B. Summer Teaching Fellowship and Kahle Family Award for Outstanding Leeds School Publication.

What Skinner enjoys most about teaching is learning from her students. “Each of my students offers a unique perspective. Engaging them is what really enriches the classroom.” 

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The following three faculty members exemplify Leeds’ commitment to world-class teaching and research. They continue to earn awards, media attention and accolades, but all three would humbly say their students are the rising stars, ready to take on global challenges. Their guiding principles may seem basic but are profound: The world is your classroom. Start the conversation. Never stop learning.

That’s how they’re making a difference, and that’s how they’re moving the world forward.

SARAH ZECHMAN

Professor of Accounting
Tisone Memorial Fellow

For Sarah Zechman, accounting is anything but mechanical.

Issues like environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, blockchain reporting and big data, and corporations’ increasing use of social media are reshaping the field almost daily.

Zechman dispels the notion that accounting “equates to bookkeeping (boring!) and that accounting research is the study of ‘boring.’” She exposes students to fresh perspectives on fundamental issues, current events and trends.

After starting at Leeds in 2015 and being appointed senior associate dean of faculty in the summer of 2024, Zechman praises the school’s leadership for promoting a culture of curiosity. “Faculty are encouraged to push boundaries, collaborate across fields and reevaluate previously accepted truths.”

Two of Zechman’s projects involve studying why investors back special purpose acquisition companies despite their historically poor returns and how CEOs’ podcast appearances appear to mitigate bad news and boost brand loyalty.

Her research has been cited in prominent publications like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Among her awards, Zechman twice received the Best Paper in Financial Accounting from the American Accounting Association, as well as receiving their Best Dissertation award.

“Accounting is guided by principles that require discretion and judgment—implemented by real people with their own agendas and incentives,” she said.

ASAF BERNSTEIN

Professor of Finance
Frank Schiff Faculty Scholar

Asaf Bernstein remembers what it’s like to feel bored and unseen in lectures. That’s why at the beginning of each semester, he makes sure he knows the name of each student in his classes, engaging them from day one in his undergraduate and graduate courses in finance and investment or when guiding PhD students on financial economics research.

Bernstein’s goal is to foster an inclusive connection and to help students develop practical skills, demystifying and clarifying complex financial topics.

Professional work in the real estate and corporate finance fields during pivotal events adds to his worldview, ranging from his experience of the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis to the 2010 “flash crash.” He also served as a senior academic advisor on climate issues to the Securities and Exchange Commission for a year. That knowledge enhances his research focus, which carefully looks at critical environmental goals to help inform the policies and regulations that address systemic financial risks. “History reveals how much we still don’t know,” Bernstein said.

His award-winning research has been featured in leading media, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Bernstein sees the Rocky Mountains as a constant source of inspiration. “You feel like you are at the frontiers, literally and metaphorically,” he said. “Working in the light and shadow of those peaks is both elevating and humbling. No matter what you do, you will always be small in their shadow, but there’s something awe-inspiring about looking up and seeing what heights can be reached.”

NATHALIE MOYEN

Professor of Finance
W.W. Reynolds Capital Markets Program Chair

Nathalie Moyen champions learning through real-world applications, partnering with MBA students in case discussions to foster decision-making. The approach has been wildly successful: In spring 2024, she was honored with the MBA Teaching Excellence Award and the Executive MBA Faculty Teaching Award.

“Students practice critical thinking skills by parsing out the important information from the noise. They actively listen to each other, and through class discussions, they make discoveries and connections together.”

Her research mirrors this teaching philosophy. In summer 2024, she collaborated with CU engineers and construction professionals to study the impact of safety investments on workforce injuries and firm performance among both private and public firms.

As the outgoing chair of the Leeds Finance Division and the incoming W.W. Reynolds Capital Markets Program Chair in fall 2024, Moyen is excited to teach the World of Business. The course uses gamification to help first-year undergraduates experience economic concepts at a “gut level.” By facing the challenges themselves, students then can understand “how our economic system allocates resources, how property rights may alleviate poverty and how individual freedoms stack up against externalities.”

The course emphasizes robust civic discourse; students lose points if they don’t pay serious attention to the merits of opposing views. Moyen believes it’s essential to know that reasonable minds can disagree, all the while supporting each student in finding their own personal values.

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Faculty across diverse disciplines are researching sustainability’s impact and exchanging findings.

“The problems of the world are what they are,” said David Drake, associate professor and chair of the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Division. “They don’t fit into partitions. We need to bring a multidisciplinary lens to it.” Drake argues that sustainability is not an issue that fits neatly into one academic department: It’s interwoven with policy, business, the law, the economics of decisions, and behavioral responses.

As public awareness and academic interest in sustainability has exploded, there’s been a greater push to study it across nearly all business disciplines and collaborate with faculty from other colleges. “One thing that has become apparent is the powerful impact of bringing smart people together from across disciplines who are all examining the same set of issues from different perspectives,” said Clare Wang, the faculty director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility and Plante Moran / EKS&H Faculty Fellow.

Within the Leeds School of Business, researchers are actively studying the impacts of sustainability across auditing, investing, ESG reporting, accounting, marketing and other subgenres.

"One thing that has become apparent is the powerful impact of bringing smart people together from across disciplines who are all examining the same set of issues from different perspectives.”

Clare Wang, Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility​

Philip Fernbach, the Andrea & Michael Leeds Faculty Fellow and chair of the Marketing Division, co-authored a 2022 study examining why people have opinions that go against the scientific consensus, including the role of humans in causing climate change. In a follow-up project, he is studying how knowledge impacts the acceptance of new technologies, including sustainable energy and the adoption of electric vehicles.

“This research is important because technological advances are changing the world increasingly quickly,” he explained. “Understanding the behavioral underpinnings of why new technologies are or are not accepted is critical to society,” said Fernbach.

Drake pointed out that people often think of sustainability as environmental issues only. “You have to look at both,” he said. He studies how businesses can take a product or service, rethink its delivery and facilitate a better social outcome. For example, one of his studies examined how mobile money in Kenya and Uganda—a market solution to a dearth of banks in the rural, developing world—is being operationalized, what the pain points are and how business operations can be improved.

“A system can fail because it’s not environmentally sustainable, but it can also fail because it’s not socially sustainable.” Drake explained that businesses need to be cognizant of the impact they’re having on the world and adjust their behavior accordingly. “As an academic, I’m studying that. As a citizen of the world, I’m seeing that.”

Tisone Professor of Accounting Jonathan Rogers co-authored a 2023 study that examined mutual funds’ determinants in ESG investment and demonstrated evidence that mutual funds increase their holdings as portfolio firms provide more environmental disclosure. He said an ever-changing regulatory environment and the amount of money involved are two big drivers for why researchers are so interested in studying sustainability from an accounting perspective. “There is a role for our research to impact the regulations as they are being created and provide feedback to regulators about how the current environment is functioning.”

Drake said he doesn’t have a specific answer for why there’s an uptick in researching sustainability. However, he did note that there is much more recent evidence of environmental and social impacts and more public awareness. That, he said, motivates academics.

“Leeds’ long-term commitment to sustainability and social impact would seem to be precisely the kind of thing that is needed for something as inherently focused on the long-term as sustainability, right?” Wang said. “It can be hard to see how you make an impact on a global crisis, but if there is one thing we are learning, what we do here and now matters, and the lessons we learn have global importance.”

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ESG and CSR are evolving to guide sustainable and ethical practices that benefit more stakeholders.

From CSR to ESG, and any future mix of letters to come, the real question isn’t about the acronym but, instead, what these initiatives aim to achieve.

Despite some overlapping areas of focus, an organization’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives traditionally evolved as separate endeavors, each with a different scope. Increasingly, ESG has stolen the spotlight as climate change pressures, regulatory requirements and stakeholder demands have intensified the scrutiny over corporate sustainability.

Then and now

“When we initially discussed ESG topics, it was for an audience of investors and related to assessing risks that may not be disclosed within corporate financial statements,” explained , an adjunct instructor for the Leeds Executive Education Certificate in ESG Strategy.

“These risks had the potential to affect investments, even if they weren’t showing up in the company’s 10-K or other mandatory disclosures,” she said. For example, these could be human rights risks within a company’s supply chain or climate-related risks for sites located in areas prone to flooding as temperatures rise, she explained.

Meanwhile, CSR efforts were most often associated with voluntary activities related to corporate philanthropy, ethical labor practices, community development projects and other employee and community relations efforts.

Having served in several ESG-related roles, most recently at the global technology company Splunk, Forman has witnessed the rapid changes in CSR and ESG firsthand.

“Over the past few years, the terms have been conflated, and ESG expanded to include traditional CSR activities, especially as companies got better at measuring and disclosing social and environmental metrics,” she said.

Kathryn Wendell, the executive director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at Leeds, agrees. “The major difference is that ESG entails consistency and accountability in reporting data that didn’t exist under the CSR framework.” As investors became increasingly aware that climate risk is financial risk, they wanted more accurate information.

“Wall Street investors are paying close attention to the so-called ‘Great Wealth Migration,’ when baby boomers will transfer trillions of dollars of wealth to younger generations who want to invest in more environmentally and socially responsible funds and companies.”

Kathryn Wendell, executive director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility

As a result, we have seen the emergence of global ESG frameworks (including SASB, GRI and TCFD), stringent ESG reporting laws in the EU, and the Securities and Exchange Commission rules for disclosing and managing climate-related risks, Wendell noted.

“Wall Street investors are paying close attention to the so-called ‘Great Wealth Migration,’” said Wendell, “when baby boomers will transfer trillions of dollars of wealth to younger generations who want to invest in more environmentally and socially responsible funds and companies.”

ESG backlash

As recently as 2022, we saw the term “ESG” flail amid negative press that became politically charged in the United States, said Forman. At the same time, regulators started cracking down on unsubstantiated corporate “environmentally friendly” claims (known as greenwashing). The upside, Forman believes, is that companies have a heightened focus on transparency and accountability, and they are transitioning to clearer terminology such as “responsible business.”

“The acronym was being tossed around haphazardly and slapped on investment funds to signify adherence to ethical, social and environmentally conscious business practices, but without due diligence,” she said. The pushback has allowed those in the field to refine their goals and priorities and make a clearer case as to how these strategies accelerate long-term growth, providing a strong business case unrelated to politics.

“A key point is that CSR, like ESG, is just good business if it’s planned and implemented strategically,” said Wendell. “By aligning social and environmental initiatives with a business objective, a company can aim to boost profits while contributing to prosperity.”

What comes next

CSR tended to be siloed in a separate department or combined with public policy, legal, or marketing and communications, Wendell noted. “ESG, or sustainability, has become much more integrated into the business.”

“It’s really important to understand how CSR and ESG roll up to the overall business and how CSR/ESG layers into strategy across multiple teams,” said Lauren Roadman, global community relations specialist at Ball Corporation.

“If a company succeeds as a responsible business, ultimately every job will, in some way, be tied to progressing the company’s purpose.”

Jennifer Forman, adjunct instructor for the Leeds Executive Education Certificate in ESG Strategy

The ESG learning landscape

At Leeds, ESG topics are being integrated across the curriculum. For example, Assistant Professor of Accounting Nikki Skinner developed three new ESG reporting classes that “are quite different from traditional accounting classes,” she said. “Because the ESG reporting environment is rapidly evolving, textbooks on the topic would quickly become outdated. So, we spend a lot of time in class discussing current events and the latest research into corporate sustainability.”

Leeds’ Executive Education replaced the CSR in its original program name to its current title of Certificate in ESG Strategy. The program is updated each semester and recently added topics including responsible supply chains, human rights and ethical AI.

“This certificate covers a broader range of topics than the more singularly focused credentials,” Forman said. “We have a comprehensive curriculum that goes beyond environmental sustainability and social impact. It also looks at human rights, policy influence, impact finance, AI ethics and ESG reporting.”

“Sustainability and ESG are such important cross-functional themes that I think we will see more relevant courses and degrees moving forward,” said Wendell.

The future of ESG

“We know now that people want to work for and buy from ethical companies—or at least companies that do as little harm as possible in their pursuit of profit,” said Forman. She noted that according to Forbes, by 2030, 58% of the global workforce will be millennials and Gen Z. “These generations have high expectations. Embedding purpose into a business model becomes a strong competitive advantage as companies compete for talent.”

“Sustainability is now a compliance requirement, whether that’s at the state, federal or international level,” said Rachel Bigby, the senior sustainability manager of U.S. operations at Frutura Produce and former co-lead, with Lauren Roadman, of a Certificate in ESG Strategy alumni group.

“We’re seeing a monumental global shift. Integration with financial reporting and added assurance requirements, coupled with the consolidation of ESG standards happening simultaneously, make for both a disruptive and hugely impactful moment for our field,” she added.

As regulatory oversight increases, Forman cautions there is a downside—“greenhushing”—the reverse of greenwashing. Fines and potential reputational damage are prompting some businesses to avoid publicly releasing sustainability initiatives. “There are certainly more lawyers involved when deciding how companies will share their ESG goals and progress,” Forman said. No matter what, she believes, transparency is crucial.

Kyle Copp, the operations and sustainability manager for the nonprofit Project Angel Heart, completed the ESG Strategy program to gain insights into creating a materiality assessment.

While Copp believes large corporations must lead the way in environmental efforts, he said nonprofits often demonstrate innovation and creativity in getting funding for ESG. “We don’t allow lack of funding to stop us from trying to find grants and making changes to the organization to make us as sustainable as possible. There is always something more you can be doing. Showing that commitment to sustainability shows your commitment to the community.”

How ESG + CSR
Equals Responsible Business

ESG

Environmental, social and governance initiatives measure, manage and report quantitative data to demonstrate that a company is meeting sustainability commitments and complying with regulatory standards. ESG emphasizes long-term financial value to investors and other stakeholders through such criteria as resource management, carbon emissions, responsible supply chains and corporate governance.

CSR

Rooted in philanthropy, corporate social responsibility initiatives have traditionally been voluntary, with qualitative measurements. CSR guides ethical business practices and policies related to corporate culture, mission and purpose. Focus areas include charitable donations, equity and inclusion, employee volunteering and community engagement.

Responsible business

ESG+CSR goals combine to foster environmental sustainability, ethical business and labor practices, and transparent stakeholder relations that align the business with positive societal outcomes.

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